Jack Kerouac’s travel companion, Neal Cassady, revealed that Kerouac couldn’t drive and stopped in traffic in Mexico City because he didn’t know how to operate a clutch. Kerouac claimed he could only “type”. On the Road was written in three weeks and initially rejected by publishers for six years before gaining national attention.
Author Jack Kerouac didn’t drive far for his book On the Road. His real-life travel companion on the 1940s travels that inspired the critically acclaimed 1957 travel narrative, author Neal Cassady, stated that Kerouac could not drive. According to Cassady, in 1952 Mexico City, he decided it was time for Kerouac to drive; however, when Kerouac attempted to do so, he stopped in traffic because he didn’t know how to operate a clutch. Kerouac reportedly said he didn’t drive, but rather could only “type”.
Read more about Jack Kerouac’s On the Road:
It took Kerouac just three weeks to write On the Road, which he typed in a continuous stream without paragraphs while referencing his journals from his previous travels.
The original Kerouac parchment typed his original manuscript over a length of 120 yards and is on display at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum in his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts.
Although Kerouac wrote On the Road in 1951, it was rejected by publishers for six years before finally being published in 1957, and thus quickly gained national attention.
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