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On The Road - The Original Scroll - Jack Kerouac - new hardcover book
Untitled Document
ON
THE ROAD
The
Original Scroll
by
JACK KEROUAC
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New
hardcover book with dustjacket, published 2007, 408 pages.
Edited
and introduced by Howard Cunnell
On the Road: The Original Scroll is the first ever
publication of Kerouac's original draft for the book - transcribed
from the famous 'scroll': hundreds of typed pages which constitute
the manuscript taped together by Kerouac himself.
Kerouac's quintessential novel of America and the Beat Generation.
On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the
North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a
sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise"
and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest
for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his
compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine
to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting
importance.
Kerouac’s classic novel of freedom and
longing defined what it meant to be “Beat” and has inspired
every generation since its initial publication more than forty years
ago.
The legendary 1951 scroll draft of On
the Road, published word for word as Kerouac originally composed
it
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.
It was not until more than six years later, and several new drafts,
that Viking published, in 1957, the novel known to us today. On the
occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of On the Road, Viking
will publish the 1951 scroll in a standard book format. The
differences between the two versions are principally ones of
significant detail and altered emphasis. The scroll is slightly
longer and has a heightened linguistic virtuosity and a more
sexually frenetic tone. It also uses the real names of Kerouac’s
friends instead of the fictional names he later invented for them.
The transcription of the scroll was done by Howard Cunnell who,
along with Joshua Kupetz, George Mouratidis, and Penny Vlagopoulos,
provides a critical introduction that explains the fascinating
compositional and publication history of On the Road and
anchors the text in its historical, political, and social context.
About the author
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), the central figure of the Beat
Generation, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922 and died in St.
Petersburg, Florida, in 1969. Among his many novels are On the Road, The
Dharma Bums, Big Sur, and Visions of Cody.
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ON THE ROAD The Original Scroll - Jack Kerouac
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