On the Road

On the Road is a novel by Jack Kerouac, published by Viking Press in 1957. This largely autobiographical work, written as a stream of consciousness and based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America, is often considered the defining work of the postwar jazz-, poetry-, and drug-affected Beat Generation.

Related Topics:
Jack Kerouac - Viking Press - 1957 - Autobiographical - Stream of consciousness - Jazz - Poetry - Drug - Beat Generation

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As of 2005, the book is to be the subject of a forthcoming film, also titled On the Road. Walter Salles is attached to direct, and casting is scheduled to begin in 2006.

Related Topics:
As of 2005 - On the Road - Walter Salles - 2006

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The book became an overnight success, and gathered an epic mythos that was worthy of its fame. As the story goes, On the Road was written by Kerouac in only three weeks in a burst of artistic fury, hammered out on one long scroll of teletype paper.

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The scroll, in fact, does exist—it was purchased in 2001 by Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, for $2.4 million—and it was indeed typed in a blazing three weeks. But the myth of the story overlooks some of the finer points of the novel's composition.

Related Topics:
2001 - Indianapolis Colts

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For example, much of the book was actually written as it happened, over the seven years of Kerouac's travels, in the tiny dimestore notebooks that he always carried with him and wrote in during his spare time. The myth also overlooks the tedious organization and preparation that came before Kerouac's creative explosion, as well as the fact that Kerouac revised the novel several times before Malcolm Cowley of Viking Press agreed to publish it.

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In January 2004, the scroll began a 13-stop, four-year national tour of museums and libraries, starting at the Orange County History Centre in Orlando, Florida, and will finally end with a three-month stay at the New York Public Library in 2007.

Related Topics:
January 2004 - Orange County - Orlando - Florida - New York Public Library

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