Country music star Zach Bryan has purchased Jack Kerouac's original On the Road scroll for $12.1 million (£9.5 million) at auction and will donate it to a new museum in the author's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts.
The 120-foot-long manuscript, typed in 1951 without paragraph breaks, was part of a collection owned by the late billionaire Jim Irsay. Bryan also acquired The Dharma Bums scroll and a collection of personal letters.
The 29-year-old singer, a noted Kerouac enthusiast, last year bought the former Saint Jean Baptiste Church in Lowell to transform it into the Jack Kerouac Center. The scroll will be housed there.
Jim Sampas, literary executor of Kerouac's estate, said: 'America's most influential work will also be coming back to Lowell thanks to our friend Zach Bryan. This return will draw folks from all over the world to our city.'
Lowell City Manager Thomas A. Golden Jr. added: 'We deeply appreciate Mr. Bryan's commitment to honouring Jack Kerouac's legacy and his investment in enriching Lowell's cultural landscape.'
Kerouac died in 1969 at age 47. The scroll, originally bought by Irsay for $3.2 million in 2001, sold for nearly four times that amount this week.
