The Kerouac Book River
The Kerouac Book River is inspired by the legendary Merrimack and Concord rivers, which run through the author’s hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. At the “source” of the river is the canon of first editions, beginning in 1950 with The Town and the City . Plentiful waters stir to rapids with Jack’s kinetic classic novel, On the Road , in 1957, and the current gains momentum with numerous tales drawn from a short life richly lived. Later editions surge and splash through high water on the way to the river’s mouth, which empties into the global ocean of readers.
While this cover art illustrates how graphic artists and designers visualized Kerouac’s writings, it also shows how Kerouac’s North American narratives and poetry, translated into a multitude of languages, have spoken to generations worldwide. The Kerouac Book River draws from the holdings of the Jack Kerouac Collections at the UMass Lowell Libraries’ Center for Lowell History, as well as online resources. The presentation of these images is not for commercial use, as copyrights may reside with the publishers or cover artists. If you have a Kerouac book cover you’d like to share, please use this site’s contact form .
First Editions
The Town and The City (1950)
Visions of Cody Excerpts (1959)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960)
Not Long Ago Joy Abounded at Christmas (1972)
Old Angel Midnight (1973)
Heaven and Other Poems (1977)
Good Blonde & Others (1993)
Selected Letters 1940-1956 (1995)
Some of the Dharma (1997)
Selected Letters 1957-1969 (1999)
Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954 (2004)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007)
San Francisco Blues (2007)
Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha (2008)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2009)
You’re a Genius All the Time (2009)
Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg: The Letters (2010)
The Sea is My Brother (2011)
The Haunted Life and Other Writings (2014)
The Unknown Kerouac (2016)
Later and International Editions
Old Angel Midnight (1993)
Vanity of Duluoz (1982; Spain)
Lonesome Traveler (1993; Italy)
On the Road (2010; Slovakia)
The Town and the City (2000; UK)
The Sea is My Brother (2011; UK)
Satori in Paris (1997; Turkey)
On the Road (1978; Italy)
Vanity of Duluoz (2001; UK)
The Town and the City (1960)
On the Road (2011; Poland)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2015; China)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (2020; France)
Mexico City Blues (1976; France)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (2018; US)
Lonesome Traveler (2018; UK)
On the Road (1978; Germany)
The Sea is My Brother (2012; Italy)
On the Road (2020; China)
Lonesome Traveler (1980; France)
Old Angel Midnight (1976; UK)
On the Road (2016; Brazil)
The Town and the City (1974; UK)
Atop an Underwood (2000; Italy)
Maggie Cassidy (1960; UK)
Satori in Paris (1994; Czech)
On the Road (2011; Czech)
The Dharma Bums (2009; Romania)
The Dharma Bums (1974; France)
The Dharma Bums (2001; China)
Selected Letters (1940-1956) (2000; France)
The Subterraneans (1995; Poland)
Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha (2008)
The Dharma Bums (2001; Finland)
On the Road (2008; Japan)
Desolation Angels (1968; France)
On the Road (1997) – 40th Anniversary
On the Road (2000; Poland)
Satori in Paris (1971; France)
On the Road (2012; Sweden)
Book of Dreams (2000; Germany)
Book of Dreams (2008; Czech)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; Holland)
On the Road (1998; Portugal)
On the Road (1990; France)
Lonesome Traveler (1962; UK)
Lonesome Traveller (1964; UK)
Beat Generation (2010; Italy)
Satori in Paris (2018; Italy)
On the Road (2012; Hungary)
On the Road (2012; France)
Visions of Cody (1980; UK)
The Dharma Bums (2007; Lithuania)
Scattered Poems (1995; Czech)
Maggie Cassidy (2012; Poland)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Czech)
On the Road (2015; Brazil)
The Subterraneans (1984; Brazil)
Desolation Angels (1975; UK)
The Town and the City (1983)
The Illustrated On the Road (2019)
On the Road (2012; Spain)
Lonesome Traveler (2018; UK)
On the Road (1998; Romania)
On the Road (2003; Romania)
Doctor Sax (1962; France)
The Town and the City (1983)
Mexico City Blues (2006; France)
Scattered Poems (1975; France)
The Sea is My Brother (2014; Brazil)
On the Road (1998; Denmark)
Book of Dreams (1963; Italy)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (2001)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Korea)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2016; Sweden)
Desolation Angels (1990; UK)
On the Road (2012; Russia)
Vanity of Duluoz (2019; Italy)
The Town and the City (2016; Italy)
On the Road (2012; Italy)
The Dharma Bums (2018; UK)
On the Road (1988; Bosnia)
On the Road (2015; Greece)
The Dharma Bums (2015; Korea)
Lonesome Traveler (2000; Spain)
Road Novels 1957-1960 (2007)
Visions of Gerard (2012; France)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2011; Germany)
Book of Dreams (2001; China)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Germany)
The Portable Jack Kerouac (2007)
Lonesome Traveler (1973; France)
The Town and the City (1981; Italy)
On the Road; The Subterraneans; The Dharma Bums (2014)
Mexico City Blues (2019; UK)
On the Road (2004; Norway)
Sioc Maidine / Morning Frost Haiku (2014; Bilingual: Irish and English)
Vanity of Duluoz (1973; UK)
Lonesome Traveler (1969; France)
The Sea is my Brother (2013; Poland)
The Dharma Bums (2009; Turkey)
Visions of Cody (2012; UK)
On the Road (2002; Italy)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2010; Italy)
Satori in Paris (2001; UK)
On the Road (2020; Mexico)
Good Blonde and Others (1998; France)
The Dharma Bums (2004; Brazil)
The Dharma Bums (1983; Italy)
The Dharma Bums (2016; Italy)
Maggie Cassidy (1960; UK)
The Dharma Bums (1999; France)
On the Road (2016; Spain)
On the Road (2014; Italy)
Satori in Paris (2010; Brasil)
The Dharma Bums (2010; Germany)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1998; Italy)
On the Road (1971; France)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Israel)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; Spain)
The Dharma Bums (1963; France)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960)
Lonesome Traveler (1994; Italy)
On the Road (1958; UK; 1st Edition)
Selected Letters 1944-1969 (2016; France)
On the Road (1976; France)
Visions of Gerard (1998; Czech)
The Dharma Bums (1961; Sweden)
The Dharma Bums (1962; UK)
Pomes All Sizes (1999; Italy)
On the Road The Original Manuscript (2011; Brazil)
Lonesome Traveller (1960; UK)
The Dharma Bums (2000; UK)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; Finland)
The Vanity of Duluoz (2007; Spain)
The Dharma Bums (1959; Italy)
Satori in Paris; Pic (1988)
The Dharma Bums (2000; Danish)
The Dharma Bums (1994; Poland)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2011; Slovakia)
Maggie Cassidy (1984; Canada)
Desolation Angels (1966; UK)
On the Road (2010; Japan)
The Sea is my Brother (2019; Canada)
Vanity of Dulouz (1979; France)
On the Road (1967; Slovenia)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2008; UK)
Satori in Paris (1966; UK)
And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2008)
San Francisco Blues (1991)
Lonesome Traveler (1994; UK)
The Dharma Bums (1963; France)
The Dharma Bums (1997; Italy)
Visions of Gerard (2014; Brazil)
Tristessa (2009; Portugal)
On the Road (2002; Sweden)
The Dharma Bums (2006; Poland)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; UK)
Orpheus Emerged (2012; Malaysia)
The Dharma Bums (2016; Spain)
On the Road (2008; Turkey)
Tristessa (1965; Germany)
Book of Dreams (1995; Germany)
Doctor Sax (1999; France)
The Dharma Bums (2012; Poland)
On the Road (1994; Hungary)
Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha (2009)
The Book of Haikus (2012; France)
The Town and the City (1950)
Book of Dreams (2002; Italy)
Alone on a Mountaintop (Germany)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; France)
Underwood Memories (2006)
Lonesome Traveler (1965; Spanish)
The Town and the City (1970; UK)
The Dharma Bums (1997; Turkey)
Mexico City Blues (2008; Mexico)
Visions of Cody (1995; UK)
The Subterraneans (1962; France)
On the Road (1998; Iceland)
Visions of Cody (2001; Spain)
Vanity of Duluoz (1969; UK)
On the Road; The Dharma Bums; The Subterraneans (1993)
Dharma Bums (1988; Italy)
Satori in Paris (1982; UK)
Visions of Cody; Visions of Gerard; Big Sur (2015)
On the Road: The Original Scroll (2008)
Piers of the Homeless Night (2018)
Book of Dreams (1998; Brazil)
Maggie Cassidy (2013; France)
Lonesome Traveller (1968)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2011; Germany)
The Dharma Bums (2012; Slovenia)
Lonesome Traveler (1979; France)
Maggie Cassidy (1996; Czech)
Satori in Paris (2007; Bilingual: French and English)
On the Road (2007) – 50th Anniversary
On the Road (2004; Slovenia)
The Dharma Bums (2009; Sweden)
Old Angel Midnight (1998; France)
On the Road, The Subterraneans, The Dharma Bums (2015; Mexico)
Maggie Cassidy (1980; Germany)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1979; France)
On the Road (2015; Mexico)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2008; Netherlands)
Satori in Paris (2012; UK)
Good Blonde and Others (1999; Italy)
Doctor Sax (2007; France)
Vanity of Duluoz (2012; UK)
On the Road (2013; Albania)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1996; Bilingual; Czech-English)
On the Road (1989; France)
On the Road (2013; Brazil)
On the Road (2003; France)
On the Road (1983; Japan)
The Blues of Jack Kerouac (2019; Italy)
Lonesome Traveler (1993; Czech)
On the Road (2009; Spain)
Desolation Angels (2001; UK)
The Dharma Bums (1982; Spain)
The Subterraneans (1997; Spain)
Desolation Angels (2012; UK)
On the Road (2015; Czech)
San Francisco Blues (1996; Italy)
The Haunted Life (2014; UK)
Doctor Sax (1987; Germany)
On the Road (2007; France)
Lonesome Traveler (1969; France)
The Dharma Bums (2002; Czech)
On the Road (1977; Spain)
The Dharma Bums (2015; Korea)
On the Road (2000; Macedonia)
On the Road (2004; Hungary)
The Dharma Bums (1993; Germany)
On the Road (2009; Romania)
Orpheus Emerged (2018; Italy)
The Dharma Bums (2006; Israel)