It has been 50 years since it was first published. I have read ‘On the Road’ a couple times. As Bob Dylan said “It changed my life like it changed everyone else’s”. I read it 1st while I was on the road myself. I bought this version in Boulder, CO and so wish I had kept it as I assume it’s worth a lot of money (even though my copy was completely mangled when I bought it). Later I had this one from a second hand bookstore in Montréal, this one after I leant away the orange one, and I bought these two as presents for others later. It’s amazing how many times it’s been reprinted and the ways it been sold through various styles of cover artwork. From ‘sex sells’ to ‘serious classic american literature’…

On the Road is a novel by Jack Kerouac, published by Viking Press in 1957. This largely autobiographical work, written as a stream of consciousness and based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America, is often considered the defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was so affected by jazz, poetry, and drug experiences. As the inspiration came from real life, hundreds of references in On the Road have real-world counterparts. — wikipedia

‘The Dharma Bums‘ is still my favorite for it’s pulp/buddhist/outdoors/beatnik ways. I still own the 2nd edition paperback (although it’s also in terrible shape with a broken spine).

See all the ON THE ROAD covers from around the world | On the Road at Wikipedia