The original, unedited manuscript of On The Road that Jack Kerouac pounded out in three weeks on long rolls of paper will be published for the first time next year.
From the Boston Globe:
…In time to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the novel's publication, the version of "On the Road" that Kerouac wrote on the scroll will be published next year in book form for the first time, said John Sampas of Lowell, the executor of the writer's literary estate and the brother of his third wife, Stella. It will include some sections that had been cut from the novel because of references to sex or drugs…
The scroll contains numerous passages that were edited out of the book and uses the original names of characters who were closely modeled on friends of Kerouac, including fellow writers William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg…
It remains to be seen exactly how (publisher Viking Penguin) will present the original Kerouac story, which was typed as one freewheeling, single-spaced paragraph. Eager to write freely and continuously, without pausing to pull finished pages from his typewriter and insert new ones, Kerouac typed instead on 12-foot rolls of paper that he later Scotch-taped together, Sampas said…
Some specialists say they prefer the unedited version, which features a different first sentence than the published novel, as well as a more abrupt ending.