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Second impression of the first UK edition, published in August1960. The first UK impression was published just the month before in July 1960, and the book was first published in the USA by Grove Press, New York, in 1958. The author's third novel, a semi-autobiographical love story. ***Very good in green cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked. The gilt is still nice and bright. The tail of the spine is slightly creased. Corners sharp. Top edge of page block lightly foxed. No reading lean to the binding. Binding straight. Internally also very good, with no inscriptions. Pages clean, with no creases or tears. ***In a very good colour-illustrated first impression dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of 10s 6s net (with the "s" printing error instead of the "d") to the bottom of the front inner flap, and correctly printed 10s 6d to the bottom of the rear inner flap - the error was obviously not corrected from the first impression dustwrapper. The dustwrapper shows the correct 'second impression' on the front flap, and iis largely complete, with just some loss to the head and tail of the spine and corners, with some associated small tears and creasing. Unusually for this title, the red colouring to the spine of the dustwrapper is only slightly faded. The back panel of the dustwrapper is really clean, which is also unusual as it is a plain white background. Dustwrapper bright. ***192mm x 126mm. 158 pages. ***'The author of "On the Road" and "The Dharma Bums" usually chooses to cover a large canvas, to give a great panorama of the Subterranean (or Beatnik) way of life. In this novel he does something different. He focuses sharply on one incident: the love of Leo and Mardou. It is a fierce, sweet, sad love, lived outside the boundaries of square morality, and Jack Kerouac evokes it with a vibrating intensity. Some people feel that it is the best of his novels; certainly it is the most moving.' ***'Kerouac is the chronicler - if not indeed the prophet - of the beat generation. And his picaresque, biting and sometimes mystical book (On the Road) is a required text.' (Sunday Times) ***'This man Kerouac is good --- Open him on any page and you can go, go, go.' - Lilliput (Quote and general review quotes taken from the front and back flaps of the dustwrapper) ***The book was made into the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film, co-starring Leslie Caron and George Peppard. Leslie Caron played Mardou in MGM's film of the book and is shown on the front panel of the dustwrapper. ***A second impression of the first UK edition - early printings of the work are very hard to find now. The second impression differs slightly from the first, in that the book is bound in green cloth rather than red, and the dustwrapper is printed on extremely thin paper, making surviving copies even less likely now. The interior of this copy feels unread which is also very uncommon. Of interest to collectors of Jack Kerouac, The Beats,1960s counter-culture, and iconic American twentieth century literary first editions. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.
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