FROM THE PUBLISHER : On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassidy, "a side burned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance. Kerouac's...

Beat movement icon and visionary poet, Allen Ginsberg broke boundaries with his fearless, pyrotechnic verse. The apocalyptic 'Howl' became the subject of an obscenity trial when it was first published in 1956-its vindication was a watershed moment in twentieth-century history. Dark, ecstatic and rhapsodic, 'Howl' shows why Ginsberg was one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century. Howl and Other Poems is a collection of Ginsberg's finest...

This mesmerizing tale of a musician's rise and fall is widely considered the greatest jazz novel ever published. Edgar Pool came up with the big bands. He spent the 1930s crisscrossing the country, playing in only the finest dance halls. In those days, a saxophone player was expected to stay on the beat, to swing without getting too hot. But Edgar - whom the young men called "the Horn" - couldn't help but rebel. His sound was always far-out, never...

A sensory narrative poem capturing the rhythms of the universe and secrets of the subconscious with stunning linguistic dexterity from the author of On the Road A spontaneous writing project in the form of an extended prose poem, this sonorous and spiritually playful book is one of Jack Kerouac's most boldly experimental works. Collected from five notebooks dating from 1956 to 1959-a time in which Kerouac was immersed in Buddhist theory-Old Angel...

The Soft Machine introduced us to the conditions of a universe where endemic lusts of the mind and body prey upon men, hook them, and turn them into beasts. Nova Express takes William S. Burroughs's nightmarish futuristic tale one step further. The diabolical Nova Criminals, Sammy The Butcher, Green Tony, Iron Claws, The Brown Artist, Jacky Blue Note, Izzy The Push, to name only a few; have gained control and plan on wreaking untold destruction. It's...

From one of the most famous of the Beat writers, Kerouac's final novel of brotherhood and travel, now reissued in a standalone edition following his centenary celebration Pic-full name Pictorial Review Jackson-is a ten-year-old Black boy living in rural North Carolina with his grandfather in the 1940s. When Pic is forced to move in with his aunt after his grandfather's passing, his older brother Slim appears to rescue him. Together, they hitch a...

A series of poems deals with music, life, religion, literature, dreams and mortality.

Here is the final novel of Burroughs' Red Night trilogy. A fascinating mix of autobiographical episodes and extraordinary Egyptian theology, Burroughs' final novel is poignant and melancholic. Blending war films and pornography, and referencing Kafka and Mailer, The Western Lands confirms Burroughs' status as one of America's greatest writers. The final novel of the trilogy begun with Cities of the Red Night and The Place of Dead Roads is a Book of...