Writers of the Beat Generation

I, too, thought Dharma Bums spoke to me more than On the Road, but perhaps that's because I am the type of person who seeks out artistic works that are marginalized or widely considered second-rate in comparison to the so-called singular masterpiece. Often we find traces of the author's personality here that were subsumed or stricken or otherwise eradicated from the master-work. I also like Visions of Gerard which, like Dharma Bums, has a pastoral feel to it.

Kerouac was a writer of fragmentary novels that were crafted with a poet's temperament and a desire to be a machine that pressed record and hang on for dear life. His motto, "First thought, best thought" will stay with me for life. He is the bridge between the end of the Second World War and the hippie renaissance. His works are a poetic vision of travel and experience, not someone who cared for the chains of narration. Too square !

Ginsberg must have influenced Kerouac greatly. No-one remembers a poet named Gregory Corso, seek out his Happy Birthday to Death. Burroughs might give you some ideas, but study him at your own risk. But I'd much rather you learn about poetry from Jean Genet or narration from Kenneth Patchen. That would send you back even further back in time - where the future is always located.