ON THE ROAD

Book Description

New York: The Viking Press, 1957. First Edition. cloth. Both the book and the dustwrapper are bright and fresh, with a few very short closed tears to the top of the dustwrapper. Fine in a Near Fine dustwrapper. Third Printing in a Third Printing dustwrapper BUT INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper: "To Don---/from/Jack Kerouac/I'm really happy/that you came to the/party Henri threw for me!" Henri was one of Kerouac's oldest friends, Henri Cru, the character Remi Boncoeur in ON THE ROAD. (Some years ago we sold a copy of this book inscribed to Henri as "my best friend" by Kerouac.). We have not been able to identify Don, though it very well may be Don Uhl, a friend of Neal Cassady's from Colorado, who appears as Ed Wall in ON THE ROAD. Except for one book signing event in Denver for his first book, THE TOWN AND THE CITY, Kerouac did not do promotional signings for any of his books. When ON THE ROAD was published, Kerouac was so overwhelmed by the publicity that he went into self-imposed exile with his mother. Consequently, inscribed copies of any printing of this, his most important book, are rare. The heavyweight champ of Beat Literature, with many hints of it being turned into a film but none realized as of yet.

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