Jack Kerouac First Editions

• On the Road — 1957 · The Viking PressFirst printing states 'FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1957' / 'Published by The Viking Press' with no statement of later printing; the first-issue dust jacket has the printed price and the rear panel author photo by Mark Jacobson and lists Viking titles to a specific point. US Viking 1957 is the true first; UK (Andre Deutsch, 1958) is a separate first. Signed Kerouac is scarce and heavily forged. Book-club editions lack the price on the jacket and carry a blind-stamp; later printings note additional printings on the copyright page.
• The Dharma Bums — 1958 · The Viking PressFirst printing so stated by 'Published in 1958' with no additional printing notice on the copyright page. First-issue dust jacket with its printed price. Bound in cloth; jacket design distinct from reprints. Viking US (1958) is the true first; André Deutsch UK (1959) follows. Signed Kerouac material is scarce and valuable. Distinguish from later printings via copyright-page printing statements and the price-present first-issue jacket. No major book-club edition issue.
• The Subterraneans — 1958 · Grove PressFirst edition issued in wrappers (Evergreen / Grove paperback original) as well as a clothbound issue. First printing identified by the copyright page lacking later-printing notice. Original price present. Grove Press US (1958) is the true first; André Deutsch UK (1960) follows. The clothbound first is scarcer than the wrappered issue. Not a primary book-club title. Distinguish first printing via copyright page; confirm Grove imprint and original price.
• Doctor Sax — 1959 · Grove PressGrove Press, New York, 1959, issued simultaneously in two states: a clothbound hardcover issue in gray cloth with gilt spine lettering, and a wrappered paperback issue (the Evergreen Original, designated E-160) in publisher's wrappers lettered in red, gray, and white over black. The hardcover first issue wears the famous pictorial dust jacket printed in red, gray, black and white; a first-issue jacket should…. Grove Press US (1959) is the true first, written by Kerouac in Mexico City in 1952 but published only after the success of On the Road. The clothbound and wrappered (Evergreen E-160) issues were released simultaneously, the cloth issue being the scarcer. Confirm the Grove imprint and a first-printing copyright page. Not a book club. Distinguish the first printing via the copyright page (no later-printing statement) and, on the hardcover, the first-issue pictorial jacket with its printed flap price present.
• Excerpts from Visions of Cody — 1959 · New DirectionsSigned limited edition of 750 numbered copies signed by Kerouac. Slim octavo in half purple cloth with white paper boards printed in red and purple (design by Kerouac), silver-stamped spine, reddish-orange endpapers; often with an unprinted acetate wrapper and a New Directions blurb laid in. A 120-plus page excerpt from the novel later published in full. This signed/numbered New Directions limited is the true first appearance of any of the text; the signature page is dated December 1959 and the book was issued in January 1960 (copyright 1959). The full Visions of Cody did not appear until 1972 (McGraw-Hill). No book club edition; the numbered limitation signed by Kerouac is the point of issue.
• Maggie Cassidy — 1959 · Avon PublicationsPaperback original (Avon T-371); pictorial wrappers. No hardcover first was issued. The true first printing contains the complete unexpurgated text; a subsequent expurgated printing revised the disputed passages. True first is the 1959 Avon paperback original; the earliest printing carries the full unexpurgated text before the revision. No book club edition; a later UK Panther edition and other reprints follow.
• Mexico City Blues — 1959 · Grove PressGrove Press, New York, 1959. Issued in cloth and in wrappers. The clothbound first is bound in grey cloth with the spine lettered in gilt and belongs in a black-and-white first-state dust jacket carrying its printed price. Charters's bibliography mistakenly calls for a jacket printed in red, green and black, but those are the colours of the wrappers issue and of later jackets; the correct cloth-issue jacket is…. Grove Press US (1959) is the true first; Kerouac's '242 Choruses.' The grey-clothbound issue in the black-and-white jacket is preferred over the red/green/black wrappers issue. Not a book-club staple. Do not accept a red/green/black jacket on a cloth copy as first-state; that colour scheme belongs to the wrappers issue and later jackets. Verify the Grove imprint, first-printing copyright page, grey cloth with gilt spine, and black-and-white priced jacket for the cloth issue.
• Lonesome Traveler — 1960 · McGraw-HillCloth-backed boards in dust jacket; charcoal drawings and jacket design by Larry Rivers. First edition; a first-printing copy shows no statement of later printings on the copyright page. Dust jacket priced 4.50 at the top of the front flap. True first is the 1960 McGraw-Hill hardcover. No major book club; the UK Andre Deutsch edition (1962) is the UK first.
• Tristessa — 1960 · Avon BooksPaperback original issued as an Avon Original, catalog number T-429, 126 pages; there is no hardcover first edition. Pictorial wrappers with a sensational illustration of Tristessa and the lurid tag line describing a morphine-racked prostitute; the first printing carries the Avon T-429 designation and the printed cover price. First-state copies show no later-printing statement. True first is the 1960 Avon paperback original (Avon T-429), the earliest appearance of the work in any format. No book club edition. Later paperback and hardcover reissues exist but are not the first; distinguish the first by the T-429 catalog number and Avon Original imprint.
• Visions of Cody — 1960 · New DirectionsFirst (partial) edition: New Directions, 1960, a limited signed edition of 750 numbered copies containing only excerpts. The first COMPLETE edition is McGraw-Hill, 1972 (posthumous), with an introduction by Allen Ginsberg. The 1960 New Directions limited (750 copies, signed/numbered, excerpts only) is the true first appearance in book form but is incomplete. The 1972 McGraw-Hill is the first complete edition ('first thus'). Collectors distinguish the scarce signed 1960 limited from the 1972 trade first. No book club. The key is the 1960 ND limited (partial, 750 signed copies) vs. the 1972 McGraw-Hill first complete edition — these are different texts, not mere reprints.
• Book of Dreams — 1961 · City Lights BooksTrade paperback original in pictorial wrappers, printed by Troubador Press, San Francisco; issued straight to wraps (no hardcover). First printing shows no statement of later printings. Later expanded/unabridged edition (2001) is a distinct, much fuller text. True first is the 1961 City Lights wrappered original. No book club.
• Pull My Daisy — 1961 · Grove PressEvergreen Original, number E-294; pictorial photographic wrappers lettered on spine and front cover in red, yellow and black; no dust jacket issued. Text ad-libbed by Kerouac for the Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie film, introduction by Jerry Tallmer, illustrated with film stills. First printing shows no statement of later printings. True first is the 1961 Grove Press wrappered edition (Evergreen Original E-294). No book club.
• Big Sur — 1962 · Farrar, Straus and CudahyFirst printing so stated by 'First printing, 1962' on the copyright page. Bound in publisher's black cloth-backed blue marbled boards with the spine lettered in gilt. First-issue dust jacket printed in black, blue, and green, designed by Janet Halverson, with the original printed price present on the front flap. A true first in jacket should carry the 'First printing, 1962' statement together with the unclipped…. Farrar, Straus and Cudahy US (1962) is the true first, preceding the Andre Deutsch UK edition (1963). Confirm the 'First printing, 1962' statement on the copyright page. Distinguish from later printings via the copyright page: only the true first states 'First printing, 1962'. The price-present, unclipped first-issue Halverson jacket is required for a true first in jacket.
• Visions of Gerard — 1963 · Farrar, Straus and CompanyQuarter black cloth with decorative salmon-pink and white boards, gilt-titled spine; drawings by James Spanfeller in the text and on the jacket. Copyright page states First Printing, 1963. Dust jacket priced 3.95 on the front flap. True first is the 1963 Farrar, Straus and Company hardcover, with the stated First Printing, 1963 on the copyright page. No book club.
• Desolation Angels — 1965 · Coward-McCannFirst US edition, cloth in dust jacket, with an introduction by Seymour Krim. Bound in red-orange cloth lettered in gilt on the spine. First printing identified on the copyright page; the pictorial first-issue jacket carries a design by Sam Salant and should retain its printed front-flap price. The first printing was a comparatively small run. Coward-McCann US (1965) is the true first; André Deutsch issued the first UK edition. Verify the first-printing copyright page and the price-present pictorial jacket. Distinguish from later printings via copyright-page statements; a price-present first-issue jacket is required for a true first in jacket.
• Satori in Paris — 1966 · Grove PressFirst edition, first printing published by Grove Press, New York, 1966. Blue cloth with silver spine lettering, small octavo, 118 pages, in an unclipped dust jacket carrying the original printed price and a Kerouac photograph on the rear panel. No statement of later printing. The true first is the 1966 Grove Press hardcover. Charters A21a. No book club edition.
• Vanity of Duluoz: An Adventurous Education, 1935-46 — 1968 · Coward-McCannFirst edition, first printing published by Coward-McCann, New York, 1968. Cloth in dust jacket, no statement of later printing. The unclipped jacket carries the original printed price on the front flap. The true first is the 1968 Coward-McCann hardcover. No major book club edition.
• Pic — 1971 · Grove PressFirst edition, first printing published posthumously by Grove Press, New York, 1971 (Kerouac died 1969). Issued both in cloth with dust jacket and in wrappers (Grove's paperbound issue carries the Grove catalog number Z-1090). The 1971 issue predates Grove's later adoption of a printed number line, so the true first shows the 1971 copyright with no number line and no statement of a later printing. The true first is the 1971 Grove Press hardcover. Note: the edition combining Pic with The Subterraneans is the UK Andre Deutsch printing of 1973, not a later Grove issue. No book club edition.
• Scattered Poems — 1971 · City Lights Books / The Pocket Poets Series No. 28City Lights Pocket Poets Series No. 28, San Francisco, 1971; posthumous, compiled by Ann Charters. Pictorial printed wrappers. The first printing carries no later-printing statement on the copyright page and retains the original printed price to the rear cover. The City Lights US edition (1971) is the true first (posthumous). Confirm Pocket Poets No. 28 and a copyright page free of any later-printing statement. Not a book club. A second printing (October 1971) and a third (April 1973) followed, each noted on the copyright page; the first bears no such statement.
• Visions of Cody (complete edition) — 1972 · McGraw-HillFirst edition of the complete text, published posthumously by McGraw-Hill, New York, 1972 (a partial version appeared in 1959). Maroon cloth boards with gilt spine, octavo, 398 pages, in illustrated dust jacket; no statement of later printing. Six-page introduction by Allen Ginsberg. The 1972 McGraw-Hill hardcover is the true first of the complete text. No book club edition.
• Heaven and Other Poems — 1977 · Grey Fox PressFirst edition, published posthumously in printed silver wrappers by Grey Fox Press, Bolinas, California, 1977; 70 pages, edited by Donald Allen (editor of Grove Press's Evergreen Review and The New American Poetry). ISBN 0-912516-31-3. Gathers previously unpublished poems, letters to Allen, a comic strip drawn for the Cassady children, and Kerouac's self-penned poetic autobiography. No statement of later printing…. The true first is the 1977 Grey Fox Press original in printed silver wrappers, distributed by Bookpeople; distinguished by the absence of any later-printing statement. No book club edition; later Grey Fox reprintings using the same ISBN are distinguished by a printing statement on the copyright page.
• Pomes All Sizes — 1992 · City Lights BooksFirst edition, first printing, published posthumously by City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1992, as Pocket Poets Series Number 48. Printed card wrappers with cover painting by Ferlinghetti; no statement of later printing. Preface by Allen Ginsberg. The true first is the 1992 City Lights wrappered original. No book club edition.
• Old Angel Midnight — 1993 · Grey Fox PressFirst complete edition (all 67 sections), edited by Donald Allen with prefaces by Ann Charters and Michael McClure. Trade softcover in printed wrappers; first printing precedes the 1995 second printing. This is the first appearance of the full text, so it is best described as the first complete/first trade edition rather than an unqualified first appearance. Earlier partial appearances exist and must not be confused with this edition: the first separate printing was the Booklegger/Albion chapbook (1973, first 49 of 67 sections, stapled wrappers), and a further incomplete chapbook came from the Unicorn Bookshop (1976). The 1993 Grey Fox Press printing is the first edition containing the complete 67-section text. The record's reference to a 'UK Booklegger 1976'…. No book club edition.
• Some of the Dharma — 1997 · VikingPosthumous first edition, New York: Viking, 1997. Cloth-backed boards in a priced, unclipped dust jacket; the copyright page is stated 'First Edition' with a full number line 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. A large, typographically elaborate volume of 420 pages assembled from Kerouac's 1953-1956 journals. ISBN 0670848778. The true first is the 1997 Viking hardcover, stated 'First Edition' with the complete 1-through-10 number line. No book-club edition.
• Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings — 1999 · VikingPosthumous first edition, edited with commentary by Paul Marion, collecting more than sixty early pieces Kerouac wrote between about ages thirteen and twenty-one. Bound in cloth in a dust jacket; the copyright page states First Edition with a complete number line descending to 1. ISBN 0670888222. The true first is the 1999 Viking (Viking Penguin, New York) hardcover, catalogued by dealers as the First American Edition. No book club edition.

More Poetry, Beat & Drama shelves: James Wright, John Ashbery, Jorie Graham, Langston Hughes, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka).

← All authors · All genres · part of the First-Edition Identification resource.