The indisputable bible of the Beat Generation, "On the Road" (1957) fictionalizes Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend, Neal Cassidy.

Synopsis: One of Charles Bukowski's best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany of pathetic whores, sordid rooms, dreary embraces,...

Although he is best known as a writer of prose, Jack Kerouac was an important poet, his work described by Michael McClure as "startling in its majesty and comedy and gentleness and vision". These eight extended poems, composed between 1954 and 1961, offer exuberant forays into language and consciousness that combine rich imagery, complex internal rhythms, and a reverent attentiveness to the moments.

Set in the New England town, a family including three daughters and five sons, each endowed with an energy and vision of life, drives the narrative from the early part of the century to the years following World War II.

"Satori in Paris is the semi-autobiographical tale of Jack Kerouac's trip to France in search of his heritage. Beginning in Paris and moving west to Brittany, Kerouac traces the paths of his ancestors and explores his own understanding of the Buddhism that came to define his beliefs. From his familiar milieu of strangers and all-night conversations in seedy bars, to a pivotal cab ride in which he experiences Buddhism's satori--a feeling of sudden...

After a lifetime, this (r)evolutionary little book is still a work-in-progress, the poet's "ars poetica," to which at 88 he is constantly adding. From the groundbreaking (and bestselling) "A Coney Island of the Mind" in 1958 to the "personal epic" of "Americus, Book I" in 2003, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has, in more than thirty books, been the poetic conscience of America. Now in "Poetry As Insurgent Art," he offers, in prose, his primer of what poetry...

"Philip Whalen was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and key figure in the literary and artistic scene that unfolded in San Francisco in the 1950s and '60s. When the Beat writers came West, Whalen became a revered, much-loved member of the group. Erudite, shy, and profoundly spiritual, his presence not only moved his immediate circle of Beat cohorts, but his powerful, startling, innovative work would come to impact American poetry to the present day....

A posthumous collection of more than 100 Ginsberg poems is largely comprised of spontaneously penned or forgotten works included in letters or sent to obscure publications and is arranged in chronological order and complemented by extensive author notes. --Publisher's description.