On the Road` chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, `a sideburned hero of the snowy West.` As `Sal Paradise` and `Dean Moriarty,` the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make `On the Road` an inspirational work of lasting importance.