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On the Road: the Original Scroll
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The legendary 1951 scroll draft of On the Road, published word for word as Kerouac originally composed it
Though Jack Kerouac began thinking about the novel that was to become On the Road as early as 1947, it was not until three weeks in April 1951, in an apartment on West Twentieth Street in Manhattan, that he wrote the first full draft that was satisfactory to him. ...more
Though Jack Kerouac began thinking about the novel that was to become On the Road as early as 1947, it was not until three weeks in April 1951, in an apartment on West Twentieth Street in Manhattan, that he wrote the first full draft that was satisfactory to him. ...more
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Paperback, 416 pages
Published
August 16th 2007
by Viking
(first published 1957)
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Start your review of On the Road: the Original Scroll
I've been meaning to review this book for a while, but I get sort of emotional reading what other people think about Kerouac, and it has been hard to figure out what I want to say. I feel almost personally insulted by some of the more negative reviews which is totally weird and inappropriate of me. I guess I identify with Kerouac because in his heart he's not really all that unconventional, but he loves the company of wild adventurers and can be talked into almost anything.
I reread the original ...more
I reread the original ...more
Jack Kerouac (1922 – 1969) is the author of this book. He is considered a pioneer of the Beat generation, along with Allan Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. If you are considering whether to read the book you must decide which edition to read. The book first came out in 1957 with the title On the Road. In 2007, the 50th anniversary edition of the book was published under the title: On the Road: the Original Scroll, which is what I have chosen to read and what I am reviewing.
This, the Scroll ...more
This, the Scroll ...more
Five stars is not enough for this book: it should be ten stars! This is a very beautiful book and rightfully an American classic. Stunning!
"On The Road" is the real deal. I just started reading this and it's just a fantastic read. The energy just pops out of the page. The punk rock of novels. Mr. Jack just had the 'moment' when he wrote this, and it is incredible experience to share that 'moment' with the great man. Great.
I felt hungover by the time I was done reading this book. I couldn't wait for it to end and it's not because I wanted to find out what was going to happen.
While there are a few great lines like, "My mother once said that the world would never find peace unless men fell at their women's feet and asked for forgiveness...," and the famous, " ...Because the only people who interest me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that ...more
While there are a few great lines like, "My mother once said that the world would never find peace unless men fell at their women's feet and asked for forgiveness...," and the famous, " ...Because the only people who interest me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that ...more
What I find intriguing about this book was how it was spontaneously written: 3 months on a scroll of papers. Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) did not have formal training on writing and probably he wanted to make a statement by packing up his things and write his experience while on the road with a friend, Neal Cassady (1926-1968). The book was largely autobiographical and describes Kerouac's road-trip adventures across the United States and Mexico with Cassady in the late 40s, as well as his
...more
Sep 15, 2008
Stephen
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans of poetic prose and searchers for an earlier hillbilly america
The continent "groans" again and again.
The night is too often "sad," the cities are "mad" or "wild" and "sad" some more. New York is the "edge of the continent," and San Francisco, too and sometimes they're the "rim of the world," or some similar allusion.
Jack Kerouac and his friends, would be considered drunks and losers by the standards of most. The author's muse and messiah, Neal Cassady, is a fellow too easily distracted, undisciplined and, by today's measurements, a candidate for ...more
The night is too often "sad," the cities are "mad" or "wild" and "sad" some more. New York is the "edge of the continent," and San Francisco, too and sometimes they're the "rim of the world," or some similar allusion.
Jack Kerouac and his friends, would be considered drunks and losers by the standards of most. The author's muse and messiah, Neal Cassady, is a fellow too easily distracted, undisciplined and, by today's measurements, a candidate for ...more
This might be my only 1 star review on Goodreads out of 300+ I've rated here so far. Why didn't I like it? In short, it's a buddy-travel-memoir by an extremely immature and sexist 30-something written in a single paragraph. That's right. All 300+ pages of this book (and I'm not counting the 100 pages of introductions by the so-called scholars and critics who adore Kerouac and this book) are a single paragraph. About a quarter of the way through this behemoth paragraph, it was all I could do not
...more
I became a fan of the 'original' version around my second year of high school. I remember idolizing these crazy characters - to the point of writing a paper for English class on 'The Beats'. When I heard that this minimally edited version was available, I looked forward to reliving my love of this wild bunch of friends...jumping madly across the continent. Free of conformist society, traditional writing methods, and the mindless responsibilities of the new modern life.
At first I was ...more
At first I was ...more
Finished in the original.
Matching Soundtrack :
Jubilee Stomb - Duke Ellington
I find Jack Kerouac's spontaneous prose up to the task.
Meanwhile, the five "books" are really uneven, which can somewhat drag you down, however it bears credit to the extensive use of spontaneous prose throughout : the typescript is alleged to have been written in a week.
Here goes a collection of observations on the book :
- On the Road is reminiscent of French Blablacar, especially in its first third with nothing but a ...more
Matching Soundtrack :
Jubilee Stomb - Duke Ellington
I find Jack Kerouac's spontaneous prose up to the task.
Meanwhile, the five "books" are really uneven, which can somewhat drag you down, however it bears credit to the extensive use of spontaneous prose throughout : the typescript is alleged to have been written in a week.
Here goes a collection of observations on the book :
- On the Road is reminiscent of French Blablacar, especially in its first third with nothing but a ...more
A book I first read nearly half a century ago. Thought I had outgrown it. If you have tried to read the 1957 published version and given up in disgust at its mediocrity, know that what you read was what the publishers did to Kerouac mournful prose. This is the version that quivers with all the beauty I had remembered.
What I had forgotten was how utterly sad this book was...
What I had forgotten was how utterly sad this book was...
The road is long and winding, and so is Jack Kerouac’s writing, but it doesn’t make for a very enjoyable novel. As Truman Capote famously said, “None of these people have anything interesting to say,” he observed, “and none of them can write, not even Mr. Kerouac. [What they do] isn’t writing at all—it’s typing.”
I understand what Kerouac is trying to do here: to represent life in the wandering way that life exists, and to present two characters that don’t know quite what they’re looking for and ...more
I understand what Kerouac is trying to do here: to represent life in the wandering way that life exists, and to present two characters that don’t know quite what they’re looking for and ...more
The plot to “On The Road” wouldn’t really tell you what “On The Road” is about because the travels of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity are more existential than overt action. Yes, they drive from coast to coast, meet people, go to parties, but it’s not the action that is important but the experience Sal and Dean derive from each adventure.
The real story of “On The Road: The Original Scroll” isn’t in the book but in how Kerouac created it. The autobiographical elements that made up “On The Road,” ...more
The real story of “On The Road: The Original Scroll” isn’t in the book but in how Kerouac created it. The autobiographical elements that made up “On The Road,” ...more
Perhaps it's because I am a 19-year-old liberal arts college student or perhaps it's because I always have and probably always will yearn for excitement and beauty and adventure, but whatever the reason may be, I absolutely loved Kerouac's On The Road>i>. Every passage drew me in deeper and deeper until I could hardly stand just how much I wanted jump in the car or on a train or bus and make it across the country to the West Coast. Even the frantic tales of endless NYC nights beckoned me
...more
May 28, 2014
Maria
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
recommendations-by-friends
It seems like I don't get along well with Mr. Kerouac. Maybe some other time.
Well it is actually hard to say if I enjoyed this book, it wasn't terrible, but this is one of the occasions when a better word should be used. So I think three stars is fair. At first I thought to say straight away that Kerouac was a sort of son to Steinbeck's short stories like Sweet Thursday, Cannery Row, etc. etc. and that his road odyssey was him and some pals escaping death and situations they couldn't handle. But it is much more than that, in fact it was so many things that I wondered at
...more
I enjoyed this book far more a few years ago. I think Kerouac's tale is decent, gloriously rebellious, but over-hyped; this book is marked with a few fantastic insights but my belief is that On The Road is only popular due to timeliness and the oft-consumed glamorization of alcoholism. Kerouac was the face of the movement, not the grit.
William Burroughs was able to write about such tales while bringing to life the disease, the twisting of the gut that follows escapades similar to Kerouac's, ...more
William Burroughs was able to write about such tales while bringing to life the disease, the twisting of the gut that follows escapades similar to Kerouac's, ...more
Oct 07, 2012
Reid
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
review,
favorites-2012,
will-read-again,
2012,
favorites,
5-stars,
literature-classics,
kerouac
I read "The Original Scroll" only, and it was great, deserving of its status... (I haven't really compared the two yet, haven't read a full paragraph in OTR, but check out the difference in GR ratings...they are much higher for the Scroll! Probably means they are very different experiences.) OK, here is my review of The Original Scroll... [Update, I've read both, both 5 stars for me.]
My opinion and experience: The only negatives for me in On the Road The Original Scroll were the second 30 pages ...more
My opinion and experience: The only negatives for me in On the Road The Original Scroll were the second 30 pages ...more
On the Road – Jack Kerouac’s autobiographical novel of the exhilarating and exhausting cross-country road trips of 20-somethings Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty – was such an enormous watershed in American culture that it seems quite fitting that its 50th anniversary should be noted by Viking with no less than three newly published books: "On the Road: The 50th Anniversary Edition," "On the Road: The Original Scroll," and "Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of ‘On the Road."
While the 50th ...more
While the 50th ...more
I first read On The Road (the non-original-scroll) when I was 15 years old and it changed my life. I was off school for the summer holidays and I read The Catcher In The Rye too, and despite not much else happening that summer, it remains vivid in my memory. It was the first book that spoke to me, or for me, and I guess it either altered my way of thinking or else it validated what was already becoming a way of looking at the world for me. For that reason I've always been reluctant to revisit On
...more
The impact and influence this book has had on my life is indescribable. I decided to read the original scroll some 3 years after having read the novel version, book which changed my life forever. I wanted to remind myself of why I had named Jack and On the Road as pivotal in my life, why I'd named them as the explanation of my career choice, my interests, and I was promptly reminded indeed. Kerouac's way of perceiving life is one that equates life to art. The point of life is art. The point of
...more
My first experience of On the Road was this quotation:
“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, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”
It was actually quoted in a fanfiction, as Axel's favourite book (Kingdom Hearts AU). It's stuck with me, ever since: not the fanfiction itself, but the ...more
“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, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”
It was actually quoted in a fanfiction, as Axel's favourite book (Kingdom Hearts AU). It's stuck with me, ever since: not the fanfiction itself, but the ...more
This thing is a straight shunt into the mind of a terrifyingly good writer. The prose jitters with energy. Reading this is an amazing experience, and you should definitely do it.
Will note that the book's portrayal of women and minorities sometimes descends into stereotypes and casual prejudice that made me squirm. Sure it's from the fifties and people had different sensibilities back then yadda yadda but the fact that every female character exists only as an accessory to a man - each female ...more
Will note that the book's portrayal of women and minorities sometimes descends into stereotypes and casual prejudice that made me squirm. Sure it's from the fifties and people had different sensibilities back then yadda yadda but the fact that every female character exists only as an accessory to a man - each female ...more
I cannot say the original scroll is any more enjoyable or meaningful than the published novel. All I can say is the format here is slightly cooler.
After seeing what was censored by Kerouac's editors in the 6 years between his first draft and publication, which material I find relatively mild, it really is astounding to see how far literary censorship has come in the past several decades.
After seeing what was censored by Kerouac's editors in the 6 years between his first draft and publication, which material I find relatively mild, it really is astounding to see how far literary censorship has come in the past several decades.
I don’t know where to start. Perhaps on the first page. In this heavily unedited, raw manuscript, there appears a remarkable misprint: “I first met met Neal Cassady not long after my father had died.” It suggests a car misfiring right before it takes on a soulful and epiphanic odyssey, which is pretty much what this novel is.
There has probably never been a bigger fan of the continental United States than Jack Kerouac. He’s intoxicated by the landscape, gets high off of the Jazz and has a ...more
There has probably never been a bigger fan of the continental United States than Jack Kerouac. He’s intoxicated by the landscape, gets high off of the Jazz and has a ...more
After intending to read "On the Road" for a good five years, I finally put it on my wish list and received a copy that contained two versions: "The Original Scroll" and one of the more punctuated, commonly published versions.
While I didn't enjoy either, my impression of what I read should be taken with a thick grain of salt. I am a wanderer at heart who has spend the last few years traipsing around the globe while writing copy to fund my budget travel experiences, which have included plenty of ...more
While I didn't enjoy either, my impression of what I read should be taken with a thick grain of salt. I am a wanderer at heart who has spend the last few years traipsing around the globe while writing copy to fund my budget travel experiences, which have included plenty of ...more
Read the STOP SMILING review of the British edition of On the Road: The Original Scroll:
We’ve been waiting a long time for a definitive (textual) edition of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. But, alas, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Howard Cunnell, editor: Viking-Penguin, 2007) isn’t it. Yes, we have the original unexpurgated transcript with the real names reinstated and an informative if at times ill-organized introduction on the writing of the novel by Cunnell that corrects some misconceptions on ...more
We’ve been waiting a long time for a definitive (textual) edition of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. But, alas, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Howard Cunnell, editor: Viking-Penguin, 2007) isn’t it. Yes, we have the original unexpurgated transcript with the real names reinstated and an informative if at times ill-organized introduction on the writing of the novel by Cunnell that corrects some misconceptions on ...more
This is a book I came to well into writing my non-fiction book, Road through Time. It's about roads as vectors for change and exchange, but when I told people the working title, the supposition was that I was trying to do a Kerouac.
So, of course, I had to read it. Written in the early 1950s, it has not aged well, I think. While Kerouac and his friends were trying to crash through the ordinary, workaday world to something full of life and joy, the means they use are ultimately self-deceiving. ...more
So, of course, I had to read it. Written in the early 1950s, it has not aged well, I think. While Kerouac and his friends were trying to crash through the ordinary, workaday world to something full of life and joy, the means they use are ultimately self-deceiving. ...more
Feb 11, 2017
Leni - The White Book Cottage
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-2017
I had this book on my TBR Pile for 5 years and in that time I think I started to read it 4 times....
So we weren't of to the greatest of starts... and this time wasn't that different except I pulled through and I have to say it was worth it!
In the end I didn't really want to put this book down were I worked my way through just a few pages a day in the beginning.
It really was a great experience and I am sure I will pick up another book from these guys in the future :)
So we weren't of to the greatest of starts... and this time wasn't that different except I pulled through and I have to say it was worth it!
In the end I didn't really want to put this book down were I worked my way through just a few pages a day in the beginning.
It really was a great experience and I am sure I will pick up another book from these guys in the future :)
Jan 18, 2009
Rosemary Ceravolo
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
all the world
You had to be there to love and understand Kerouac's genius.
Here's an amazingly prescient quote from the (c. 1948-1951),
Original Scroll of "On the Road," finally published in 2007:
p.219 - "When daybreak came we were
zooming through New Jersey
with a great cloud of Metropolitan NY
rising before us in the snowy distance.
Neal had a sweater
wrapped around his ears
to keep warm. He said we were a band of
Arabs coming to blow up New York.
We swished through the Lincoln Tunnel
and came out ...more
Here's an amazingly prescient quote from the (c. 1948-1951),
Original Scroll of "On the Road," finally published in 2007:
p.219 - "When daybreak came we were
zooming through New Jersey
with a great cloud of Metropolitan NY
rising before us in the snowy distance.
Neal had a sweater
wrapped around his ears
to keep warm. He said we were a band of
Arabs coming to blow up New York.
We swished through the Lincoln Tunnel
and came out ...more
Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.
What a bizarre book.
It's the equivalent of meeting with a distant friend and asking them, hey how are you? and next thing you know they are telling about a road, about looking for something, and drinking, and travelling, and drinking, and being poor, and depressed, and travelling, and sex, and drinking, and the road.
It got rather repetitive in the end but it had some interesting parts. Did everyone in the 1940s was like this? ...more
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Jack Kerouac was born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac on March 12, 1922, in Lowell, Massachusetts. Jack Kerouac's writing career began in the 1940s, but didn't meet with commercial success until 1957, when On the Road was published. The book became an American classic that defined the Beat Generation. Kerouac died on October 21, 1969, from an abdominal hemorrhage, at age 47.
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“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”
—
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“The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great, that I thought I was in a dream.”
—
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