8vo. Original gold-stamped red cloth, top edge stained blue (spine slightly darkened with a few stains); in unrestored unclipped dust jacket (some minor creasing and chipping, otherwise bright). 

FIRST EDITION OF KEROUAC'S FIRST BOOK. Kerouac wrote his partially-autobiographical first novel over the course of several years, prior to adopting the method of "spontaneous prose" writing which he would employ in his later works. The "town" represents Lowell, Massachusetts, where Kerouac was raised.  The "city" represents a number of early beat circle figures, including Allen Ginsberg (here as Leon Levinsky), Lucien Carr (here as Kenneth Wood), William Burroughs (here as Will Dennison), Herbert Huncke (here as Junky), David Kammerer (here as Waldo Meister), Edie Parker (here as Judie Smith) and Joan Vollmer (here as Mary Dennison). Charters A1a.