Desolation Angels, published in 1965, yet written years earlier around the time
On the Road was in the process of publication, is a semi-
autobiographical novel written by
Beat Generation author
Jack Kerouac, which makes up part of his
Duluoz Legend. According to the book's foreword, the opening section of the novel is almost directly taken from the journal he kept when he was a fire lookout on
Desolation Peak in the
North Cascade mountains of
Washington state. Much of the psychological struggle which the novel's
protagonist,
Jack Duluoz, undergoes in the novel reflects Kerouac's own increasing disenchantment with the
Buddhist philosophy with which he had previously been fascinated.