What American author went "On the Road" to find life's answers?

Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist and poet. Kerouac is recognized for his method of spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel. He became an underground celebrity and a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. All of his books are in print today, including "On the Road".

The idea for "On the Road", Kerouac's second novel, was formed during the late 1940's. It was first published by Viking Press in 1957. After several film proposals dating from 1957, the book was finally made into a film, "On the Road" (2012), produced by Francis Ford Coppola.

The manuscript was typed on what he called "the scroll"—a continuous, 120-foot scroll of tracing paper sheets that he cut to size and taped together. The original scroll of "On The Road" was bought in 2001 by Jim Irsay for $2.43 million (equivalent to $3.29 million in 2016). It has occasionally been made available for public viewing, with the first 30 feet (9 m) unrolled. Between 2004 and 2012, the scroll was displayed in a number of museums and libraries in the United States, Ireland, and the UK. It was exhibited in Paris in the summer of 2012 to celebrate the movie based on the book.