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On the Road
by Kerouac, Jack
- Used
- good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Good
- ISBN 10
- 0140031928
- ISBN 13
- 9780140031928
- Seller
-
Tacoma, Washington, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Penguin Books, 1976 Book. Good. Soft cover. 11th printing. Large crease on the upper front corner followed by several pages with modest creases; otherwise, modest edge rubbing and soiling. Text clean..
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
- Else Fine Booksellers
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 003655
- Title
- On the Road
- Author
- Kerouac, Jack
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- ISBN 10
- 0140031928
- ISBN 13
- 9780140031928
- Publisher
- Penguin Books
- Place of Publication
- Harmondsworth, Middlesex
- Date Published
- 1976
Terms of Sale
Else Fine Booksellers
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
Else Fine Booksellers
Biblio member since 2023
Tacoma, Washington
About Else Fine Booksellers
"Else Fine" is a play on words, perhaps referring to something of value yet slightly worse for wear. It perfectly describes the booksellers at Else Fine, who have been dealing in used and rare books for over 25 years. We specialize in science fiction, interesting ephemera, books on books, radical literature and history, Pacific Northwest Americana, literature, and whatever else catches our eye.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
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