<div><b>An authoritative edition of three Beat novels by the legendary author of <i>On the Road</i>. </b>The third volume in The Library of America’s edition of the writings of Jack Kerouac opens with<i> Visions of Cody</i>, the groundbreaking work originally written in the early 1950s and published posthumously in 1972, in which Kerouac first treats the material later immortalized in <i>On the Road</i>. In it he moves beyond his early literary models to discover his own unique bop prosody,” mixing closely observed description, free-form scats, and transcribed conversation to create an impassioned and hallucinatory portrait of his friend and idol Neal Cassady, here reimagined as Cody Pomeray.<i>Visions of Gerard </i>(1963) is a deeply moving meditation on Kerouac’s older brother, who died at nine of rheumatic fever, and who for Kerouac became an emblem of saintliness. The intensely focused and harrowing<i>Big Sur</i> (1962) finds fictional alter ego Jack Duluoz returning to California to escape fame and celebrity, a fateful decision that leads to a dangerous affair with Pomeray’s mistress, a nightmarish alcohol-fueled breakdown, and a desperate struggle for sobriety.</div>