This biography of Kerouac covers his life, his art and his place and influence in American literature. It spans Kerouac's entire life - integrating the Kerouac legend into a critical exploration of his work. The Kerouac that emerges is a complex, troubled, flawed human being and writer of genius with a haunted vision whose struggle to break free from almost every traditional American value he had been bred to accept was to come to a tragic end.