"On the Road" moves to the rhythm of underground America in the 1950s, with elements like jazz, sex, generosity, cold mornings, and drugs. Along with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveler and mystic, it perfectly embodies the Beat generation. Now recognized as a modern classic, the American dream in this book is closer to Walt Whitman's than to F. Scott Fitzgerald's. The story races toward the horizon with unforgettable exuberance, emotion, and autobiographical passion.