On the Road

Jack Kerouac stuck together 12ft reels of paper and typed flat out for 20 days to achieve the spontaneous composing technique he wanted for On The Road Photograph: David Sillitoe/Guardian

The exhibition's curator Professor Dick Ellis said there had been a lot of competition to get the scroll which is itself spending a lot of time on the move, having toured a string of US cities and hitting the road to Rome once this show is over. Photograph: David Sillitoe/Guardian

Kerouac wrote the On The Road fast because the "road is fast". He'd delete unwanted phrases by crossing them out with a pencil or typing over them. Photograph: David Sillitoe/Guardian