On the Road.
$25,000 · Offered by Biblio
First edition · Signed
New York: Viking Press, 1957. First edition of Kerouac’s classic novel. Octavo, original publisher's black cloth lettered in white, top stain red. Association copy, signed by ten Beat Generation figures, each of whom played a significant role in the creation of On the Road. Signed by Lucien Carr, Allen Ginsberg (dated 2/10/84), Al Hinkle, Ed White, Sterling Lord, Helen Weaver (dated 9/17/04), Carolyn Cassady, John Cassady, Cathy Cassady, and Jami Cassady on the title and opposite page. This remarkable gathering of signatures traces the living network behind On the Road, each name linked to Jack Kerouac and the creation of his defining work. Sterling Lord—Kerouac’s tireless literary agent—spent four years placing the manuscript after repeated rejections, ultimately securing its publication at Viking and ensuring the novel’s place in American letters. Ed White, Kerouac’s friend from Columbia University, encouraged him in 1951 to carry a sketchbook and “sketch in the streets,” a suggestion that directly shaped the spontaneous prose style of On the Road; White appears in the novel as Tim Gray. Allen Ginsberg, presented as Carlo Marx, became one of Kerouac’s closest companions and a central figure in the Beat movement. Al Hinkle, a Denver friend of Neal Cassady, appears as Ed Dunkel, anchoring the book’s western episodes. Helen Weaver—Kerouac’s girlfriend in 1956–57 during the final, crucial years before publication—had been drawn into the orbit of Kerouac, Burroughs, and Ginsberg
- Publisher: Viking Press
- Year: 1957
- Edition: First Edition
- Printing: first
- Binding: hardcover
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