first edition
1957 · New York
by Kerouac, Jack
New York: Viking, 1957. First edition. Near fine in near fine jacket with just a touch of restoration.. First printing, a review copy, of Kerouac's landmark novel, and a defining work of the Beat Generation — a beautiful copy. Kerouac's novel of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty (literary stand-ins for the author and Neal Cassady) traveling across the United States was famously written in a drug-fueled mania on a long scroll of paper and became a surprise bestseller. It quickly went through multiple printings and made Kerouac not only a celebrity (famously appearing on the Steve Allen Show), but an unwilling spokesman for a movement. His style — both literary (truncated)