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
The Town and the City (2000; UK)
The Dharma Bums (2016; Spain)
On the Road (1983; Japan)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; Spain)
The Dharma Bums (2009; Romania)
On the Road (2013; Brazil)
Maggie Cassidy (2013; France)
The Sea is my Brother (2013; Poland)
Lonesome Traveler (2018; UK)
Lonesome Traveler (1993; Italy)
The Dharma Bums (1974; France)
On the Road (2004; Hungary)
On the Road (2014; Italy)
Orpheus Emerged (2012; Malaysia)
Vanity of Duluoz (2019; Italy)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Germany)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; France)
On the Road; The Dharma Bums; The Subterraneans (1993)
On the Road (1978; Italy)
Desolation Angels (2001; UK)
On the Road (2012; France)
On the Road (1978; Germany)
The Town and the City (1960)
The Dharma Bums (1962; UK)
San Francisco Blues (1991)
On the Road (2002; Italy)
On the Road (1958; UK; 1st Edition)
Piers of the Homeless Night (2018)
On the Road (2010; Japan)
Book of Dreams (1995; Germany)
On the Road (2020; Mexico)
Book of Dreams (1998; Brazil)
Selected Letters (1940-1956) (2000; France)
Vanity of Duluoz (1973; UK)
Maggie Cassidy (1996; Czech)
The Subterraneans (1997; Spain)
Old Angel Midnight (1976; UK)
The Dharma Bums (1997; Turkey)
Mexico City Blues (2006; France)
The Dharma Bums (2004; Brazil)
The Dharma Bums (1959; Italy)
The Dharma Bums (2015; Korea)
Old Angel Midnight (1998; France)
Visions of Gerard (2014; Brazil)
Lonesome Traveler (1979; France)
Book of Dreams (2000; Germany)
Vanity of Duluoz (1969; UK)
Book of Dreams (2008; Czech)
On the Road (2012; Hungary)
Lonesome Traveler (2000; Spain)
Satori in Paris (1994; Czech)
On the Road (2011; Czech)
Doctor Sax (2007; France)
On the Road (1977; Spain)
The Sea is My Brother (2014; Brazil)
The Dharma Bums (2018; UK)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2011; Germany)
Beat Generation (2010; Italy)
On the Road (2015; Czech)
The Dharma Bums (2016; Italy)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (2018; US)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1979; France)
The Dharma Bums (1983; Italy)
The Haunted Life (2014; UK)
On the Road (1998; Iceland)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2008; Netherlands)
Maggie Cassidy (1980; Germany)
The Dharma Bums (2015; Korea)
The Dharma Bums (1999; France)
Satori in Paris (2012; UK)
Visions of Cody (1995; UK)
On the Road (2009; Spain)
On the Road (2003; France)
The Dharma Bums (2010; Germany)
Visions of Cody (2012; UK)
Visions of Cody; Visions of Gerard; Big Sur (2015)
Doctor Sax (1987; Germany)
The Book of Haikus (2012; France)
Road Novels 1957-1960 (2007)
Pomes All Sizes (1999; Italy)
On the Road (2004; Norway)
Book of Dreams (1963; Italy)
On the Road (2008; Japan)
Lonesome Traveler (1969; France)
Good Blonde and Others (1999; Italy)
The Blues of Jack Kerouac (2019; Italy)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Korea)
The Dharma Bums (2012; Poland)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (2020; France)
The Dharma Bums (2012; Slovenia)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2008; UK)
The Town and the City (1950)
On the Road (1994; Hungary)
On the Road (1990; France)
Lonesome Traveler (1962; UK)
Desolation Angels (1968; France)
The Dharma Bums (2009; Turkey)
Book of Dreams (2002; Italy)
On the Road (2008; Turkey)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Czech)
The Vanity of Duluoz (2007; Spain)
Visions of Gerard (2012; France)
Vanity of Duluoz (2001; UK)
Doctor Sax (1999; France)
Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha (2008)
Lonesome Traveller (1968)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Israel)
Lonesome Traveller (1964; UK)
On the Road (1971; France)
Sioc Maidine / Morning Frost Haiku (2014; Bilingual: Irish and English)
On the Road (2012; Italy)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2010; Italy)
On the Road (2007; France)
Visions of Cody (2001; Spain)
The Dharma Bums (2001; China)
Maggie Cassidy (2012; Poland)
The Dharma Bums (2000; Danish)
On the Road (2015; Brazil)
The Portable Jack Kerouac (2007)
The Dharma Bums (2009; Sweden)
Lonesome Traveler (1993; Czech)
The Subterraneans (1962; France)
On the Road The Original Manuscript (2011; Brazil)
Lonesome Traveler (1965; Spanish)
Visions of Gerard (1998; Czech)
On the Road (1998; Denmark)
Maggie Cassidy (1960; UK)
The Dharma Bums (1961; Sweden)
The Town and the City (1981; Italy)
On the Road (2010; Slovakia)
The Illustrated On the Road (2019)
Visions of Cody (1980; UK)
The Dharma Bums (2006; Poland)
On the Road (2013; Albania)
On the Road: The Original Scroll (2008)
Mexico City Blues (2008; Mexico)
On the Road (2000; Macedonia)
On the Road (2016; Spain)
The Dharma Bums (1963; France)
Satori in Paris (1971; France)
On the Road (2009; Romania)
On the Road (2012; Sweden)
On the Road (2002; Sweden)
The Dharma Bums (1993; Germany)
On the Road (2015; Mexico)
The Sea is my Brother (2019; Canada)
The Town and the City (2016; Italy)
On the Road (2007) – 50th Anniversary
On the Road (1998; Portugal)
Lonesome Traveller (1960; UK)
On the Road (2004; Slovenia)
Atop an Underwood (2000; Italy)
On the Road (1997) – 40th Anniversary
San Francisco Blues (1996; Italy)
The Dharma Bums (2000; UK)
On the Road (2020; China)
On the Road (2000; Poland)
Mexico City Blues (1976; France)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960)
On the Road (2016; Brazil)
Satori in Paris (2010; Brasil)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (2001)
Vanity of Duluoz (1982; Spain)
Book of Dreams (2001; China)
Satori in Paris (1997; Turkey)
On the Road (1976; France)
On the Road (2015; Greece)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1996; Bilingual; Czech-English)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; UK)
On the Road (1989; France)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2016; Sweden)
Scattered Poems (1995; Czech)
Lonesome Traveler (1994; UK)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; Finland)
Doctor Sax (1962; France)
Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha (2009)
The Dharma Bums (1997; Italy)
The Town and the City (1983)
Desolation Angels (2012; UK)
The Subterraneans (1984; Brazil)
The Subterraneans (1995; Poland)
Scattered Poems (1975; France)
Satori in Paris (2018; Italy)
Tristessa (1965; Germany)
Satori in Paris (1982; UK)
Lonesome Traveler (1973; France)
Orpheus Emerged (2018; Italy)
On the Road; The Subterraneans; The Dharma Bums (2014)
Dharma Bums (1988; Italy)
Good Blonde and Others (1998; France)
Underwood Memories (2006)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2015; China)
The Town and the City (1970; UK)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; Holland)
The Dharma Bums (2002; Czech)
The Sea is My Brother (2011; UK)
On the Road (1967; Slovenia)
The Town and the City (1983)
The Dharma Bums (1994; Poland)
Desolation Angels (1966; UK)
On the Road (2012; Spain)
Maggie Cassidy (1960; UK)
Vanity of Dulouz (1979; France)
Old Angel Midnight (1993)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2011; Slovakia)
Lonesome Traveler (1994; Italy)
Lonesome Traveler (2018; UK)
Mexico City Blues (2019; UK)
The Dharma Bums (2007; Lithuania)
On the Road (1988; Bosnia)
Satori in Paris (1966; UK)
The Town and the City (1974; UK)
The Dharma Bums (2006; Israel)
Selected Letters 1944-1969 (2016; France)
The Sea is My Brother (2012; Italy)
Satori in Paris; Pic (1988)
Tristessa (2009; Portugal)
And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2008)
The Dharma Bums (1982; Spain)
Desolation Angels (1990; UK)
Desolation Angels (1975; UK)
Maggie Cassidy (1984; Canada)
On the Road (2003; Romania)
Alone on a Mountaintop (Germany)
The Dharma Bums (2001; Finland)
Satori in Paris (2007; Bilingual: French and English)
On the Road (1998; Romania)
Satori in Paris (2001; UK)
The Dharma Bums (1963; France)
Lonesome Traveler (1969; France)
Lonesome Traveler (1980; France)
Vanity of Duluoz (2012; UK)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1998; Italy)
On the Road (2011; Poland)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2011; Germany)
On the Road, The Subterraneans, The Dharma Bums (2015; Mexico)
On the Road (2012; Russia)