In conformist 1950s America, Jack Kerouac's On the Road was greeted with dismay by the traditionalists and with delirium by those who craved the freedom he symbolized and the universe he created. Ever since, his hunt for the big experience and his longing for greatness have turned him into an icon. Barry Miles, a friend of Kerouac's, provides a portrait of this complex figure whose joyous incoherence, drug-induced ecstasy, genuine mysticism and constant craving has inspired many to take to the road.

In part thanks to early friendships with renegades such as Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and William Burroughs, and his publication of the electrifying and brilliant Howl, Allen Ginsberg occupies a significant and enduring position in American literature. Following Ginsberg's death in 1997, Barry Miles, drawing both on his long friendship with the poet and on Ginsberg's journals and correspondence, thoroughly updated and revised his immensely readable account of one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary poets.