Ray Smith meets Japhy Ryder (based on Gary Snyder) and together they climb mountains, pursue women, study Buddhism, and search for enlightenment in 1950s California. Kerouac published this in 1958, following On the Road, and it celebrates the 'rucksack revolution' of spiritual seekers dropping out of consumer society. The prose is looser than On the Road, the vision gentler. The novel introduced a generation to Buddhism and to the possibility that American life could include meditation, nature, and voluntary poverty.