New On The Road App Outsells The Bible

Jack Kerouac with Neal Cassady

Jack Kerouac's seminal Beatnik classic On The Road, which was famously typed out on a continuous 120-foot scroll, has gone mobile with the release of a new iPad app.

The $17 app is described as "an e-book and also as a source of ancillary information," featuring extensive commentary, interactive maps linking Kerouac's real-life road trips to sections of the book, audio recordings and never-before-seen photos. "Pretty much the only thing missing," says the Gray Lady in her review, "is the chance to hear the novel read aloud by that sexy-voiced woman from your GPS."

The On The Road app outsold the both the Bible and the hotly anticipated T.S. Eliot The Waste Land app last week. For even more of a behind-the-scenes look at the seminal novel, check out this video the New York Public Library put together from the Jack Kerouac Archive:

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By Jamie Feldmar in Arts & Entertainment on June 26, 2011 4:05 PM

Comments [rss]

jMadisonRink

I like this video commentary! I like the mission statement of the New York Library - wanting to assist in helping people see Kerouac's work from a new lense. All I know is he truly influenced me as a young girl. I was also drawn to the self-destructiveness but through it all - I was positively influenced by his artistic originality and individualistic point of view.

Speaking of a new lense and jack's influence on my life.
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randomtransplant

No way in hell Keroauc would have signed off on an IPhone App.

He and the other Merry Pranksters demanded too much personal control of their art. If you look at Beat-era censorship and you look at contemporary censorship, its very very hard to believe a company like Apple would have gone against cultural norm's enough to publish much of anything of value that came out of 1950's american lit.