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On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Very Good-
- Seller
-
Hudson, New Hampshire, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
This is a vintage paperback edition of "ON THE ROAD" by Jack Kerouac. 1957 1st paperback edition, 12th printing (stated); Signet Books / The New American Library; New York. There are two pages of publisher's advertisements at the back.
Condition:
There are a few small, light stains at the bottom of the front cover; the back cover has foxing at the top edge. A tiny bit of the top paper layer has chipped away at the top-left corner of the spine. Tight binding with no cracks and no loose pages. Both covers are firmly attached. The pages are lightly age-toned though not brittle. The pages are clean and appear unread with no issues found. Overall the book is in Very Good- condition.
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
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
- CraigsClassics
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 8070
- Title
- On the Road
- Author
- Jack Kerouac
- Format/Binding
- Softcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good-
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Paperback Edition
- Binding
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Signet Books / The New American Library
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1957
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- Jack Kerouac, on the road, Dharma Bums, visions of Gerard, vanity of duluoz, Maggie Cassidy, the town and the city, desolation angels, tristessa, big Sur, the Subterraneans, doctor Dr sax, visions of Cody, lonesome Traveler, book of dreams, Mexico City Bl
- Bookseller catalogs
- Literature / Fiction;
Terms of Sale
CraigsClassics
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
CraigsClassics
Biblio member since 2018
Hudson, New Hampshire
About CraigsClassics
My store offers a curated selection of antiquarian books in a variety of topics with an emphasis on classic literature and children's classics. I take pride in providing great customer service with prompt replies to offers and inquiries, careful packaging and next-day shipping. Based in scenic southern New Hampshire.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- 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"...
- 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....
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
Frequently asked questions
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