You Can Buy Jack Kerouac’s Early Draft of ‘On the Road,’ Which He Typed on a 121-Foot-Long Scroll

The author taped pages together so he wouldn’t need to load paper into his typewriter. The original scroll of the Beat Generation classic is expected to fetch up to $4 million at auction

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

February 4, 2026

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The draft of one of the Beat Generation’s most defining works is heading to auction next month at Christie’s, where it is expected to sell for between $2.5 million and $4 million.

Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, published nearly 70 years ago, is a classic that weaves together travel, American culture and self-discovery, all while enveloped in the burgeoning jazz scene of the late 1940s. Along with works like Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, On the Road is considered a pillar of Beat literature. In 2005, Time magazine named it one of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.

The book’s unique draft is a scroll measuring 121 feet long. It reflects the plot’s maverick mood and Kerouac’s intrepid writing style. Known to type at roughly 100 words per minute, the author despised the disruption of replacing papers in a typewriter. Instead, he opted to use scrolls—or, more often, makeshift scrolls fashioned by taping papers together—to keep his hands up to speed with his mind.

“This is the original and only scroll for the first draft of Kerouac’s masterpiece,” Heather Weintraub, specialist in Christie’s books and manuscripts department, tells the Guardian’s Emma Loffhagen. “It’s widely considered to be the most iconic artifact of the Beat Generation, one of the most celebrated artifacts in American literature. … When you roll it out, it actually looks like a road.”

Legend has it that Kerouac wrote the entire book in just three weeks—a story that stems from the writer himself, who said as much during an interview with talk show host Steve Allen.

“And so this gave the impression that Jack just spontaneously wrote this book in three weeks,” John Sampas, Kerouac’s brother-in-law, told NPR’s Andrea Shea in 2007. “I think what Jack should’ve said was, ‘I typed it up in three weeks.’”

In reality, On the Road was crafted in meticulous fashion over several years. Kerouac’s journals between 1947 and 1949 contain early drafts of the book, which he voraciously typed up in April 1951. But he also wrote around six more drafts between 1951 and 1957, when he was shopping the book to editors.

“Kerouac cultivated this myth that he was this spontaneous prose man, and that everything that he ever put down was never changed, and that’s not true,” Paul Marion, a Kerouac scholar, told NPR. “He was really a supreme craftsman, and devoted to writing and the writing process.”

In 2001, the scroll was purchased at auction for $2.4 million by Jim Irsay, the owner of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, who died last May. That auction was subject to scrutiny from some of Kerouac’s acquaintances, who believed his materials should remain in the public eye.

After the scroll’s acquisition, Irsay loaned it frequently for exhibitions. Ahead of the March auction, it will be displayed in New York City.

On the Road isn’t the only Kerouac artifact up for sale in March. The original typescript scroll of the author’s novel The Dharma Bums, published in 1958, is expected to sell for between $300,000 and $500,000. Additionally, the first-edition copy of The Dharma Bums owned by Hunter S. Thompson is expected to sell for between $2,000 and $3,000, per Fine Books & Collections.

Other big-ticket items at auction, all from Irsay’s collection, include the guitar Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain used to record the albums Nevermind and In Utero; Jerry Garcia’s “Tiger” guitar, used during his last performance with the Grateful Dead in 1995; the saddle worn by Secretariat during the famous horse’s 1973 Triple Crown win; and a golden ticket used in the production of the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Christian Thorsberg | Read More

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.