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''On the Road'' was written in 1951 and published in 1957. It chronicles the real-life travels of Jack Kerouac and his friend Neal Cassady in [[Mexico]] and the rest of [[North America]]. In the book, as in Kerouac's other novels which depicted real people, he gave pseudonymns to his characters in order to prevent accusations of libel He refers to himself as Sal Paradise and to Neal Cassady as Dean Moriaty.

''On the Road'' was written in 1951 and published in 1957. It chronicles the real-life travels of Jack Kerouac and his friend Neal Cassady in [[Mexico]] and the rest of [[North America]]. In the book, as in Kerouac's other novels which depicted real people, he gave pseudonymns to his characters in order to prevent accusations of libel He refers to himself as Sal Paradise and to Neal Cassady as Dean Moriaty.

   

   

The novel is the first to use Kerouac's own developed style of writing which he called 'spontaneous prose'. This was a style which broke with literary conventions and adopted a sentimental, highly descriptive tone which, as one critic put it, "swings to the rhythym of jazz". Many of Kerouac's sentences in the novel are very long, poetical, highly quotable and lyrical. It was written in three weeks, though for the next six years, it was edited and amended sporadically by Kerouac.  

The novel is the first to use Kerouac's own developed style of writing which he called 'spontaneous prose'. This was a style which broke with literary conventions and adopted a sentimental, highly descriptive tone which, as one critic put it, "swings to the rhythym of jazz". Many of Kerouac's sentences in the novel are very long, poetical, highly quotable and lyrical. Kerouac wrote the bulk of the novel in three weeks, but spent six years sporadically editing the text.

 

''On the Road'' is a central text in the [[Beatnik|Beat movement]] and was also influential in the development of the [[hippie]] subculture.  

In a drunken interview years after the novel was published, Kerouac seemed to dismiss the novel, saying "I was young then" and waving his hand as if to imply he regarded the work as immature.

In a drunken interview years after the novel was published, Kerouac seemed to dismiss the novel, saying "I was young then" and waving his hand as if to imply he regarded the work as immature.