ON THE ROAD

Every so often you return to a book that influenced you growing up.  Maybe it's a clique but On the Road by Jack Kerouac was one such book for me.  I read it soon after I finished law school and it pushed me to do my own frenzied road trip— and Odyssey representing freedom and the unknown. The book is now sold over 3 million copies since its first printing in 1959. During the pandemic, I've returned to the book, waiting for that moment when we'll have freedom to move again. To get in the car and drive. Here's my short list of On the Road books that includes a couple others who attempted to retrace and re-kindle Kerouac’s spirit.

1. On the Road, Jack Kerouac (Penguin 1986). I can see how much of an impact made on me since it’s heavily annotated with my pencil markings. I suppose the high points and stay with me always are when he describes is the most fun cross country ride of his life on the back of a flatbed truck with a cast of characters from Iowa to Wyoming and the closing paragraph.  Likely bought at a college bookstore at the University of Pittsburgh. 

 

 2. Kerouac: The Definitive Biography, Paul Maher, Jr.  (2004). A thoughtful and complete biography that details Kerouac’s triumphs and struggles with a seal of approval from Kerouac’s family. A birthday or Christmas gift. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.  Jack Kerouac‘s American Journey: A Real life Odyssey of On the Road, Paul Maher, Jr. (2007). Maher provides narrative history of Kerouac's different road trips and friends and how they translated into On the Road. Bought online. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.  Paradise Roadhouse: Jack Kerouac‘s Lost Highway in My Search for America, Jay Atkinson (2010).  Loose retracing of some of Kerouac‘s journeys by journalist Jay Atkinson.