In April 1951, in three weeks, Jack Kerouac wrote the first version of "On the Road" - typed single-spaced, without paragraphs, on eight sheets of tracing paper, which he then glued together to form a roll. The "roll" is the "uncut" version of Kerouac's masterpiece - raw, wild, and unabashedly sexual, compared to the reworked version published in 1957. The original manuscript is Kerouac's most characteristic achievement - and one of the most important, well-known, and provocative documents in the history of American literature.