Sunday, July 29, 2007



On the Road (uncensored). Discovered: Kerouac 'cuts'

The original, 120-ft typewritten roll of the beat generation literary classic is being republished, complete with material too hot to handle in 1957

This story by Paul Bignell and Andrew Johnson from The Independent on Sunday.

It took Jack Kerouac just three weeks to write what became one of the most influential books of the 20th century, inspiring a generation of writers, artists and musicians from Bob Dylan to Hanif Kureishi.
Or such is the myth. In fact what became On the Road was edited extensively over a six-year period before it was published in 1957. The semi-autobiographical story of Kerouac's American road trips was also heavily censored with explicit scenes of gay sex and drug-taking removed.
Now, however, to mark its 50th anniversary, the beatnik classic is to be published for the first time in its original uncensored form as Kerouac intended.

The new edition will also give Kerouac's fellow travellers, the writers Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, and his muse Neal Cassady, their real names instead of the pseudonyms that generations of fans have had to decode.

Use the link above to read the whole story or click here.

Author pic above from Wikipedia website.

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