Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
On The Road Turns 50
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 5, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 5, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road (you can see him reading from the novel on The Steve Allen Show, here). Of course, with the celebration comes some controversy. The NY Sun reports:
The author of a noted Kerouac biography, Memory Babe, Gerald Nicosia, is holding a press conference in Manhattan today, where he will claim that Viking Penguin has been removing his name from books it publishes on Kerouac and other Beat writers, at the request of the executor of the Kerouac estate, John Sampas.
Mr. Nicosia told the Sun that he was subject to a "blacklist" and "censorship," which he believes are in part a response to his having supported a lawsuit in 1994 by Kerouac's daughter, Jan Kerouac, who had sued the relatives of Jack Kerouac's third wife and widow, Stella Sampas, including her brother, the estate's executor, Mr. Sampas.
Nicosia mentioned there would be "mountains of evidence" and press packets available today, however wouldn't go in to what would be provided prior to his press conference.
Sampas, Kerouac's brother-in-law, suggests that Nicosia is doing this for publicity and labels him as a "stalker of the Kerouac estate, especially me, and has been for many years." The Sun has a list of disputes the two have had throughout the years. Friends of Kerouac, however, say this is a year to celebrate the author. On that note, the "scroll" manuscript of On the Road will be on display beginning November 9th at the New York Public Library, which bought most of Kerouac's archive in 2001. And last year it was reported that this year The Box Theater would put on the first production of Jack Kerouac's "Beat Generation" (the play he wrote in 1957), though there haven't been any more mentions of that since.
The Sun also notes that "a co-owner of St. Mark's Bookshop, Terry McCoy, said Kerouac, Ginsberg, and William Burroughs have always been among their top selling authors. He said the Beat writers' books are kept in a special section near the information desk, since they are among the most readily stolen and resold to street vendors in Greenwich Village."
Photo of On The Road scroll via Thomas Hawk's Flickr.
Tagged
beat generation
books
flickr
friends
greenwich
greenwich village
jack kerouac
law
lawsuit
library
literature
manhattan
media
new york
new york public library
ny sun
photos
public library
publicity
stalker
the box
The NY
The NY Sun
the road
the sun
theater
Thomas Hawk
William Burroughs
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
Will Barnes and Noble in the East Village spell doom for smaller shops? It's complicated.
Independent booksellers are grappling with whether the big-box chain is a threat or an ally in the fight against Amazon.
By
Sonia Rao
Published Oct 16, 2026 at 12:55 p.m. ET
Can eligible NYC singles find love with 30 minutes and some really spicy food?
We went to the Spiciest Supper Club singles night to take the temperature of New York City's dating scene.
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
Arts & Entertainment
Can eligible NYC singles find love with 30 minutes and some really spicy food?
We went to the Spiciest Supper Club singles night to take the temperature of New York City's dating scene.
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
How the NYC Marathon has changed in the last 50 years
By
Hannah Frishberg
A visit to Art of Play, the Brooklyn store in an animatronic bird beef with Kelly Clarkson
By
Sonia Rao
The hottest way to show you're an authentic New Yorker is… riding a Citi Bike?
By
Lindsay Lee Wallace
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .