Jack Kerouac recorded three albums of his readings between 1958 and 1959. Each is a classic in its own right, but the first, Poetry for the Beat Generation, is arguably the most aurally appealing. Comedian/TV personality Steve Allen was a champion of visionary artists like Kerouac and Lenny Bruce, bringing them on his show to offer them mass exposure. But his support of Kerouac became more personal when Allen improvised jazz piano accompaniment for the iconoclastic writer's readings of the pieces on this recording. Allen provides just the right amount of sympathetic counterpoint without crowding Kerouac, as the Beat hero delivers his evocative, imagistic prose in his gruff-toned Massachusetts accent. Sometimes Kerouac's pieces are lighthearted and capricious, like "Goofing at the Table"; sometimes they're bittersweet narratives, like his account of his time as a train brakeman on "October in the Railroad Earth." But they consistently capture the human predicament in all its joy and sorrow, especially with Allen adding extra emotional coloring.