If you happen to be in Austin between now and August 3rd, you might want to check out this exhibit at UT's The Harry Ransom Center:
Featuring more than 250 items drawn from across the Ransom Center's collections, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the cities, landscapes and communities that fostered and shaped the most important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. The exhibition runs from Feb. 5 to Aug. 3 in the Ransom Center Galleries at The University of Texas at Austin.
Jack Kerouac's scroll manuscript of "On the Road," on loan from the collection of Jim Irsay, will be on display from March 7 through June 1. The first 48 feet of this 120-foot "page" will be visible in the gallery. This visually stunning first draft has no paragraph or chapter breaks, and the characters are referred to by their real names.
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The exhibition is drawn from the Center's extensive Beat holdings, which include letters from Ginsberg to Kerouac, "cut-up" manuscripts by Burroughs, the draft of Cassady's memoir of his childhood riding the rails with his father in Colorado, the papers of Corso and a 1948-1949 notebook in which Kerouac recorded notes for his novel-in-progress, "On the Road."
Other highlights include first editions of Beat publications, issues of Wallace Berman's experimental magazine "Semina," Larry Rivers's study for a portrait of Kerouac and prints by the poet and artist Kenneth Patchen.
You can also complete the "Are You a Beatnik" questionnaire for a chance to win a private tour of the exhibit.
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