Books

KEROUAC, Jack. On the Road. New York: Viking, 1957. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $7200. First edition of Kerouac's second and most important novel, "a physical and metaphysical journey across America," in colorful original dust jacket. "Between 1947 and 1950, Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac took off on a freewheeling journey through the USA and Mexico in search of something outside their domestic experience. Ten years later their adventures were related in On the Road. The novel's composition has become a well-known anecdote in its own right. Returning home from his wanderings, Kerouac spent almost a year pondering how (specifically, in what form) he might convey the life he had been living. Several false starts were made, but in April 1951 he fed a 120-foot roll of teletype into his typewriter, typed for three weeks and the result, largely unrevised, was On the Road" (Parker, 339). "Just before Jack Kerouac died in 1969, he told Neal Cassady that he feared he would die like Melville, unknown and unappreciated in his own time. On the Road has become a classic of the Beat Movement with its stream-of-consciousness depiction of the rejection of mainstream American values set in a physical and metaphysical journey across America" (Book in America, 136). Bruccoli & Clark I:217. Book fine. Dust jacket with minor edgewear and a few shorts tears and creasing; spine toned just a bit, with a bit of loss to spine ends. An extremely good copy.

Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel "On the Road" is an emblematic portrait of the Beat Generation, capturing the yearning for freedom and authenticity against postwar American conformity. This semi-autobiographical work, based on the adventures of Kerouac and his friends across America, is often seen as a defining work of the countercultural movements of the 1950s and 60s. It chronicles the cross-country voyages of Sal Paradise, Kerouac’s alter ego, and Dean Moriarty, a free-spirited, charismatic rebel. "On the Road" is structured around several trips made by Sal and Dean, describing their escapades as they travel back and forth across the country. These journeys are less about the destinations and more about the experiences they gather, the people they meet, and the quest for meaning in a society perceived as rigid and materialistic. The narrative style of the book, known for its spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness prose, mirrors the tumultuous, impulsive lives of its characters. The novel not only explores physical journeys but also personal and spiritual ones. Dean's frenetic energy and Sal’s introspective nature contrast sharply, yet both characters are united in their disdain for conventional values. They indulge in jazz, poetry, and drug use—exploring alternative forms of consciousness and relationships.