Recognise this month's cover fragment? It's taken from the 1961 Giant Pan edition of On the Road. Kerouac’s mainly autobiographical novel was selected by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential English language novels and is considered a defining work of the postwar 'Beat Generation', a term Kerouac coined.  It is written as a stream-of-consciousness, inspired by jazz and drug influences, and based on road trips Kerouac and his friends made across fifties America.