Jack Kerouac’s On the Road turns fifty-seven years old today! It’s such a vibrant work that continues to inspire people to pick up a pen or hit the road that it’s hard to believe it’s been around for so long.
The above picture is what the novel looked like when it first came out. Paul and I actually emulated its design on the title page of Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” which I personally was excited about! Since 1957, Kerouac’s novel has undergone many, many cover transformations. I talked about the significance of these design changes here. And I talked about On the Road’s “girly” makeover here.
The novel has since inspired other artists, such as Tim Z. Hernandez, who actually tracked down “the Mexican girl”; Larry Closs; Jonathan Collins; and J. Haeske.
The film adaptation (you can read my experience going to see it here), which has a long history, came out recently and starred some of Hollywood’s biggest names. It sparked a lot of dialogue, including whether Hollywood was glamorizing the Beats.
Of course, even when it was first published, On the Road received criticism for its morality or lack thereof.
Despite these digs at its morality, one of the creeds I’ve heard over and over again — and with which I disagree — is that On the Road is a book only for teenagers.
And if you’re not a teenager and you read On the Road, it supposedly makes you undateabable. Unless maybe you’re a woman.
It seems like everyone has an opinion about On the Road. What’s yours?
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 
This was an interesting post and led me to discover more about the novel “On the Road”. Thanks for your post.
57, wow. But at the same time it feels much older, if you think about how different the world is nowadays.