Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' Manuscript: The Strangest Literary Scroll Exceeding 120 Feet in Length

The original manuscript of the novel 'On the Road' by American writer Jack Kerouac is considered one of the rarest and strangest literary documents of the 20th century. The author wrote it on a continuous paper scroll measuring approximately 120 feet long, aiming to write without interruption to discharge his thoughts and the flow of his narrative emotions in a continuous and direct manner.

Kerouac designed this scroll himself by taping tracing paper sheets together and feeding them into the typewriter, completing the entire text in just three weeks of intensive work. The manuscript reflects the breathless rhythm of the novel, which revolutionized the modern narrative style and influenced the Beat Generation literary movement.

This historical manuscript has become a focus of interest for museums and international auction houses as a physical embodiment of the process of spontaneous creation. It serves as a rare cultural souvenir telling the story of the birth of an eternal literary text that changed the course of the contemporary novel and inspired successive generations of writers and researchers around the world with its specific adventures and philosophy.