New On the Road

The Lowell Sun has more about the unedited version of On the Road:

Jack Kerouac's On The Road, a classic, singularly American road novel and the quintessential work of the Beat Generation, will be published in its unedited "original scroll version," John Sampas said yesterday.

Sampas, the Lowell-based executor of Kerouac's literary estate, said he signed a contract Sunday with the New York-based publisher Viking/Penguin to publish the book, "hopefully" by the end of 2007.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of On The Road. Viking Press was also the original publisher of the book, in September 1957. The book made Lowell-born Kerouac a literary celebrity. He died at age 47 in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1969.

"Incidents in the original were edited out of the published version because of the censorship of the time," says Sampas, who said that at least portions of the edited sections refer to drugs and sex.

"On the scroll, entire paragraphs are crossed out and not included in the published version," he adds.

In addition, Sampas says something that I think makes this important if for no other reason than it just might dispel some of the myths surrounding the novel and Kerouac:

The myth that Kerouac simply sat down and exhaled the book in three weeks is misleading, says Sampas.

Beginning in the 1940s, Kerouac kept copious notes of his travels with Cassidy, and the process of writing the book began five years before he sat down for the 21-day burst. He first mentioned creating a novel called On the Road in his journals on Aug. 28, 1948, says Sampas.

"And there were two heavily edited manuscripts that preceded the book's publication in 1957," says Sampas.

"People knew of his reputation for having typed the scroll out in three weeks, which he did. But it took him five years to write it," Sampas adds.

The article also mentions Lowell's plans for a Summer of Kerouac which will coincide with the novel's 50th anniversary and the arrival of the much-traveled On the Road scroll in the city.  Might be a road trip in the making for yours truly.

Comments

[jmorrison]

A buddy and I made the trip to Lowell years back for some kind of Kerouac festival they were having. The original scroll was not there then but Ginsberg was. We were staying in the same hotel and everywhere Ginsberg went a cadre of young hipsters followed. They were an honest to goodness raver/poet/artist/bum entourage. It was a little creepy to tell the truth. Most of them couldn't have been older that 18. Course I myself couldn't have been much older than 20. My friend and I just couldn't bring ourselves to get behind that bearded ol' pied-piper though.

Overall, if I'm being totally honest, the place was a drag. Did we get drunk on cheap wine? Yes. Did we write feverishly in our journals? Sure. Did we get high? Probably. But the fact remains Lowell is one of those old towns whose productive glory days are LONG behind it, living as it were off the fumes of its most famous resident, and in as much it was kind of depressing. If it rains while your there you might actually curl up and die in a corner.

But hell, I was a kid. Maybe its more fun as an adult... or less. With Ginsberg gone you at least don't have to worry about him luring your child into some murky Beat basement to smoke "tea" and get their bottoms pinched.