Harcourt Brace published Jack Kerouac‘s first novel, The Town and The City, (written under the name John Kerouac) in 1950, when the author was just 28. After the book proved a commercial failure, Harcourt refused to publish Kerouac’s second novel — rejecting On the Road in 1951. Now considered a modern classic, On the Road didn’t find a publisher for six years, until Viking Press issued the book in 1957.
Photo: Tom Palumbo
