P.S. Kerouac's Notes Written On the Road

"I’m on the verge of some kind of crazy discovery that’ll tear my head off for good—or make me great."

Most writers benefit from judicious editing, but Jack Kerouac was not one of them. I like him best when he is raw and unfiltered. To my mind, On the Road—as it was published in 1957 is far less interesting than the original scroll Kerouac typed in a burst of creative energy in the Spring of 1951. More interesting still are the notes Kerouac took while actually on the road in the 1940s.

Here is a notebook page Kerouac drew to document his first cross-country trip:

A page from one of Kerouac’s “Road-Log” notebooks, from Jack Kerouac: Windblown World

Join me as I explore the notes Kerouac took while on the road, traversing the United States, from New York to California and back again, as well as the notes he kept as he conceptualized his novel, On the Road.

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