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 Townand 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)
On the Road (1957)
The Dharma Bums (1958)
The Subterraneans (1958)
Maggie Cassidy (1959)
Mexico City Blues (1959)
Visions of Cody Excerpts (1959)
Doctor Sax (1959)
Lonesome Traveler (1960)
Rimbaud (1960)
Tristessa (1960)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960)
Pull My Daisy (1961)
Book of Dreams (1961)
Big Sur (1962)
Visions of Gerard (1963)
Desolation Angels (1965)
Satori in Paris (1966)
Vanity of Duluoz (1968)
Pic (1971)
Scattered Poems (1971)
Visions of Cody (1972)
Not Long Ago Joy Abounded at Christmas (1972)
Trip Trap (1973)
Old Angel Midnight (1973)
Heaven and Other Poems (1977)
Pomes All Sizes (1992)
Good Blonde & Others (1993)
Book of Blues (1995)
Selected Letters 1940-1956 (1995)
Some of the Dharma (1997)
Selected Letters 1957-1969 (1999)
Atop an Underwood (1999)
Orpheus Emerged (2000)
Book of Haikus (2003)
Departed Angels (2004)
Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954 (2004)
Beat Generation (2005)
Book of Sketches (2006)
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)
Collected Poems (2012)
The Haunted Life and Other Writings (2014)
The Unknown Kerouac (2016)
Beat Painting (2018)
Later and International Editions
Dr. Sax (1987)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1998; Italy)
Desolation Angels (1995)
Lonesome Traveler (1965; Spanish)
Desolation Angels (1971)
Lonesome Traveler (1980; France)
The Dharma Bums (2010; Germany)
Book of Dreams (2002; Italy)
Dr. Sax (1977)
Satori in Paris (2018; Italy)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2011; Germany)
The Dharma Bums (1959; Italy)
On the Road (1998; UK)
The Subterraneans (1994)
The Dharma Bums (1971)
The Town and the City (1981; Italy)
On the Road (1983; Japan)
San Francisco Blues (1991)
On the Road (2004; Slovenia)
Lonesome Traveler (1993; Czech)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2011; Slovakia)
On the Road (2012; Russia)
On the Road (2007)
On the Road (1978; Italy)
Satori in Paris (France)
Visions of Cody (1993)
Mexico City Blues (2008; Mexico)
On the Road (1977; Spain)
On the Road (2011; UK)
Pic (1974; UK)
Piers of the Homeless Night (2018)
Doctor Sax (1995; UK)
On the Road (1999)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2008; UK)
Orpheus Emerged (2005)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (2018; US)
On the Road (2011; Poland)
The Dharma Bums (1961; Sweden)
Mexico City Blues (1976; France)
On the Road (2011; UK)
The Dharma Bums (1994; Poland)
Old Angel Midnight (1998; France)
The Subterraneans (1958)
Big Sur (1963)
On the Road (1999)
Road Novels 1957-1960 (2007)
On the Road (1994; Hungary)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Korea)
The Dharma Bums (1959)
Tristessa (2011; Mexico)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1996; Bilingual; Czech-English)
Heaven (1977)
Maggie Cassidy (2013; France)
Doctor Sax (1987; Germany)
On the Road (2002)
Tristessa (2017)
On the Road (1961; UK)
On the Road (2002; Italy)
Maggie Cassidy (1968)
Good Blonde and Others (1998; France)
The Dharma Bums (2006; Poland)
The Town and the City (1960)
Book of Dreams (2000; Germany)
Big Sur (1965)
On the Road (2016; Brazil)
On the Road (2004; Norway)
On the Road (1965)
Big Sur (2021; Iran)
Big Sur (2011)
The Dharma Bums (2006)
The Portable Jack Kerouac (2007)
Desolation Angels (1973; France)
Satori in Paris; Pic (1988)
On the Road (2012; France)
Lonesome Traveler (1994; UK)
Visions of Cody (1995; UK)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960)
Big Sur (2013)
Maggie Cassidy (2012; Poland)
On the Road (1976; France)
Mexico City Blues (2019; UK)
Book of Dreams (1998; Brazil)
Visions of Gerard (1991)
Big Sur (1963; UK)
The Subterraneans (1966)
Big Sur (2012; UK)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1979; France)
Big Sur (1963)
Lonesome Traveller (1964; UK)
Satori in Paris (1982; UK)
On the Road (2016)
Lonesome Traveler (1970)
On the Road (2010; Slovakia)
Doctor Sax (2006; UK)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; Finland)
On the Road (1974)
On the Road (1998; Denmark)
Doctor Sax (1999; France)
Maggie Cassidy (1960; UK)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; Holland)
Tristessa (1992)
Lonesome Traveller (1960; UK)
Lonesome Traveler (1999; France)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2008; Netherlands)
The Subterraneans (1995; Poland)
On the Road (2003; France)
Pic (1988; France)
Tristessa (2009; Portugal)
Vanity of Duluoz (2001; UK)
On the Road (2008; Turkey)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Czech)
Visions of Gerard (1998; Czech)
Vanity of Duluoz (1969; UK)
The Dharma Bums (1990)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2007; UK)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Germany)
Dharma Bums (1988; Italy)
The Town and the City (1970; UK)
The Dharma Bums (2015; Korea)
On the Road (2012)
Visions of Cody (2001; Spain)
The Subterraneans (1958)
The Subterraneans (1977)
The Dharma Bums (2009; Sweden)
Vanity of Dulouz (1994)
Satori in Paris (1971; France)
On the Road (1958; UK; 1st Edition)
On the Road (1999)
The Dharma Bums (1983; Italy)
Lonesome Traveler (1962; UK)
The Subterraneans (1984; Brazil)
Tristessa (1983; Canada)
On the Road (1971; France)
The Dharma Bums (1997; Turkey)
Desolation Angels (1978)
On the Road (2014; Italy)
Book of Dreams (2019)
On the Road (1957)
The Town and the City (2016; Italy)
On the Road (2011; Czech)
Lonesome Traveler (2018; UK)
On the Road (2012; Italy)
The Dharma Bums (2012; Slovenia)
The Dharma Bums (2009; Romania)
On the Road (2007) – 50th Anniversary
On the Road (1967; Slovenia)
The Haunted Life (2014; UK)
Tristessa (2007; Mexico)
Satori in Paris (1966; UK)
Book of Dreams (1963; Italy)
Lonesome Traveler (2000; Spain)
Book of_Haiku (2006)
The Dharma Bums (1959)
On the Road (2007; France)
Selected Letters 1944-1969 (2016; France)
On the Road (1989; UK)
Tristessa (2013; France)
Desolation Angels (2012; UK)
Maggie Cassidy (1996; Czech)
Visions of Gerard (1991)
The Dharma Bums (1971)
Dr. Sax (1959)
Tristessa (2021; Italy)
Scattered Poems (1995; Czech)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Israel)
Satori in Paris (2007; Bilingual: French and English)
On the Road (2000; Poland)
On the Road (1978; Germany)
The Dharma Bums (2000)
Scattered Poems (1975; France)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2016; Sweden)
The Dharma Bums (2012; Poland)
On the Road (1990; France)
Visions of Cody (2012; UK)
Dr. Sax (1987)
On the Road (2009; Romania)
Lonesome Traveler (1969; France)
On the Road: The Original Scroll (2008)
Desolation Angels (1990; UK)
The Book of Haikus (2012; France)
The Sea is My Brother (2012; Italy)
On the Road (1989; France)
On the Road; The Dharma Bums; The Subterraneans (1993)