Now available for the first time in paperback, with a new foreword by Ann Charters, here is Tim Hunt's incisive look into Jack Kerouac's creative process and achievement. Debunking much of the mythology about Kerouac, Hunt shows the author of On the Road and Visions of Cody working out the literary strategies that link him to Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and other canonical American novelists. This is an essential book for anyone interested in Beat culture and Kerouac's conscious literary artistry.