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UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies

Jack Kerouac Back on the Road

Exhibition Dates: 4th - 27th February 2009

The UCD Clinton Institute is delighted to host an exhibition of the original manuscript scroll of Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel, On the Road. This is the first time the scroll has come to Ireland and it has been made possible through the support of the Department of Arts, Sports & Tourism, The Irish Times, UCD Foundation, UCD School of English, Drama & Film and the UCD Humanities Institute of Ireland.

In April 1951, Kerouac taped together eight twenty-foot strips of teletype paper to from a single scroll some 127 feet long. Feeding it into a portable typewriter, he then began composing the work that was to become the bible of the post-war Beat Generation. He completed the novel in only twenty days of rapid, continuous typing, fuelled chiefly by caffeine. Almost entirely autobiographical and based on his own travels across America, On the Road tells the story of Kerouac and his friends and acquaintances over a period of approximately three years. In the published version, the characters are disguised by pseudonyms, but in the typescript their real names are used: Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Neal Cassady. The novel portrays their fascination with jazz, the American landscape, women, sexuality and movement, and is the archetypal ‘road trip’ tale.

The scroll will be accompanied by other memorabilia relating to Kerouac including photos, writings and records.

In 2001 the scroll was purchased by a private collected Mr. James Irsay and has been on public tour around the USA since 2004.

Open Monday – Friday 11am-5pm
Saturday & Sunday 12-5pm
Admission Free

UCD Clinton Institute, Belfield House.

Photographs courtesy of Christie's, New York.