I ate apple pie and ice cream—it was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer. There were the most beautiful bevies of girls everywhere I looked in Des Moines that afternoon—they were coming home from high school—but I had no time for thoughts like that…So I rushed past the pretty girls, and the prettiest girls in the world live in Des Moines.

The book was largely autobiographical and describes Kerouac's road-trip adventures across the United States and Mexico with Neal Cassady in the late-40s as well as his relationships with other Beat writers and friends. S. The school offers a BA in Writing and Literature MFAs in Writing & Poetics and Creative Writing and a summer writing program.

Jean-Louis "Jack" Kérouac (pron. : /ˈkɛruːæk/ or /ˈkɛrɵæk/; March 12 1922 – October 21 1969) was an American novelist and poet.