Kerouac's The Dharma Bums (1958) is the chronicle of two men searching for the Zen meaning of Truth as they travel the West Coast. Kerouac used his friendship with Buddhist poet Gary Snyder as the basis for this novel.

The Subterraneans (1958) is the story of a writer's interracial relationship amid the backdrop of New York City hipsters. Kerouac based the novel on a real-life romance he had with Alene Lee, a beautiful young black woman who mingled with the denizens of Greenwich Village.

For those interested in a "key" to On the Road, as well as the novels mentioned above, there is an excellent critical biography of Kerouac by Gerald Nicosia, Memory Babe (1983).

Kerouac was deeply influenced by Southern author Tom Wolfe, whose first two novels, Look Homeward, Angel (1929) and Of Time and the River (1935), were autobiographical accounts of his early...