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
The Dharma Bums (1959; Italy)
Big Sur (2019)
The Dharma Bums (2007; Lithuania)
On the Road (2002)
The Dharma Bums (2012; Slovenia)
On the Road (2014; Italy)
Satori in Paris (1966; UK)
Visions of Cody (2012; UK)
Heaven (1977)
Book of Dreams (1995; Germany)
On the Road (1998; UK)
On the Road (2007; France)
Desolation Angels (1995)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2009; Israel)
On the Road (2012; Russia)
The Subterraneans (1997; Spain)
Book of Dreams (2019)
Satori in Paris (1966)
Tristessa (2011; Mexico)
Tristessa (2007; Mexico)
The Town and the City (1983)
Doctor Sax (1995; UK)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2015; China)
On the Road (2013; Albania)
The Dharma Bums (2016; Spain)
Book of Haikus (2004)
On the Road (2000; Macedonia)
The Dharma Bums (2012; Poland)
Satori in Paris (2010; Brasil)
The Dharma Bums (1983; Italy)
Mexico City Blues (2006; France)
On the Road (2012; Sweden)
Dr. Sax (2012; Russia)
Lonesome Traveler (1969; France)
Big Sur (1968; Italy)
On the Road (1977; Spain)
On the Road (2008; Turkey)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2016; Sweden)
On the Road, The Subterraneans, The Dharma Bums (2015; Mexico)
Road Novels 1957-1960 (2007)
Satori in Paris (2012; UK)
Satori in Paris (2018; Italy)
Pomes All Sizes (1999; Italy)
Underwood Memories (2006)
Lonesome Traveler (1969; France)
Visions of Gerard (1991)
The Dharma Bums (2000)
On the Road (1998; Portugal)
On the Road The Original Manuscript (2011; Brazil)
Visions of Cody (2001; Spain)
On the Road The Original Scroll (2011; Germany)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2011; Germany)
The Town and the City (1950)
Doctor Sax (2012; UK)
On the Road (2015; Czech)
The Town and the City (1970; UK)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1979; France)