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On The Road: The Original Scroll
by Jack Kerouac
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good+
- ISBN 10
- 0143105469
- ISBN 13
- 9780143105466
- Seller
-
Brossard, Quebec, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Penguin, New York. 4th trade paperback printing. Condition: Very good plus, light edge wear and corner bumps, faint creasing at spine, faint crease at bottom right front corner.
Though Jack Kerouac began thinking about the novel that was to become On the Road as early as 1947, it was not until three weeks in April 1951, in an apartment on West Twentieth Street in Manhattan, that he wrote the first full draft that was satisfactory to him. Typed out as one long, single-spaced paragraph on eight long sheets of tracing paper that he later taped together to form a 120 foot scroll, this document is among the most significant, celebrated, and provocative artifacts in contemporary American literary history. It represents the first full expression of Kerouac's revolutionary aesthetic, the identifiable point at which his thematic vision and narrative voice came together in a sustained burst of creative energy. It was also part of a wider vital experimentation in the American literary, musical, and visual arts in the post-World War II period.
Though Jack Kerouac began thinking about the novel that was to become On the Road as early as 1947, it was not until three weeks in April 1951, in an apartment on West Twentieth Street in Manhattan, that he wrote the first full draft that was satisfactory to him. Typed out as one long, single-spaced paragraph on eight long sheets of tracing paper that he later taped together to form a 120 foot scroll, this document is among the most significant, celebrated, and provocative artifacts in contemporary American literary history. It represents the first full expression of Kerouac's revolutionary aesthetic, the identifiable point at which his thematic vision and narrative voice came together in a sustained burst of creative energy. It was also part of a wider vital experimentation in the American literary, musical, and visual arts in the post-World War II period.
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: The Original Scroll
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.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Shop-books.ca
(CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 202000840
- Title
- On The Road: The Original Scroll
- Author
- Jack Kerouac
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 4th printing
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0143105469
- ISBN 13
- 9780143105466
- Publisher
- Penguin Classics
- Place of Publication
- New York, NY
- This edition first published
- 2008-08
- Keywords
- used books, discount books
- Bookseller catalogs
- Modern Literature;
Terms of Sale
Shop-books.ca
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Shipping rates are based on the weight of the item being up to 1kg (2,2 lbs). I may contact you if the weight and dimensions of the book exceed this standard in order to arrange for additional shipping cost.
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About the Seller
Shop-books.ca
Biblio member since 2020
Brossard, Quebec
About Shop-books.ca
Online bookseller, specializing in limited editions, science fiction, and fantasy. www.shop-books.caI have been a small, mobile bookseller for over 15 years and have recently decided to stay in one place!
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Bumps
- Indicates that the affected part of the book has been impacted in such a way so as to cause a flattening, indention, or light...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Trade Paperback
- Used to indicate any paperback book that is larger than a mass-market paperback and is often more similar in size to a hardcover...
- 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....
This Book’s Categories
- Bindings & Editions Modern First Editions
- Fiction & Literature Action & Adventure
- Fiction & Literature Fiction by Region American Fiction
- Fiction & Literature Beat Literature
- Fiction & Literature Classic Literature
- Fiction & Literature Literary Studies Literary Criticism
- Fiction & Literature Modern Fiction
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