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The Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The basis for the novel's semi-fictional accounts are events occurring years after the events of On the Road. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on Kerouac, and Japhy Ryder, based on the poet and essayist Gary Snyder, who was instrumental in Kerouac's introduction to Buddhism in the mid-1950s.
The book concerns duality in Kerouac's life and ideals, examining the relationship of the outdoors, mountaineering, hiking, and hitchhiking through the west US with his "city life" of jazz clubs, poetry readings, and drunken parties. The protagonist's search for a "Buddhist" context to his experiences (and those of others he encounters) recurs throughout the story. The book had a significant influence on the Hippie counterculture of the 1960s.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
American fiction (fictional works by one author), Beat generation, Fiction, Literature, Beats (Persons), Buddhism, Romans, nouvelles, San francisco (calif.), fiction, American literature, Unabridged Audio - Autobiography/Biography, General, Personal Memoirs, Audio - Autobiography / Biography, Fiction - General, Beats (persons)--fiction, Ps3521.e735 d48 2006, 813/.54People
Jack KerouacPlaces
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The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
October 31, 2006, Penguin Classics
in English
0143039601 9780143039600
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Book Details
First Sentence
"Hopping a freight out of Los Angeles at high noon one day in late September 1955 I got on a gondola and lay down with my duffel bag under my head and my knees crossed and contemplated the clouds as we rolled north to Santa Barbara."
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Feedback?2 days ago | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
December 19, 2023 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
January 14, 2023 | Edited by sunrisepianomonkey | Removed additional author |
January 14, 2023 | Edited by OnFrATa | Merge works (MRID: 41928) |
October 16, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |