Click for full-size.
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine/Very Good Indeed
- Seller
-
BATH, Somerset, United Kingdom
Item Price
A$1,498.19A$1,348.37
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Andre Deutsch, 1959. Cloth. Near Fine/Very Good Indeed. 7.5" by 5" . None . A bright third impression of Jack Kerouac's iconic semi-autobiographical novel in the original unclipped dust wrapper. The first UK edition, third impression of this work, published the year following the first edition. Jack Kerouac's post-war Beat and Counterculture generation defining work based on the author's own travels around the US. The novel takes place against a background of jazz, poetry, and drug use, and features many cultural key figures such as William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Complete with its unclipped dust wrapper. In the original publisher's full cloth binding. Externally lovely. Dust wrapper unclipped with minor shelf wear, sunned to spine, minor tape repair to extremity front fly leaf. Ink inscription to introduction, undated. Light minor odd spotting to fore edge only affecting endpapers lightly, pages otherwise bright and clean. Near Fine
Synopsis
Perhaps the most famous and influential of the Beat novels, Jack Kerouac's On the Road represents much of what made the Beat and Counterculture movements so unique and important. The plot concerning the road trips and adventures experienced by Kerouac and his friends is well-known, as are the rumors and tall tales of the books' production. Kerouac often claimed that the wrote On the Road in a mere three weeks on a single 120-foot scroll of paper. Although that scroll does indeed exist and is featured in museums, Kerouac kept detailed journals of his travels that would later become passages and chapters in the finished product. The book was first published by Viking in 1957. Viking Press would go on to publish an edited version of On the Road in 2007 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first printing. They substituted the fictional names for the real Beat protagonists, and they even included some of the more sexually explicit passages that were edited out of the 1957 edition. Due to the cultural significance of the book, true first editions/first printings of On the Road are quite valuable. But be warned: it is easy to mistake reprints or book club editions for the real thing, so always check with an expert before making a significant purchase.
Read More: Identifying first editions of On the Road
Reviews
On Sep 3 2011, West of Eden Books said:
A few years ago, 50 years after its initial publication, and 35 years since I had read it for the first time myself, I loaned my battered paperback copy of On The Road to a young friend of mine who had asked me "What should I read next?". Her reaction was, as I would have hoped, overwhelmingly positive. "It made me want to go hitchhiking" she told me. She didn't go, of course, that's considered too dangerous these days, but she caught the spirit of Kerouac from those yellowed old pages and that made me happy. It made me remember myself from the days before I was twenty. When the world was wide-open in front of me with all my limitless imagination and inexhaustible energy to carry me forward. Those two-and-a-half-hundred pages created in a Benzedrine-fueled typing frenzy spoke to both of us across generations as great writing is meant to do. Jack's tales of Casady, Ginsberg, Burroughs, and the rest would continue in his books that followed but the spirit and zest of On The Road stand alone. Bob Dylan said of On The Road, "It changed my life like it changed everyone else's". Myself and my young friend were lucky enough to experience it that same way.
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Rooke Books
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 843A62
- Title
- On the Road
- Author
- Jack Kerouac
- Illustrator
- None
- Format/Binding
- Cloth
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good Indeed
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Andre Deutsch
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1959
- Size
- 7.5" by 5"
- Keywords
- jack kerouac on the road early editions on the road
Terms of Sale
Rooke Books
Books are sent on approval and may be returned in like condition for any reason within 14 days of receipt. Responsibility of return to be with the purchaser.
About the Seller
Rooke Books
Biblio member since 2007
BATH, Somerset
About Rooke Books
Welcome to Rooke Books Antiquarian Bookseller
We are a small team dedicated to bringing you very scarce books at reasonable prices. We specialise in rare and hard to come by works on all subjects over the last 500 years, together with modern first editions and decorative sets and bindings. Our library has something for every interest and specialism. We deliver worldwide using a fully tracked and insured courier delivery service.
Where are We?
Based in the literary city of Bath, our offices are housed in the Eastern Dispensary. Built in 1845, the building originally existed as a charitable institution providing medical care. The building now houses our collection of over twenty thousand books and has five full time members of staff.
We are a small team dedicated to bringing you very scarce books at reasonable prices. We specialise in rare and hard to come by works on all subjects over the last 500 years, together with modern first editions and decorative sets and bindings. Our library has something for every interest and specialism. We deliver worldwide using a fully tracked and insured courier delivery service.
Where are We?
Based in the literary city of Bath, our offices are housed in the Eastern Dispensary. Built in 1845, the building originally existed as a charitable institution providing medical care. The building now houses our collection of over twenty thousand books and has five full time members of staff.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fore Edge
- The portion of a book that is opposite the spine. That part of a book which faces the wall when shelved in a traditional...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Sunned
- Damage done to a book cover or dust jacket caused by exposure to direct sunlight. Very strong fluorescent light can cause slight...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Frequently asked questions
This Book’s Categories
Beat Poet Michael McClure
From the fateful reading at Six-Gallery in 1955 to his novels, poetry, and stage productions, Michael McClure was right in the thick of the Beat Generation as it was born. See his books and art and learn more about the works of Michael McClure.
Collecting Banned & Challenged Books
Build a revolutionary library of literature that has been challenged or even outright banned. You’ll be surprised by some of the titles in this gallery!
