'I read On the Road in maybe 1959. It changed my life like it changed everyone else's' Bob Dylan

Sal Paradise, a young innocent, joins his hero, the mystical traveller Dean Moriarty, on a breathless, exuberant ride back and forth across the United States. Their hedonistic search for release or fulfilment through drink, sex, drugs and jazz becomes an exploration of personal freedom, a test of the limits of the American dream. A brilliant blend of fiction and autobiography, Jack Kerouac's exhilarating novel swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy and autobiographical passion. One of the most influential and important novels of the 20th century, this is the book that launched the Beat Generation and remains the bible of that literary movement.

THE DHARMA BUMS appeared just one year after the author's explosive ON THE ROAD had put the Beat Generation on the literary map and Kerouac on the best-seller list. The same expansiveness, humour and contagious zest for life that sparked the earlier novels sparks this one too, but through a more cohesive story. The books follow two young men engaged in a passionate search for dharma or truth. Their major adventure is the pursuit of the Zen way, which takes them climbing into the high sierras to seek the lesson of solitude.

With an Introduction by Kerouac expert, Ann Douglas.

The legendary 1951 scroll draft of On the Road, published word for word as Kerouac originally composed it.

On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned 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.

Jack Kerouac zählt mit Allen Ginsberg und William S. Burroughs zu den führenden Stimmen der Beat Generation, die in den späten Fünfzigern des 20. Jahrhunderts eine der prägendsten subkulturellen Bewegungen der USA begründete. Unter dem damals zeitgemäßen Titel «Gammler, Zen und hohe Berge» in Deutschland berühmt geworden, schließt das im Original «The Dharma Bums» genannte Buch an Kerouacs Welterfolg «On the Road» an.
Mal als blinder Passagier auf alten Güterzügen, mal zu Fuß in dünnen Stoffschuhen ist Ray Smith (Kerouac) unterwegs durch Kalifornien — ein wenig ziellos, bis er auf Japhy (Gary Snyder), den Dichterfreund und Zen-Buddhisten, trifft. Gemeinsam mit dem Jodler Morley brechen sie auf in die kaum berührte Natur der High Sierras, um die Lektion der Einsamkeit zu lernen. Sie dichten, sie wandern und meditieren, immer auf der Jagd nach dem Dharma und einem intensiven, sinnerfüllten Leben. Nur: Im wildromantischen San Francisco mit seinen Hipster-Partys, Poetry-Sessions, Trink-Marathons fällt es schwer, vom Weg der Askese nicht wieder abzukommen …
Abenteuerroman, antikonsumistisches Manifest und zugleich «nature writing» at its best. Ein Klassiker der Beat-Literatur, zu Jack Kerouacs hundertstem Geburtstag am 12.3.2022 in neuer Übersetzung.

'One of the most true, comic and grizzly journeys in American literature' Time

Desolation Angels is the wild and soulful story of the legendary road trip that Jack Kerouac took before the publication of On the Road, told through the persona of Jack Duluoz and accompanied by his thinly-disguised Beat cohorts Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and William Burroughs. As they hitch, hop freight trains, walk and talk their way across the world, from California to Mexico, London to Paris and on to opium-ridden Tangiers, Kerouac chronicles their poetry, partying, mountain vigils and spiritual contemplation with unsurpassable energy and humanity.

'Nerve-jangling, sentimental, sincere and funny' Sunday Times

Never before published in Kerouac's lifetime, this 1955 biography of the founder of Buddhism is a clear and powerful study of Siddartha Gautama's life and works. Wake Up recounts the story of Prince Siddhartha's royal upbringing and his father's wish to protect him from all human suffering, despite a prediction that he would become a great holy man in later life. Departing from his father's palace, Siddhartha adopts a homeless life, struggles with his meditations, and eventually finds Enlightenment.

Written at the end of Kerouac's career, when he became increasingly interested in Buddhist teachings, and collected for the first time in one book, this fresh and accessible biography is both an important addition to Kerouac's work and a valuable introduction to the world of Buddhism itself.

«Lebensmischmasch eines selbständigen, gebildeten, mittellosen, nach allen Seiten offenen Lebemannes.» So hat Kerouac selbst das genannt, was diese acht berühmten Prosaskizzen beschreiben: ein rastloses Hetzen von Ort zu Ort, von Job zu Job, quer durch Nordamerika, durch Mexiko, Nordafrika, Paris, London. Ihre Sprachgewalt, ihre wilde Poesie, ihre Direktheit faszinieren Leser von heute genauso wie seine Zeitgenossen – und die Inhalte dieser autobiographischen Texte haben den Aussteigern und Alternativen ebenso viel zu sagen wie der Beat-Generation von damals.

'The tender and achingly poetic account of a love affair' Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone

Leo Percepied, aspiring writer and self-styled freewheeling bum, gravitates to the subterraneans, impoverished intellectuals who haunt the bars of San Francisco. One of them is Mardou Fox, beautiful and a little crazy, whose dark eyes, full of suffering and sweetness, find recognition in Leo. But, afraid of his growing involvement, Leo sets out to destroy their love. Written in three days, The Subterraneans is, like all Kerouac's work, closely related to his own life while encapsulating his great vision of America.