{"product_id":"the-dharma-bums-9780140042528","title":"The Dharma Bums","description":"\u003cb\u003eJack Kerouac's classic novel about friendship, the search for meaning, and the allure of nature\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"In [\u003ci\u003eOn the Road\u003c\/i\u003e] Kerouac's heroes were sensation seekers; now they are seekers after truth . . . the novel often attains a beautiful dignity.\"--\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eFirst published in 1958, a year after\u003ci\u003e On the Road\u003c\/i\u003e put the Beat Generation on the map, \u003ci\u003eThe Dharma Bums \u003c\/i\u003estands as one of Jack Kerouac's most powerful and influential novels. The story focuses on two ebullient young Americans--mountaineer, poet, and Zen Buddhist Japhy Ryder, and Ray Smith, a zestful, innocent writer--whose quest for Truth leads them on a heroic odyssey, from marathon parties and poetry jam sessions in San Francisco's Bohemia to solitude and mountain climbing in the High Sierras.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJack Kerouac\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922, the youngest of three children in a Franco-American family. He attended local Catholic and public schools and won a scholarship to Columbia University in New York City, where he first met Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. His first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Town and the City\u003c\/i\u003e, appeared in 1950, but it was \u003ci\u003eOn the Road\u003c\/i\u003e, published in 1957 and memorializing his adventures with Neal Cassady, that epitomized to the world what became known as the \"Beat generation\" and made Kerouac one of the most best-known writers of his time. Publication of many other books followed, among them \u003ci\u003eThe Dharma Bums\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Subterraneans\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBig Sur\u003c\/i\u003e. Kerouac considered all of his autobiographical fiction to be part of \"one vast book,\" \u003ci\u003eThe Duluoz Legend\u003c\/i\u003e. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969, at the age of forty-seven.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50609614782738,"sku":"9780140042528","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_0c3674b5-af3c-40ff-afaf-6f6be924573a.jpg?v=1732329622","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-dharma-bums-9780140042528","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}