On the Road: the Original Scroll: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) [Paperback]

The legendary 1951 scroll draft ofOn the Road, published as Kerouac originally composed it

IN THREE WEEKS in April of 1951, Jack Kerouac wrote his first full draft ofOn the Road—typed as a single-spaced paragraph on eight long sheets of tracing paper, which he later taped together to form a 120-foot scroll. A major literary event when it was published in Viking hardcover in 2007, this is the uncut version of an American classic—rougher, wilder, and more provocative than the official work that appeared, heavily edited, in 1957. This version, capturing a moment in creative history, represents the first full expression of Kerouac’s revolutionary aesthetic.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.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.

INTRODUCTION

In 2007, the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac'sOn the Road, the original scroll on which the novel was based toured the country and was published for the first time in book form by Viking. This literary document, which was purchased for a record sum of $2.43 million, has taken on a mythology befitting its scripture-like appearance. According to the legend, after three furious and Benzedrine-fueled weeks in April 1951, Kerouac emerged from a New York City apartment with a complete novel of more lS6