ON THE ROAD by Kerouac, Jack - 1957

New York: The Viking Press, 1957. First Edition, Second Printing. Hardcover. Octavo, 310 pages. In Very Good minus condition, with a Good plus dust jacket. Spine black with white lettering. Dust jacket protected with a mylar covering. Price unclipped: "$3.95". Dust jacket has some shelf wear to dust jacket, small chips missing at corners of jacket flap folds, a small closed tear at lower edge of jacket front, head and tail of jacket spine missing, two small chips missing at upper edge of jacket back, pencil line to jacket back, and two pencil marks at inside of front flap. Boards show mild wear to head and tail of spine, mild shelf wear and soiling overall, and slight bumping to corners. Upper edge of text block dyed red, previous owner's note at back free end paper, and pencil marginalia at pages 180 and 215. Shelved in Case 2. Kerouac's masterwork was twice delivered into the world: first over the course of three weeks in April 1951 (in the form of the famous 120 foot "scroll"); and, later, in this 1957 publication from Viking Press. The novel went thorough significant changes in the course of the six intervening years - additions, deletions, re-formatting - but the story of its creation became legendary, and On the Road was soon seen as a defining work of the generation the author himself had named. Early in the text, Kerouac (writing as 'Sal Paradise') says "... I shambled after [them] as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time..." And out of this perpetual interest and "shambling after", Kerouac immortalized his "mad ones" 1355666. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.