Today in history: Jack Kerouac and William Bullock

William Bullock

On this date -- April 14 -- in 1863 William Bullock patented a printing press that used a continuous roll of paper. The machine could print on both sides and cut sheets to size with precision.

The Kerouac connection here is, of course, that Jack was inspired when writing On The Road (in 3 weeks in April 1951) to type it on a continuous roll of paper so he could write it down as fast as possible, in a rush, just the way his experiences on the road actually happened. Jack extended this practice to other novels such as The Dharma Bums and Big Sur. The On The Road roll version was auctioned and sold in 2001 to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay for almost $2.5 million.

While it was an impressive feat to write On The Road in 3 weeks on 120 feet of continuous paper in one single-spaced paragraph, I don't like to ignore the fact that Jack was writing the novel -- or parts of it - as early as 1947, plus it was subject to a lot of editing after the roll version manifested. Comparing the classic version to the roll version reveals major differences. I've opined about this in the past and on that particular post, Kerouac scholar Gerald Nicosia weighed in with a lengthy comment. Click here to read that post.

I doubt Kerouac was influenced directly by Bullock, but I have to imagine that Jack was familiar with continuous roll printing, probably from his father Leo's printing business, which would likely have been using aspects of the technology Bullock patented.