Jack Kerouac: On the Road Again

COURTESY OF THE ALLEN GINSBERG ESTATE

ON THE BEAT: Kerouac in New York, snapped by Allen Ginsberg in 1953

In the spring of 1951 in New York City, Jack Kerouac sat down to type his magnum opus, On the Road , onto 10 rolls of architectural tracing paper taped together to create the most famous scroll in secular literary history. Now the scroll travels back to New York for the 50th anniversary of On the Road 's first printing.

From Nov. 9, 2007, through March 16, 2008, 60 ft. (18.3 m) of it will be on show, along with other Beatific ephemera, at the New York Public Library's main branch on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue. The exhibition includes some of Kerouac's earliest...

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