The Viking Press

The Viking Press was the New York publisher that issued the book in 1959. Its appearance in the copyright notice records the publication history of a work whose narrative repeatedly turns toward the open road, while the imprint fixes its publication in a specific place and year.

Publication and Imprint

The copyright notice identifies the rights as belonging to Jack Kerouac in 1955 and 1957, then states that the book was issued in 1959 by The Viking Press, Inc., at 625 Madison Avenue, New York, New York. The two copyright years and the later issue date are separate pieces of publication information: the notice preserves both rather than presenting 1959 as the sole date associated with the work.

The Publisher in the Book’s Frame

The Viking Press is named in the front matter, not as a participant in the narrated events. The distinction is especially sharp beside the book’s opening movement: in July 1947, the narrator leaves Paterson with about fifty dollars saved from veteran benefits, a canvas bag, and plans to travel west, while the imprint identifies the later institutional and urban setting in which the book was issued. The road’s movement and the publication notice’s exact address belong to different frames of the work—one to the narrated journey, the other to the book as a published object.

The Work’s Editorial Record

The publication note also records earlier appearances of portions of the text: parts of two chapters from Book One had appeared in The Paris Review as “The Mexican Girl”; parts of two chapters from Book Three appeared in New World Writing (Seven) under the title “Jazz of the Beat Generation”; and an excerpt from Book Four appeared in New Directions 16 as “A Billowy Trip in the World.” This record places the 1959 issue within a sequence of prior periodical and anthology publication, without suggesting that The Viking Press itself published those earlier appearances.

Significance

The imprint offers a concise material counterpoint to the book’s restless geography. The story follows journeys by hitchhiking and automobile—from the planned westward route along Route 6 to later crossings of the country and the border into Mexico—while the copyright and address hold the work to a stable publishing place. The notice therefore documents both the book’s formal arrival as a 1959 publication and the earlier dates and venues through which portions of it had circulated.