On this day, September 5, 1957, "On the Road" was published.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

One day after the Edsel was introduced

Hat tip, Bing, of all things

On the Road



Publication date: September 5, 1957

On the Road is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and drug use. The novel is a roman à clef, with many key figures of the Beat movement, such as William S. Burroughs (Old Bull Lee), Allen Ginsberg (Carlo Marx), and Neal Cassady (Dean Moriarty) represented by characters in the book, including Kerouac himself as the narrator Sal Paradise.

The idea for On the Road, Kerouac's second novel, was formed during the late 1940s in a series of notebooks, and then typed out on a continuous reel of paper during three weeks in April 1951. It was published by Viking Press in 1957.

The New York Times hailed the book's appearance as "the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as 'beat,' and whose principal avatar he is." In 1998, the Modern Library ranked On the Road 55th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.

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That’s Not Writing; That’s Just Typing

Truman Capote? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: The authors of The Beat Generation were an influential disaffected group whose works jolted the culture of 1950s America. The spontaneous prose technique employed by the central figure Jack Kerouac in the composition of his 1957 novel “On the Road” was acclaimed and disparaged. The most trenchant criticism reportedly was delivered by author Truman Capote:

That’s not writing, that’s typing

Did Capote really say this? What were the circumstances?

Quote Investigator: The phrasing of this censorious expression was variable. Truman Capote used distinct versions in 1957 and 1959. In 1957 he criticized the author Colin Wilson together with other writers whose literary style he deemed deficient. In 1959 he attacked Jack Kerouac and other Beat-Generation authors.

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In conclusion, in 1957 Truman Capote used the harsh phrase “they’re not writers; they’re typists” while criticizing writers he described as nonstylists. In particular, Capote labeled the author Colin Wilson a typist. In 1959 Capote criticized the Beat Generation writers particularly Jack Kerouac. During a television broadcast he said something similar to “That’s not writing; that’s just typewriting.” However, the variations in early citations left the phrasing indeterminate.

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1. Sterling Lord Dies: Literary Agent For Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' Was 102

Sterling Lord Dies: Literary Agent For Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’ Was 102

Bruce Haring - Yesterday 5:38 PM

Sterling Lord, who represented Jimmy Breslin, Art Buchwald, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gordon Parks and most famously, Jack Kerouac, died Saturday in Ocala, Fla. He was 102 and his death was confirmed by his daughter, Rebecca Lord. No cause was given.

The list of literary greats represented by Lord over his long career included Frank Deford, David Wise, Nicolas Pileggi, Delores Kearns Goodwin, Joe McGinniss, Pete Gent, Pete Axthelm, and more. But it was Kerouac’s book that is likely his lasting legacy, sold for $1,000 after four years of trying. It went on to sell more than five million copies.

Lord was born in Burlington, Iowa, on Sept. 3, 1920. His father was an amateur bookbinder and nourished his son’s passion for books. Oddly, Lord himself publilshed only two works, a how-to on tennis and a memoir, neither of them massive sellers.

He graduated with an English degree fro Grinnell College in Iowa, then joined the Army and was sent to Europe near the end of World War II. He helped edit the weekly magazine of the military publication Stars and Stripes, briefly taking it private when the Army stopped publication in 1948. ,When the magazine closed in 1949, he moved to New York. ... Lord worked at several magazines, including True and Cosmopolitan, before becoming a literary agent. His tastes were eclectic, and he was known to bring in large advances for his roster.

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