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On the Road: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Paperback - 1999
by Jack Kerouac
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The indisputable bible of the Beat Generation, "On the Road" (1957) fictionalizes Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend, Neal Cassidy.
About this book
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.
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.
Summary
In its time Jack Kerouac's masterpiece was the bible of the Beat Generation, the essential prose accompaniment to Allen Ginsberg's Howl. While it stunned the public and literary establishment when it was published in 1957, it is now recognized as an American classic. With On the Road, Kerouac discovered his voice and his true subject—the search for a place as an outsider in America.
On the Road swings to the rhythms of fifties underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns, and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveler and mystic, the living epitome of Beat.
"Life is great, and few can put the zest and wonder and sadness and humor of it on paper more interestingly than Kerouac."
—Luther Nichols, San Francisco Examiner
"Just as, more than any other novel of the Twenties, The Sun Also Rises came to be regarded as the testament of the Lost Generation, so it seems certain that On the Road will come to be known as that of the Beat Generation."
—Gilbert Millstein, The New York Times
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From the publisher
First line
FIRST MET DEAN not long after my wife and I split up.
First edition identification
On The Road was first published by Viking in 1957. True first printings of the book include the $3.95 pricing information on the top right hand corner of the front inside dust jacket flap. Later printings and subsequent book club editions do not feature the price in that location. Additionally, a photo of Kerouac is featured on the back inside cover flap along with a brief description of the author.
Details
- Title On the Road: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
- Author Jack Kerouac
- Binding Paperback
- Edition [ Edition: Repri
- Pages 304
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Penguin Classics, E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.
- Publication date 1999-06-01
- ISBN 9780140283297 / 0140283293
- Weight 0.73 lbs (0.33 kg)
- Dimensions 8.42 x 5.62 x 0.82 in (21.39 x 14.27 x 2.08 cm)
- Age range 18 to UP years
- Grade levels 13 - UP
- Reading level 940
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: 1950's
- Chronological Period: 1950-1999
- Topical: Coming of Age
- Category Literature - Classics / Criticism
- Library of Congress subjects Autobiographical fiction, Beat generation
- Dewey Decimal Code FIC
Media reviews
Citations
- Ingram Advance, 06/01/1999, Page 102
About the author
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On the Road: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Kerouac, Jack
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On the Road : (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Jack Kerouac
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- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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NZ$11.40Free Delivery to USA
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On the Road : (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Jack Kerouac
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- Good
- Paperback
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- Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780140283297 / 0140283293
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NZ$11.40Free Delivery to USA
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NZ$11.40
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On the Road : (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Jack Kerouac
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- Acceptable
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780140283297 / 0140283293
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NZ$11.40Free Delivery to USA
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On the Road: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Kerouac, Jack
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- Paperback
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- Used
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780140283297 / 0140283293
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