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On the Road

On the Road

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On the Road

by Kerouac, Jack

  • Used
  • near fine
Condition
Near Fine/Near Fine
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Portland, Oregon, United States
Item Price
SGD 47,799.50
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About This Item

New York: The Viking Press, 1957. Third Printing. Near Fine/Near Fine. Third printing of the first edition. Signed by Jack Kerouac on the front free endpaper and inscribed "To Don--- / from / Jack Kerouac / I'm really happy / that you came to the / party Henri threw for me!" Henri was one of Kerouac's oldest friends, Henri Cru, the character Remi Boncoeur in On the Road. Bound in publisher's original black cloth boards lettered in white. Near Fine with splash mark to topstain and pages toned, in a Near Fine unclipped third printing dust jacket with light edge wear, light rubbing and light dimpling to spine. A stunning copy..

The defining work of the Beat Generation. With the exception of one signing event in Denver for his first book, The Town and the City, Kerouac did not to do any promotional signings. And when this book was published, Kerouac was so overwhelmed by the publicity he received that he went into self-imposed exile with his mother. Hence, signed copies in any printing of the legendary Beat author's best-known work are rather scarce.

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
Burnside Rare Books, ABAA US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
140942800
Title
On the Road
Author
Kerouac, Jack
Book Condition
Used - Near Fine
Jacket Condition
Near Fine
Quantity Available
1
Edition
Third Printing
Publisher
The Viking Press
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
1957
Bookseller catalogs
Literature;

Terms of Sale

Burnside Rare Books, ABAA

30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.

About the Seller

Burnside Rare Books, ABAA

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2010
Portland, Oregon
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About Burnside Rare Books, ABAA

Burnside Rare Books specializes in literary first editions and works of cultural and historic significance. We are located in Portland, Oregon and welcome visitors by appointment.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
First Edition
In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Rubbing
Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
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....
Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Inscribed
When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...
Cloth
"Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...

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