 Kerouac refers to this short novel in a letter addressed to Neal Cassady (who is commonly known as the inspiration for the character Dean Moriarty) dated January 10, 1953.The published novel runs over 110 pages, having been reconstituted from six distinct files in the Kerouac archive by Professor Cloutier.Set in 1935, mostly on the East Coast, it explores some of the recurring themes of Kerouac's literature by way of a spoken word narrative.