In these critical essays Gregory Stephenson takes the reader on a journey through the literature of the Beat Generation: a journey encompassing that common ethos of Beat literaturethe passage from darkness to light, from fragmented being toward wholeness, from Beat to Beatific. He travels through Jack Kerouac s Duluoz Legend, " "following Kerouac s quests for identity, community, and spiritual knowledge. He examines Allen Ginsberg s use of transcendence in Howl, discovers the Gnostic vision in William S. Burroughs s fiction, and studies the mythic, visionary power of Lawrence Ferlinghetti s...