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Though Jack Kerouac began thinking about the novel that was to become On the Road as early as 1947, it was not until three weeks in April 1951 that he wrote the first full draft that was satisfactory to him. Typed out as one long, single-spaced paragraph on eight long sheets of tracing paper that he later taped together to form a 120-foot scroll, this document is among the most significant, celebrated, and provocative artifacts in contemporary American literary history.

Before McDonald's and Holiday Inn, Jack was on the road with his friends, when interstate highways were a novelty and going coast to coast was just for fun. Jack was pre-Vietnam, more 1950s edgy than 1960s politically correct. He loved Keats and Eliot as he sang the praises of the Odes and "The Wasteland", bars and saloons, writers and barkeeps - all about equally, according to the author, who narrates about his short time with Jack on the road.