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‘On the Road’ scroll hits the road

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From Associated Press

During a 20-day stint in 1951, Jack Kerouac hunkered down in front of a typewriter at a friend’s New York apartment. Hopped up on coffee and benzedrine, he began retelling the tale of an aimless trek he had made across America. In a stream-of-consciousness burst, Kerouac typed away on long sheets of tracing paper, taping each finished page to the previous one to form one continuous, rolling text.

Now, for the first time, fans of Kerouac and beatniks old and new have a chance to see every word, edit and smudge of his original manuscript of the classic “On the Road,” unrolled end to end and under glass at the University of Iowa Museum of Art. Or nearly every word. The conclusion is missing, rumored to have been chewed by a dog, an alibi seemingly supported by the stains and jagged tear across the final page.

After Kerouac’s death in 1969, the scroll bounced around, eventually landing at the New York Public Library. In 2001, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay bought the scroll for $2.43 million at an auction, then decided to dispatch it along much of the same path that inspired its author. It moves from Iowa to the Las Vegas Public Library in March.

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