kerouac On the Road scroll

Kerouac's 'On the Road' Manuscript Unfurled. Story here.

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retiredfromflickr says:

Hey Jack Kerouac,
now for the tricky part
When you were the brightest star
Who were the shadows?
Of the San Francisco beat boys
You were the favourite
Now they sit and rattle their bones
And think of their blood stoned days

as sung by the 10,000 maniacs...
so my favorite group
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

niznoz says:

Really interesting to see. Those of us who remember typing--on typewriters--know what an act of bravado this is. And, mind you, before the invention of white-out.

Maybe Truman Capote was (half) right: this "isn't writing at all; it's typing." But what typing.
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

emdot says:

No kidding, Niznoz. Gutsy on two parts as I see: one -- long scroll; two -- single space.

Truman Capote... so jealous (yet, what writing/typing from him, too).

In the NPR piece they say that a dog ate the last paragraph and that Kerouac might have been working on the manuscript for a couple years in his journal.

slogrl -- I was really into the beats when that song was popular. :) I loved it.
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

Paul Watson says:

Thank you for posting this, emdot. I probably would have missed the news had you not. How he wrote On the Road has always fascinated me. Nice to see some myth debunked but the magic still retained.
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

bodhi47 says:

thanks for sharing this. Now if only they'd do a piece on bukowski's whiskey flask...sigh.

;)
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

emdot says:

You are welcome PW and b47.

Bukowski's whisky flask reminds me of that movie "Bar Fly" with Mickey Roarke hollering "to all my friends!"
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

zephyr1 says:

Wild coincidence, I just finished reading that book last night! Thinking of hitting the road on Sunday. Second the Bukowski comment.
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

birdw0rks says:

have to say Marrr, irrespective of what this is, I find this to be one of the most interesting images you've posted for a bit. something very organic and chaotic about the way it looks. maybe just me? I was sucked into it from the thumb like a perverted moth (or a book louse?)...
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

emdot says:

I like the way the image looks too... regardless of what it is. ;)

Re: images in general... I'm feeling a little dry in the creative department. Insert supersigh-zed sigh. Maybe I'll just contribute puns for a while. ;) I keed. I keed. I think I need to get off the computer. It's sucking out my brain.
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

birdw0rks says:

I just broke my brain, I think.
you can do that when you play with it too much.
d...........o..........n.....'.....t....... .g.....o......M!.....(sobs pathetically)
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

jaymce says:

awesome awesome awesome... the first line is all about my personal hero, cowboy neal cassady! truly an american legend.

as for bukowski... when i was in grad school i found my local my very first night in pittsburgh. i walked in, saw this writing on the wall and knew instantly the choice had been made...

ps - if this is a scroll, how does NPR consider something literally "one page"??
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

emdot says:

ha. i just saw yours before i saw you commented on mine. now that is cool. great image you posted, jimmy.
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

jaymce says:

inspired delve into the archive emdot! cheers...
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

bosquetango says:

I was sucked in by the thumb, too. Another unrepentant book fiend. I share your visual creative dry spell also. I suspect it is a february trough. I'm sure it's like a common cold: treat it aggressively and it will be cured in a week. Do nothing and it will take 7 days.
The courage or chutspah to type...put ink to paper with every key stroke! How many quick corrections and rewriting phrases have I made in this tiny tome? Astounding!
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

Emporer Rhubarb [deleted] says:

Allen baby, why so jaded?
Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded?
Billy, what a saint they've made you,
just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls' Day.
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

emdot says:

That stanza is one particularly good for its cynical honesty -- looking past the iconography.

Billy what a saint... since Burroughs shot his wife in Mexico, but was not found guilty; ... all soul's day I'm sure refers to his wife, Joan. (I think her name was Joan.).
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

birdw0rks says:

all soul's - absolutely.
(and it was Joan)
time for our William Tell routine.
"and make it reaaaaaaal tasty"

I'm off to Interzone
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

Highly_Evolved? says:

I plan to bring my 16 year old son to see this...I haven't read this book in quite a while but it was one of my favs in high school..
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

teotwawki says:

I'd always assumed that this was a myth, but there it is - and this is almost a religious artefact to me, the holy grail of creative fluency...
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

Patrick T Power says:

Was it Kerouac or Neal Cassady that – if he made a mistake with the first word of his sentence – would change the sentence to fit the mistake?
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

emdot says:

I've never heard that one Patrick. But if it is true and I were to guess, I'd guess JK, since NC isn't well known (or regarded?) as an author, tho he did write.
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

jaymce says:

Neal only had one *full* length book. it was called 'the first third'. i use the word full very lightly. he was hanging out with kerouac so much that the urge to write rubbed off on him, i believe. kerouac was all stream so i too would guess the non-aborted sentences would be kerouac.

i learned to type on a real typewriter and it is painful... it makes you wonder how different his writing would be in this time.

the script is interesting because he writes about Neal directly. i didn't know this. in the book, Neal is translated to Dean Moriarity.
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

emdot says:

Good point re: names, cowboy.

I used to have The First Third, but I think I only read a couple pages.
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

JiandaSoft says:

Thanks for this!
Posted 58 months ago. ( permalink )

_kerouac says:

En el camino...
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

Mojohealy says:

Hi there, would you like to add to the Beat Generation group I've just started?
Posted 50 months ago. ( permalink )

emdot says:

done deal mojohealy. :)
Posted 50 months ago. ( permalink )

Mojohealy says:

thanks emdot. I'm coming to the states in November, and will get to go see the scroll at the University of North Carolina!
Scroll at UNC
Posted 50 months ago. ( permalink )

Antonio Cangiano says:

Awesome!
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

Patrick T Power says:

Update.
Posted 41 months ago. ( permalink )

Captain_Peleg says:

My 25 year old paper back copy of On the Road visiting the scroll:

Posted 29 months ago. ( permalink )

eatnutmeg says:

I'm using this on www.downwrite.net on Dec 3. Thansks.
Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )

Patrick T Power says:

For those of you in New York...
Posted 24 months ago. ( permalink )

l.traube says:

Ciao, sono amministratore di un gruppo chiamato Write me!. Ci farebbe piacere aggiungere le tuo foto al gruppo.
Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )

Patrick T Power says:

I just recently bought the "The Original Scroll" version of this... haven't dived in yet, though.
Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )

Carlows says:

Hola, soy el administrador de un grupo llamado POETAS MALDITOS DE BOLSILLO y nos encantaría agregar tu foto al grupo.
Posted 20 months ago. ( permalink )

lovedart. says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called The Great Eternal Cool, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

greentea flute says:

thanks for posting this, do you have the other 37 metres of it? I graduated with honors because of Kerouac, ... some legacy .....
Posted 3 weeks ago. ( permalink )

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kerouac On the Road scroll

Comments

retiredfromflickr says:

niznoz says:

emdot says:

Paul Watson says:

bodhi47 says:

emdot says:

zephyr1 says:

birdw0rks says:

emdot says:

birdw0rks says:

jaymce says:

emdot says:

jaymce says:

bosquetango says:

Emporer Rhubarb [deleted] says:

emdot says:

birdw0rks says:

Highly_Evolved? says:

teotwawki says:

Patrick T Power says:

emdot says:

jaymce says:

emdot says:

JiandaSoft says:

_kerouac says:

Mojohealy says:

emdot says:

Mojohealy says:

Antonio Cangiano says:

Patrick T Power says:

Captain_Peleg says:

eatnutmeg says:

Patrick T Power says:

l.traube says:

Patrick T Power says:

Carlows says:

lovedart. says:

greentea flute says:

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