Book description
THE DHARMA BUMS appeared just one year after the author's explosive
ON THE ROAD had put the Beat Generation on the literary map and
Kerouac on the best-seller list. The same expansiveness, humour and
contagious zest for life that sparked the earlier novels sparks this
one too, but through a more cohesive story. The books follow two young
men engaged in a passionate search for dharma or truth. Their major
adventure is the pursuit of the Zen way, which takes them climbing
into the high sierras to seek the lesson of solitude.
With an Introduction by Kerouac expert, Ann Douglas.
Jack Kerouac wrote a number of hugely influential and popular
novels. He is remembered as one of the key figures of the legendary
Beat generation. As much as anything, he came to represent a
philosophy, a way of life.
Ann Douglas is Professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia
University. She has published numerous essays, articles and book
reviews on American culture in papers and periodicals such as The
New York Times, The Nation and Slate, and
introductions for Little Women, Uncle Tom's Cabin and
The Subterraneans among others. Prof. Douglas teaches
twentieth-century American literature, film, music, and politics, with
an emphasis on the Cold War era, African-American culture, and
post-colonial approaches. She is currently at work on a book, Noir
Nation: Cold War U. S. Culture 1945-1960.
