Welcome to the latest edition of Looks from Books, which aims to prove that you can look smart, while still being book-smart, too. Fashion inspiration can be found between the pages of your favorite stories, on well-designed book covers, and in your favorite characters… if you read closely enough.

We’re nearing the end of summer – and the return of homework – all too quickly, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have time for one last, great summer road trip! Even if you’re already back at school, you can find an escape in the wandering Beat Movement classic, On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. 

On the Road book cover, via Amazon

Table of Contents

Inside Cover

On the Road is a classic postwar novel from the Beat generation, heavily inspired by the cross-country travels of its author, Jack Kerouac, and his friend Neal Cassady, in the 1940s. It was written in 1951, and published in 1957.

The novel follows Sal Paradise, a young, recently-divorced writer, and his friendship with the spirited and adventurous Dean Moriarty, through a series of cross-country travels, and towards the decisions that would define the life of the burgeoning author.

The novel quickly drew general regard and national acclaim for its lyricism and deeply current themes – as well as critical backlash, with Time magazine damning it as “barbaric yawp.” The novel cemented Kerouac as leader of the Beat Movement, later aligning him with names of friends, like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. The Modern Library ranked On the Road as Number 55 in a list of 100 best English-language novels of the 20th Century, and its 50th anniversary in 2007 was marked with a renewed zeal for the themes of self-discovery presented in the book.