Lonesome Traveler Author:Jack Kerouac Father of the beat generation, one of the most acclaimed (and criticized) writers of modern times, Jack Kerouac died in 1969 at the age of 47. In Lonesome Traveler, he has told the whole exhilarating story of the years when he was writing the books that captivated and infuriated the reading public--the restles years of wandering--during which h... more »e worked on the railroad in California, in the galley of a tramp steamer that sailed the coasts of America, and as a fire lokout on the peaks of the Cascade Mountains. The author of eighteen books--including On the Road, Dr. Sax, Dharma Burns, The Subterraneans, and Mexico City Blues--describes a mixture of "life as lived by an independent educated penniless rake going anywhere." Kerouac explains: "There is nothing nobler than to put up with a few inconveniences like snakes and dust for the sake of absolute freedom.« less