Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$5424.74 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Jack Kerouac (1957) On the Road, US first edition, first printing, published by Viking. Beautifully rebound in full black leather and unique design. Bound by Richard Tong, a prize-winning binder and publisher from the UK to the highest standard. Accompanied is an original cheque, handwritten and signed by Jack Kerouac. Both items are housed in a buckram solander case lined with suede. The cheque is housed under a protective removable plastic sheet. About the design and materials used: The book is bound in finest black goatskin supplied by Harmatan and Oakridge, one of the finest suppliers of leather in Europe. The front board shows the title ON THE ROAD in white and in perspective as if the letters were central road markings giving the viever the feel of being in the car and on the road with Kerouac. The spine shows Jack Kerouac in white letters. The black buckram solander case shows dividing road marking across both sides and spine with the title and authors name on opposing lanes mimicking traffic on the road. The solander case in lined with black felt so that the books leather will not rub against a hard surface. The books top edge has been silvered. Marbled endpapers have been inserted with a design reminiscent of Edvard Munchs The Scream, somewhat appropriate given Kerouacs biography. The original cheque, is filled in by hand by Kerouac for the amount of USD 194.50 to the order of Maceys and signed by him. The date is 28 May 1958 and most likely the funds came from the royaltites of On the Road which became a bestseller. Perhaps Jack bought his mother a kitchen appliance with this cheque. Condition: the book presents in fine condition with no previous owners names or scribbles throughout. An occasional stain on some of the pages only pronouces the authenticity of the book from 1957. One of the landmark books of 20th century litareture and the most important example of Americas Beat Generation (a term which Kerouac himself loathed). The original scroll which Kerouac typed in 1951 within three weeks in a frenzy was auctioned off in 2007 for the incredible amount of 2.43 million US dollars. First and Fine
Seller: First and Fine, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Kerouac, Jack. On The Road.. The Viking Press, New York, 1957.
Price: US$7500.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of Kerouac's classic novel. Octavo, original black cloth. Near fine in a bright very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Bill English. With the original New York Times article for On the Road laid in. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. A sharp example. The raucous, exuberant, often wildly funny account of a journey through America and Mexico, Jack Kerouac's On the Road instantly defined a generation on its publication in 1957: it was, in the words of a New York Times reviewer, "the clearest and most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as 'beat.'" Written in the mode of ecstatic improvisation that Allen Ginsberg described as "spontaneous bop prosody," Kerouac's novel remains electrifying in its thirst for experience and its defiant rebuke of American conformity. In his portrayal of the fervent relationship between the writer Sal Paradise and his outrageous, exasperating, and inimitable friend Dean Moriarty, Kerouac created one of the great friendships in American literature; and his rendering of the cities and highways and wildernesses that his characters restlessly explore are a hallucinatory travelogue of a nation he both mourns and celebrates. "On the Road has become a classic of the Beat Movement with its stream-of-consciousness depiction of the rejection of mainstream American values set in a physical and metaphysical journey across America" (Book in America, 136). It is the basis for the 2012 film featuring Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Alice Braga, Amy Adams, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Elisabeth Moss, Kirsten Dunst, and Viggo Mortensen. The executive producers were Francis Ford Coppola, Patrick Batteux, Jerry Leider, and Tessa Ross. Named by Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of the twentieth century and on TIME Magazine's list of the 100 best English language novels from 1923-2005.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. The Viking Press, New York, 1957.
Price: US$25000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing SIGNED by Jack Kerouac on a publisher's limitation page tipped in. A beautiful First Issue dustjacket that is rich in color with minor wear to the edges. The book bound in the publisher's cloth and is in excellent condition. The binding is tight with NO cocking or leaning and the boards are crisp. There is NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A superb copy SIGNED by the author.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
Kerouac, Jack. ON THE ROAD. Signed. The Viking Press, New York, 1957.
Price: US$28750.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Author. Kerouac, Jack. ON THE ROAD. Signed. New York: Viking Press, 1957. 8vo., 310pp. A very good or better copy, the white spine lettering partially rubbed, evidence of a bookplate having been removed from the front free endpaper otherwise the book block is clean & free of blemish. Kerouac has signed in black ink at the top of the second blank page which has likely been added later to this copy. Notwithstanding it is indeed signed & as such not to be toyed with as there are only a handful of really top-of-mind modern titles & right beside Catcher & Mockingbird sits OTR or is it the other way round? The dustwrapper is very good or better having been professionally restored with work done primarily at the spine heel & crown. An extremely good copy.
Seller: TBCL The Book Collector's Library, Montreal, QC, Canada