As the original On the Road scroll heads to auction, a new exhibition uncovers the private life of the Beat legend As the original On the Road scroll heads to auction, a new exhibition uncovers the private life of the Beat legend A mong great literary myths, the one of Jack Kerouac is often reduced to a vibe The open road, a cigarette, a postwar rebel leaning on a beat-up car – a masculine archetype of rebellion and hedonism. Kerouac’s 1957 book On the Road was the bible of the beat generation