On the Road @ 50.

"Unwittingly, and to his increasing horror, [Jack] Kerouac had written a zeitgeist book, one that would help determine the course of what would come to be known as youth culture over the following two decades," writes Sean O'Hagan in a piece for the Observer on the 50th anniversary of On the Road.

"'It changed my life like it changed everyone else's,' Bob Dylan would say many years later. Tom Waits, too, acknowledged its influence, hymning Jack and Neal [Cassady] in a song, and calling the Beats 'father figures.' At least two great American photographers were influenced by Kerouac: Robert Frank, who became his close friend - Kerouac wrote the introduction to The Americans - and Stephen Shore, who set out on an American road trip in the 70s with Kerouac's book as a guide. It would be hard to imagine Hunter S Thompson's deranged 70s road novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, had On the Road not laid down the template - likewise films such as Easy Rider, Paris, Texas, even Thelma and Louise."

Updated through 8/7.

And, as you'll have heard, "Fifty years on, the book is being turned into a Hollywood film, scripted by Roman Coppola, son of Francis Ford, and directed by Walter Salles who made The Motorcyle Diaries, the story of Che Guevara's road trip across South America. Kirsten Dunst will star as Carolyn Cassady. Nearly 40 years after his premature death, then, Kerouac lives on - though in some odd and often contradictory ways."

"This book has stayed, as one of its early readers would say, forever young," writes David Gates in Newsweek. At the same time, though, "America's archetypal literary joyride might be the saddest novel you'll ever read. If you're young enough, On the Road can be a liberating, life-changing blast of energy. But its brief yawps of pure joy and pleasure simply add piquancy to the general lamentation. Near the end of the novel, an apparition with long white hair (maybe a vision, maybe a crazed wanderer) gives Sal the Word: 'Go moan for man.' He didn't say Go man go."

Update, 8/6: John Coulthart points to a collection of On the Road covers from the US and Europe - and another: William Burroughs book covers.

Updates, 8/7: "The review that started everything for Kerouac was Gilbert Millstein's, published in the daily New York Times on September 5, 1957," recalls Book Review senior editor Dwight Garner. "Kerouac would have made it without Millstein. But this was the review that kicked the door down. It's probably the most famous book review in the history of this newspaper. Click here to view the whole thing. It's worth seeing."

Also, an online viewing tip with some fun commentary.

Posted by dwhudson at August 5, 2007 4:59 PM