On the Road. On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac.
On the Road is based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across America. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry and drug use. The idea for On the Road formed during the late 1940s. It was to be Kerouac's second novel, and it underwent several drafts before he completed it in April 1951. It was first published by Viking Press in 1957. On the Road. On the Road. On the road & Jack Kerouac. On the road & Jack Kerouac. On the road & Jack Kerouac.