Kerouac’s On the Road Scroll Rolls On

The only Zach Bryan song I owned before this week was “Sandpaper,” his collaboration with Bruce Springsteen.

But I just bought all six of his albums¹ as a thank-you and donation to the big spiritual tip jar for going ALL IN and bringing Jack Kerouac’s original On the Road and Dharma Bums scroll manuscripts (and a bunch of other Kerouac items) back to Lowell, Massachusetts.

Let me back up.

The On the Road scroll, the original manuscript written by Kerouac in a three-week sprint in April 1951 on taped-together pieces of paper totaling almost 120 feet long, was previously in the possession of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.

Irsay, who died last May, was a major pop culture collector who acquired some truly one-of-a-kind pieces in his lifetime, as one does when they have ridiculous amounts of money to burn. These included HELLA guitars, including Jerry Garcia’s custom “Tiger” and Kurt Cobain’s Fender from the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video, Ringo Starr’s 1963-1964 drum kit, and… the original Wilson volleyball from Castaway?!? (That one just makes me laugh.)

And a few weeks ago, these and many, many other items from his eye-popping collection went up for auction at Christie’s.

Irsay was a generous owner of the scroll who frequently lent it for display at various exhibitions. That’s how Dan and I — two writers and adventurers whose lives have been shaped and inspired and brought together by Kerouac’s work² — are lucky enough to have seen it three times prior (at the New York Public Library, the Autry Center, and the American Writers Museum).

But with its future ownership a big, scary question mark, we set our eyes on the scroll at the Christie’s auction preview for what we hoped might not be the last time. In what I hoped would be a good omen, the manuscript was unrolled to a point where I could read my favorite passage (below in its final edited form):

What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing?–it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.

I believe that if you have the financial wherewithal to acquire iconic pieces of art, you have a responsibility to share that art with the world at large. Imagine not having access to Nighthawks, or The Floor Scrapers, or Madame X, or F-111! And I always felt like the scroll was safe in Irsay’s possession because he seemed to understand this ethos.

However, the very capitalist art market doesn’t often agree with me. The largest Warhol collection in private hands, for example, cools its heels in storage facilities instead of being on view for public appreciation. (Even now, museums own more than they could possibly display at once, and it irks me to know what’s in the vaults that I’m not seeing. Hello, MoMA, I miss Goldfish and Palette!)

So when the news broke that Zach Bryan bought not only the On the Road scroll but the original Dharma Bums scroll and every other Kerouac-focused item in Irsay’s collection, I almost collapsed with happiness and relief.

This means that these talismans, these touchstones of a singular literary voice, are going to be available to all of us who hold a deep appreciation for and emotional connection to Kerouac’s words in our hearts. What Zach Bryan did for his fellow Kerouac fans, to ensure that these pieces of Jack will go to the Jack Kerouac Center in Lowell, is immeasurable in its generosity.

“You always expect some kind of magic at the end of the road,” Kerouac wrote in the On the Road scroll. And this outcome is an act of magic beyond my wildest hopes and dreams.

Thank you, Zach. Here’s to the next crazy venture.

1. YES, I buy albums, whether they’re digital or on vinyl. I support artists! ↩︎
2. I talk a bit more about my personal relationship to Kerouac’s work in my recent ukulele live session for Kerouac’s birthday, and in my essay on Jack Kerouac and food at Good Food Stories. ↩︎