Although I have been an avid reader of the works of Jack Kerouac for many years, I had not been aware of the republication of his classic novel, "On The Road", in its original form as it was written on a long, continuous scroll of paper until I strayed into it in a Goodwill store recently. It had actually been published in this form in 2007 by Penguin Classics. Howard Cunnell served as the editor and wrote a rather pedantic introduction of 52 pages which begins the book.
Howard Cunnell is an English writer, novelist, and literary critic who can be said to be a leading expert on Jack Kerouac and his work. But it is my considered opinion that he could have done a far better job of making his introduction more cogent and readable. A
better discussion of Cunnell's work on Kerouac can be found at this link on the "Green Lantern Blog". The book also has three other essays of varying lengths which were written by Penny Vlagopoulos, George Mouratidis, and Joshua Kupetz. I am particluarly impressed by Ms. Vlagopoulous's essay which is much better organized and readable than Cunnell's. It also uses more discussion of the works of other writers to elucidate her points about the work of Kerouac. The multiple introductions cover the first 86 pages of the book.
Dr. Penny Vlagopoulos is an associate professor of English at SaintLawrence University who specializes in twentieth and twenty-first century literature.
Dr. George Mouratidis is a professor at the University of Melbourne. Joshua Kupetz is a professor of English at the University of Michigan. All four of the academics involved in the preparation of this book can be said to be experts on the Beat writers. But I believe the effort would have been better served if one of them other than Howard Cunnell had served as the lead editor for the project.
The original scroll version of "On The Road" had approximately 80,000 words deleted from it in the original published version from the original 1957 Viking edition. It would have been a cumbersome book to read, and even more difficult to turn into a best seller and eventual classic book in that original form. But for the devotee of Kerouac's work, it is a fascinating read. I was first exposed to the work of Jack Kerouac by my former professor, mentor, and friend, the late Robert "Bob" Snyder when he served as the creator and director of the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College in Beckley, West Virginia, when I was a student there. Jack Kerouac never crosses my mind without being accompanied by Bob Snyder who also introduced me to the works of Mildred Haun and Francois Villon. That was an incredible threesome of writers to have learned of from one ever questing and questioining mind such as Bob Snyder had. I truly wish that Bob could have lived to read the original scroll which is reproduced in this book in an allegedly verbatim form. He would have loved it. It is well worth reading even if you are not a particularly devote fan of Kerouac and his work. The book contains a sizeable amount of sexual writing which was just a bit too racy for the average reader in the late 1950's. None of that deleted sexual writing is too racy to be in virtually any living writer's work today. Some personal references and usages of the actual names of a few of Kerouac's friends were also deleted from the 1957 version of the book in order to protect both the publisher, Viking, and Kerouac from possible legal entanglements. The book is a good means for the experienced reader of Kerouac to flesh out their knowledge base about the numerous beatniks who were his friends in both fiction and real life. For the average reader who has no experience with Kerouac's works, I would venture to say that this book is not the place to start your journey with Jack. Instead, you might read books such as "Visions Of Gerard" or "The Subterraneans" before venturing into this lenghthy portrait of the beatniks before they were known by that name.
