On the Road (Viking, 1957)

Bill English designed the jacket for Viking's first edition, published on September 5, 1957: a black panel with a small block of broken red, white and blue shapes, and the title words staggered as if they were already moving. It is a restrained cover for a book that read like a rush. The first-state jacket has red and blue stripes on the rear panel; this copy's price has been clipped from the flap.