Truth and Beautiful Meaningful Lies is a collection of memorable quotes from one of the most quoted writers in American literature. One of the most celebrated writers in American literature, Jack Kerouac helped an entire generation of post-WWII Americans explore a purpose beyond the standard narrative values, spiritual ideologies, and economic materialism that was rampant throughout pre-war America. Alongside prominent beat writers like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, Kerouac crafted a magnum opus that would later be connected to counterculture movements throughout the 1960s. His extensive collection of novels, short stories, poetry, journals, letters, and other writings are often littered with long-winded reflections, observations, proclamations, and other mad ramblings about life, love, loss, loneliness, and the search for a new American identity. Constantly pivoting from a recluse searching “...once and for all what is the meaning of all this existence and suffering and going to and fro in vain,� to a seasoned road-warrior exploring the country and sifting through the profound philosophies of Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and the meaning of Dharma, Kerouac’s spontaneous style of prose generates a kind of unpolished wisdom that leaves a lasting impression long after reading. The insights and quotes assembled in this book have been woven into a patchwork of reoccurring themes found throughout Kerouac’s writings, such as adventure, life, self-reflection, and spirituality are heavily featured, but more niche quotes around topics like cats, coffee, music, and sports can also be found. This collection pulls from prominent novels such as Big Sur, Desolation Angels, The Dharma Bums, On the Road: The Original Scroll, The Subterraneans, Tristessa, Vanity of Duluoz, and Visions of Cody, as well as some of his selected short stories, poems, letters, and journals. Whether you’re new to Kerouac, searching for inspiration in his words, or are a self-proclaimed “mad one� looking to make sense of it all, this quote book will undoubtedly serve as a go-to reference for the discerning Kerouac reader.

He was the leading light of the Beat Generation writers and the most dynamic author of his time, but Jack Kerouac also had a lifelong passion for music, particularly the mid-century jazz of New York City, the development of which he witnessed first-hand during the 1940s with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk to the fore. The novelist, most famous for his 1957 book On the Road, admired the sounds of bebop and attempted to bring something of their original energy to his own writing, a torrent of semi-autobiographical stories he published between 1950 and his early death in 1969. Yet he was also drawn to American popular music of all kinds - from the blues to Broadway ballads - and when he came to record albums under his own name, he married his unique spoken word style with some of the most talented musicians on the scene. Kerouac's musical legacy goes well beyond the studio recordings he made himself: his influence infused generations of music makers who followed in his work - from singer-songwriters to rock bands. Some of the greatest transatlantic names - Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison and David Bowie, Janis Joplin and Tom Waits, Sonic Youth and Death Cab for Cutie, and many more - credited Kerouac's impact on their output. In Kerouac on Record, we consider how the writer brought his passion for jazz to his prose and poetry, his own record releases, the ways his legacy has been sustained by numerous more recent talents, those rock tributes that have kept his memory alive and some of the scores that have featured in Hollywood adaptations of the adventures he brought to the printed page.