Written between 1957 and two days before his death in 1969, Jack Kerouac's letters tell his own story through his candid and voluminous correspondence to friends and confidants - from Malcolm Cowley and Allen Ginsberg to John Clellon Holmes and Sterling Lord. Here, Kerouac explores his development as a writer and reveals how the onslaught of publicity and criticism after the publication of On the Road nearly destroyed him.