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Article: Still on the road: Kerouac's beat classic marks 50-year anniversary
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- September 5, 2007
CopyrightCopyright 2007 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Just after midnight, 50 years ago, Jack Kerouac and his
girlfriend Joyce went out to buy a first edition of The New York
Times to read its review of On the Road, his second novel.
It has been called the most famous book review in the paper's
history. With its publication, Kerouac, who arrived in town on a
borrowed Greyhound bus fare, was catapulted to instant literary
fame. He would never recover.
"On the Road is the second novel by Jack Kerouac," the reviewer
Gilbert Millstein began, "and its publication is a historic occasion
insofar as the exposure of an authentic work of art is of any great
moment".
He wrote that On the Road was "the clearest and most important
utterance yet made by the ...