‘On the Road’ Text Sells for Record $2.43 Million

The original manuscript of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” a groundbreaking novel that became a bible of the Beat Generation, sold at Christie’s in New York for $2.43 million, a record for a literary manuscript at auction.

The buyer of the 120-foot-long, single-spaced typed scroll was Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts football team, who deemed his purchase “a stewardship” of the work. “I wanted to make sure we kept it in the country, in America, and we give people an opportunity to enjoy it.”