Counterculture Heavyweights

Jack Kerouac

JACK KEROUAC's 1957 book On the Road remains a counterculture cornerstone. Kerouac typed the novel during three marathon weeks in 1951, then struggled for six years to get it published. The book recounts Kerouac's cross-country ramble with fellow drifter Neal Cassady and their encounters with hoboes, junkies and other mainstream dropouts. The manuscript for On the Road, typed onto strips of paper pasted together into one long scroll, was sold at auction in May 2001 for $2.2 million.