The Greatest Works of the Beat Generation

Pomes All Sizes

By Jack Kerouac

A collection of poems by beat generation author Jack Kerouac, written between 1954 and 1965 about Mexico, Tangier, Berkeley, the Bowery, God, drugs, and other topics.

The First Third

By Neal Cassady

Autobiographical writing by the "hero" of Jack Kerouac's On the road.

The Soft Machine

By William S. Burroughs

Science fiction-roman.

Howl, and Other Poems

By Allen Ginsberg

This collection of poems by Ginsberg created a sensation when it was first published in 1956, becoming the subject of an obscenity trial and changing the literary landscape forever.

Clem Snide, a private detective, has to solve a case of ritual murder. In the Gobi Desert 100,000 years ago, a red virus has erupted. And in the 18th century, gay pirates have set up their own republics in South America and are at war with the conquistadors. All three stories are merged at the end in a giant trans-time, trans-space battle.

On the Road

By Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac’s classic American novel of freedom and the search for originality that defined a generation “An authentic work of art.”—The New York Times Inspired by Jack Kerouac’s adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naïveté and wild abandon and imbued with Kerouac’s love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope—a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.

The Dharma Bums

By Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac’s classic novel about friendship, the search for meaning, and the allure of nature “In [On the Road] Kerouac’s heroes were sensation seekers; now they are seekers after truth . . . the novel often attains a beautiful dignity.”—Chicago Tribune First published in 1958, a year after On the Road put the Beat Generation on the map, The Dharma Bums stands as one of Jack Kerouac’s most powerful and influential novels. The story focuses on two ebullient young Americans—mountaineer, poet, and Zen Buddhist Japhy Ryder, and Ray Smith, a zestful, innocent writer—whose quest for Truth leads them on a heroic odyssey, from marathon parties and poetry jam sessions in San Francisco’s Bohemia to solitude and mountain climbing in the High Sierras.

The Greatest Works of the Beat Generation

Pomes All Sizes

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The First Third

The Soft Machine

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Howl, and Other Poems

Cities of the Red Night

On the Road

The Dharma Bums