“Dear Malcolm, You’ve all delayed once ore, not sending my work for the summer on the mountain—I’ve started an epic novel of 1000 pages THE BEAT GENERATION—If you don’t send me a contract with an advance (or some kind of option) by October first, on ON THE ROAD, I am going to withdraw the manuscript from Viking and sell it elsewhere. Than have it demeaned I’d rather it were never published. Period. Jack Kerouac.”

This is the handwritten ultimatum Jack Kerouac sent to the publisher of On The Road.