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Neal Cassady: The Fast Life of a Beat Hero
This fascinating and in-depth biography of Neal Cassady takes a look at the man who achieved immortality as Dean Moriarty, the central character in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road . A charismatic, funny, articulate, and formidably intelligent man, Cassady was also a compulsive womanizer who lived life on the edge. His naturalistic, conversational writing style inspired Kerouac, who lifted a number of passages verbatim and uncredited from Cassady’s letters for significant episodes in On the Road . Drawing on a wealth of new research and with full cooperation from central figures in his life—including Carolyn Cassady and Ken Kesey—this account captures Cassady’s unique blend of inspired lunacy and deep spirituality.
340 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2006
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July 4, 2020
Neal Cassady… what a trip. There are several bios on Neal out there including “The Holy Goof” by William Plummer that may be more definitive but this treatment does a great job of telling the story of Neal and his wild ways. If you want to know about the Beat Generation and how Cassady came together with Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs et al and how they related to the hippie movement this is a good resource.
This biography was begun by David Sandison who was clearly smitten with the legendary Cassady but unfortunately didn’t live to see the book to completion. His notes were picked up by his friend, writer Graham Vickers following Sandison’s death, a true labor of love for a departed friend.
Cassady, like Hunter Thompson was truly a legend in his own time – and like Hunter Thompson I long wondered whether the persona was genuine or if he was pandering to his public. In the case of HST I came to the conclusion that strange as he was his weirdness was genuine if heavily influenced by the approval he received for his antics from his fans and friends. Cassady appears to be similarly genuine and impelled by a high revving engine to always be moving, doing, rapping and ahem, screwing. His life took the course of a spinning top bouncing off everyone and thing it ran into from his desolate childhood in the slums of Denver to NYC where he encounters Kerouac and Ginsburg at Columbia to SF Bay area and finally to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where he died a not altogether surprising death at the age of 42.
Of all the women that flowed thru his life none are more prominent if not quite as interesting as Carolyn Cassady. She stayed in his life, raising his children as Neal hooked up with and in several cases married other women essentially committing bigamy for what it’s worth. Women were everything and nothing to Neal; his looks and rap were relentless after the other having their predictable effect on one right up until the end.
By way of trying to explain his behavior the author(s) relate that as a child Cassady was seriously bullied by one of his half-brothers (Jimmy) who would lock young Neal in a fold-up bed for several hours at a time (if you can believe that). To survive the ordeal and avoid a beating that would result if he yelled for help Neal responded by putting his mind in a state of suspension until he was freed again. He later described the experience as that of an “’off-balanced wheel’ whirling inside his head. As this whirling sensation picked up momentum it would ‘set up a loose fan-like vibration’ as time gradually tripled its normal speed. While this was, Neal claimed, ‘strangely pleasant,’ it was also disturbing enough to frighten him at first.” It has been suggested (not the least by Carolyn Cassady) that this was the same heightened experience that Neal sought for the rest of his life; something she calls the ‘courtship of death and which was also an unconscious re-creation of zazen – an oriental discipline in which the practitioner is able to empty his mind”. (pp. 30 – 31)
One of the sad but interesting themes that runs through this bio is Neal’s fascination with writers and desire to write notwithstanding the fact that he was only semi-educated. That he was living with an alcoholic father in a slum-like boarding house in Denver’s run down Larimer district it’s surprising that he went to school at all much less that he developed an interest in books. His life was further disrupted with trips to juvenile detention and much later a few years in prison for drug possession (an infraction that wouldn’t even be acknowledged today). Nonetheless, for much of his adult life he attempted to write, although the only output is the autobiographical “The First Third” which was not published until three years following his death in 1968.
The paradox is that during this time he befriended Jack Kerouac who was similarly inclined and compelled to commit words to paper and who largely used Cassady and his exploits to form the basis for much of his rambunctious run-on writing style that paralleled Cassady’s out of control life. We have Kerouac to thank for memorializing his pal Neal in “On The Road” as Dean Moriarty where he “would record that... (the night he was introduced to Neal in NYC by a mutual acquaintance Hal Chase) Neal reminded him of a young boxer taking instructions, head down, nodding in assent, ‘throwing in a thousand ‘Yes’s’ and ‘That’s right’s,’ or a slim-hipped Western movie hero like Gene Autrey.” (pp. 78-79) And later in “On The Road” Kerouac would provide this vivid depiction of Cassady’s encounter with Ginsburg identified as ‘Carlo Marx’: “Two keen minds that they are”… “they took to each other at the drop of a hat… the holy con-man with the shining mind, and the sorrowful poetic con-man with the dark mind that is Carlo Marx.” (p. 79)
During all this time Neal ran fast and free, never holding a job any longer than he had to in order to gather enough cash to buy another set of wheels and maybe drop a few bucks on one of the women raising his kids before he hit the road east or west or off to Mexico, anywhere really. The essence of the later Neal is captured by one of his girlfriends (Anne Marie Maxwell) who “recalled that he could “roll a perfect joint with one blunt-fingered hand while the other one steered, shifted, kept the beat to the radio’s rhythm ’n’ blues and gestured to his non-stop monologue’”. (p.274)
He lived an amazing, poor and frequently sad life, which though brief, turned him into a touchstone for American culture. Bridging the beat generation with Ken Kesey and his band of crazies and others along with the Grateful Dead who left us with this brilliant song (written by John Perry Barlow/Bob Weir) interestingly titled “Cassidy”*:
I have seen where the wolf has slept by the silver stream.
I can tell by the mark he left you were in his dream.
Ah child of countless trees, ah child of boundless seas.
What are you, what are you meant to be?
Speaks his name for you were born to me,
Born to me, Cassidy.
Lost now on the country miles in his Cadillac.
I can tell by the way you smile he is rolling back.
Come wash the nighttime clean, come grow the scorched ground green.
Blow the horn, tap the tambourine.
Close the gap on the dark years in between.
You and me, Cassidy.
*Check out Bob Weir’s solo album Ace from 1972 in which “Cassidy” is the last song on what is an all-time great album. While the lyrics speak of Neal Cassady (who passed away four years before the song was created) it ostensibly was written for Eileen Law's daughter Cassidy according to Barlow in his memoir "Mother American Night" published in 2018.
This biography was begun by David Sandison who was clearly smitten with the legendary Cassady but unfortunately didn’t live to see the book to completion. His notes were picked up by his friend, writer Graham Vickers following Sandison’s death, a true labor of love for a departed friend.
Cassady, like Hunter Thompson was truly a legend in his own time – and like Hunter Thompson I long wondered whether the persona was genuine or if he was pandering to his public. In the case of HST I came to the conclusion that strange as he was his weirdness was genuine if heavily influenced by the approval he received for his antics from his fans and friends. Cassady appears to be similarly genuine and impelled by a high revving engine to always be moving, doing, rapping and ahem, screwing. His life took the course of a spinning top bouncing off everyone and thing it ran into from his desolate childhood in the slums of Denver to NYC where he encounters Kerouac and Ginsburg at Columbia to SF Bay area and finally to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where he died a not altogether surprising death at the age of 42.
Of all the women that flowed thru his life none are more prominent if not quite as interesting as Carolyn Cassady. She stayed in his life, raising his children as Neal hooked up with and in several cases married other women essentially committing bigamy for what it’s worth. Women were everything and nothing to Neal; his looks and rap were relentless after the other having their predictable effect on one right up until the end.
By way of trying to explain his behavior the author(s) relate that as a child Cassady was seriously bullied by one of his half-brothers (Jimmy) who would lock young Neal in a fold-up bed for several hours at a time (if you can believe that). To survive the ordeal and avoid a beating that would result if he yelled for help Neal responded by putting his mind in a state of suspension until he was freed again. He later described the experience as that of an “’off-balanced wheel’ whirling inside his head. As this whirling sensation picked up momentum it would ‘set up a loose fan-like vibration’ as time gradually tripled its normal speed. While this was, Neal claimed, ‘strangely pleasant,’ it was also disturbing enough to frighten him at first.” It has been suggested (not the least by Carolyn Cassady) that this was the same heightened experience that Neal sought for the rest of his life; something she calls the ‘courtship of death and which was also an unconscious re-creation of zazen – an oriental discipline in which the practitioner is able to empty his mind”. (pp. 30 – 31)
One of the sad but interesting themes that runs through this bio is Neal’s fascination with writers and desire to write notwithstanding the fact that he was only semi-educated. That he was living with an alcoholic father in a slum-like boarding house in Denver’s run down Larimer district it’s surprising that he went to school at all much less that he developed an interest in books. His life was further disrupted with trips to juvenile detention and much later a few years in prison for drug possession (an infraction that wouldn’t even be acknowledged today). Nonetheless, for much of his adult life he attempted to write, although the only output is the autobiographical “The First Third” which was not published until three years following his death in 1968.
The paradox is that during this time he befriended Jack Kerouac who was similarly inclined and compelled to commit words to paper and who largely used Cassady and his exploits to form the basis for much of his rambunctious run-on writing style that paralleled Cassady’s out of control life. We have Kerouac to thank for memorializing his pal Neal in “On The Road” as Dean Moriarty where he “would record that... (the night he was introduced to Neal in NYC by a mutual acquaintance Hal Chase) Neal reminded him of a young boxer taking instructions, head down, nodding in assent, ‘throwing in a thousand ‘Yes’s’ and ‘That’s right’s,’ or a slim-hipped Western movie hero like Gene Autrey.” (pp. 78-79) And later in “On The Road” Kerouac would provide this vivid depiction of Cassady’s encounter with Ginsburg identified as ‘Carlo Marx’: “Two keen minds that they are”… “they took to each other at the drop of a hat… the holy con-man with the shining mind, and the sorrowful poetic con-man with the dark mind that is Carlo Marx.” (p. 79)
During all this time Neal ran fast and free, never holding a job any longer than he had to in order to gather enough cash to buy another set of wheels and maybe drop a few bucks on one of the women raising his kids before he hit the road east or west or off to Mexico, anywhere really. The essence of the later Neal is captured by one of his girlfriends (Anne Marie Maxwell) who “recalled that he could “roll a perfect joint with one blunt-fingered hand while the other one steered, shifted, kept the beat to the radio’s rhythm ’n’ blues and gestured to his non-stop monologue’”. (p.274)
He lived an amazing, poor and frequently sad life, which though brief, turned him into a touchstone for American culture. Bridging the beat generation with Ken Kesey and his band of crazies and others along with the Grateful Dead who left us with this brilliant song (written by John Perry Barlow/Bob Weir) interestingly titled “Cassidy”*:
I have seen where the wolf has slept by the silver stream.
I can tell by the mark he left you were in his dream.
Ah child of countless trees, ah child of boundless seas.
What are you, what are you meant to be?
Speaks his name for you were born to me,
Born to me, Cassidy.
Lost now on the country miles in his Cadillac.
I can tell by the way you smile he is rolling back.
Come wash the nighttime clean, come grow the scorched ground green.
Blow the horn, tap the tambourine.
Close the gap on the dark years in between.
You and me, Cassidy.
*Check out Bob Weir’s solo album Ace from 1972 in which “Cassidy” is the last song on what is an all-time great album. While the lyrics speak of Neal Cassady (who passed away four years before the song was created) it ostensibly was written for Eileen Law's daughter Cassidy according to Barlow in his memoir "Mother American Night" published in 2018.
May 18, 2010
Cassady was a guy I was aware of who he was but I had no idea of what it is he actually did in life other than the main character in Kerouacs On the Road was supposed to have been based on him and that he hung out with all the famous beat writers, Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead. I'm still not exactly sure what it is he did other than use his life as an example to the people mentioned. He certainly didn't write anything of note. The biggest surprise to me was he was a fanatical follower of Edgar Cayce.
Starting with his screwed up but adventerous childhood it covers Cassadys lifes adventures. However I don't know if it truly captured what it was like to be around the guy or whatever it was was that was so special about him. An interesting point was made at the end of the book that there were lots of people that led wild reckless lives like Cassady did but they never rubbed elbows with the literary crowd from Columbia University so therefore were never mytholygized the way Cassady was. This was an interesting enough read, although its probably only worth your trouble if you already have an interest in Cassady or the beat writers.
Starting with his screwed up but adventerous childhood it covers Cassadys lifes adventures. However I don't know if it truly captured what it was like to be around the guy or whatever it was was that was so special about him. An interesting point was made at the end of the book that there were lots of people that led wild reckless lives like Cassady did but they never rubbed elbows with the literary crowd from Columbia University so therefore were never mytholygized the way Cassady was. This was an interesting enough read, although its probably only worth your trouble if you already have an interest in Cassady or the beat writers.
March 5, 2012
Some years ago I read another biography of Neal Cassady, The holy goof by William Plummer. The only book that Neal Cassady himself had published was a partial autobiography, The first third, so this is not a literary biography in the sense that Cassady was a famous author. His claim to (literary) fame was that he appears as a character in the novels of his friend Jack Kerouac and the poems of his friend Allen Ginsberg, and also in Go by John Clellon Holmes.
Kerouac and Ginsberg admired him tremendously, and he influenced their writing in several ways. He was the protagonist of Kerouac's On the road, thus providing the subject matter, but he also influenced Kerouac in his style of writing.
But reading the biography makes it difficult to see what others found to admire about Cassady. He doesn't really seem to live up to the epithet "holy". The "holy goof" has echoes of the saints called "holy fools", whose sometimes bizarre behaviour shocked respectable people. But this biography is perhaps a more sober one than Plummer's, and Cassady comes across as above all selfish and manipulative, and it is difficult to see how he managed to inspire such devotion and admiration in his friends. Perhaps the biography fails to capture some essential element of Cassady's character, or perhaps his friends failed to see what he was really like.
Kerouac and Ginsberg admired him tremendously, and he influenced their writing in several ways. He was the protagonist of Kerouac's On the road, thus providing the subject matter, but he also influenced Kerouac in his style of writing.
But reading the biography makes it difficult to see what others found to admire about Cassady. He doesn't really seem to live up to the epithet "holy". The "holy goof" has echoes of the saints called "holy fools", whose sometimes bizarre behaviour shocked respectable people. But this biography is perhaps a more sober one than Plummer's, and Cassady comes across as above all selfish and manipulative, and it is difficult to see how he managed to inspire such devotion and admiration in his friends. Perhaps the biography fails to capture some essential element of Cassady's character, or perhaps his friends failed to see what he was really like.
January 26, 2024
Neal Cassady: The Fast Life of a Beat Hero by David Sandison and Graham Vickers (Chicago Review Press 2006) (973.931) (3912).
Neal Cassady. What a trip! Cassady was squarely in the center of the chrysalis during the formative years of the Beat Generation in the 1950s with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and Cassady was at the center of the early “happenings” of the Sixties with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as each played important roles in the early days of the hippie movement.
Cassady was a well-read autodidact with very little formal education. He was also as wild as a mink. He died broke and alone while walking the railroad tracks in rural Mexico when he was barely into his forties. He never sought to amass a fortune. He worked for wages only when he couldn’t find a friend or a lover that was willing to support him. As the author put it, “[Cassady] was used to being serially insolvent, but being broke and being poor are two different things, one being a temporary lack of money, the other being an all-pervasive state.” (p.309).
I have read several biographies of Cassady including his autobiography The First Third, and this volume is by far and away the most readable and comprehensive of the lot.
If a reader wishes insight into Cassady, there are three must-read volumes: Neal Cassady: The Fast Life of a Beat Hero by David Sandison and Graham Vickers, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. These three books all consider different sides of Neal Cassady. Read those three titles, and you’ll be well on the way to understanding a hippie legend and the legendary times in which he lived.
I own a brand new HB copy of this book that I purchased from Amazon on 1/10/23 for $16.92.
My rating: 7.25/10, finished 1/14.24 (3912).
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
May 5, 2022
I read this book 4 years ago but it's stayed with me ever since. Neal Cassady is someone I both envy and abhor. 2 quotes illustrate the nature of my fascination:
'Ken Kesey, a highly successful novelist, effectively threw in the towel after meeting him [Neal Cassady], saying that writing about life paled to insignificance once you had encountered Cassady living it'.
'His was not a story of rags to riches--he was usually either broke or taking steps to ensure that he soon would be--but rather that of an untiring voyage of spiritual and hedonistic exploration, a journey intermittently marked by incarceration and curbed appetites, as well as reckless behaviour and wild thrill-seeking adventures'.
I abhor Cassady because he was immoral. He cheated on his wife and girlfriends, stole, lied, abandoned his children, did a phenomenal amount of drugs, and generally cared for no one but himself.
I envy him because he achieved that most cliched of goals: he lived life to the fullest. He was an energetic alien who bounced from one extreme activity to another on a truly manic schedule. His lifestyle inspired a revolutionary artistic movement and some of the most iconic artists in American literature. He was at the vanguard of the 1960s counter-culture, the most influential cultural phenomenon in the history of his nation. To live as he lived, minus the excessive wrongdoing and aimlessness, is a kind of ideal.
'Ken Kesey, a highly successful novelist, effectively threw in the towel after meeting him [Neal Cassady], saying that writing about life paled to insignificance once you had encountered Cassady living it'.
'His was not a story of rags to riches--he was usually either broke or taking steps to ensure that he soon would be--but rather that of an untiring voyage of spiritual and hedonistic exploration, a journey intermittently marked by incarceration and curbed appetites, as well as reckless behaviour and wild thrill-seeking adventures'.
I abhor Cassady because he was immoral. He cheated on his wife and girlfriends, stole, lied, abandoned his children, did a phenomenal amount of drugs, and generally cared for no one but himself.
I envy him because he achieved that most cliched of goals: he lived life to the fullest. He was an energetic alien who bounced from one extreme activity to another on a truly manic schedule. His lifestyle inspired a revolutionary artistic movement and some of the most iconic artists in American literature. He was at the vanguard of the 1960s counter-culture, the most influential cultural phenomenon in the history of his nation. To live as he lived, minus the excessive wrongdoing and aimlessness, is a kind of ideal.
February 3, 2012
Great biography on one of the 'heros' of the Beat Generation. He was Kerouac's muse and alter-ego but what is great about this book is that the authors, after conducting extensive research and interviews over a period of about 10 years, were able to debunk some of the myths around this man who occupies a legendary postion in beat folklore.
Known as 'Cody' in some of Kerouac's novels and 'Sir Speed Limit' as the driver of Ken Kesey's bus of merry pranksters, there is another side of Cassady which this book reveals. Like Kerouac, he was a very troubled young man who had a depressing upbringing in which his alcoholic dad tried to raise him in the slums of Denver, a man who tried to commit suicide at various times throughout his life and who was incredibly restless and full of energy (apparently masturbating up to 5-6 times on any given day!).
The way he treated people close to him like his wife Carolyn and the way he conned other people or stole from them would seem to indicate a man who is just simply selfish and a USER. However, what is fascinating about this man whose energy was so infectious that he inspired a whole new movement which changed America was that he also had a sweet and compassionate side. As other reviewers have pointed out, probably his most redeeming feature is how he adored his children to Carolyn and, when he was around, was actually a good father to them.
There are a few movies either directly or indirectly about Cassady. I have seen 'The Last Time I Committed Suicide' and although Keanu Reeves' performance (supporting role) is pretty cringeworthy as usual, the main actor who plays Cassady puts in a good performance. This movie is based around the famous Joan Anderson letter of which only a fragment remains today. As the authors of this book point out, this letter became very famous as it inspired Kerouac to the point where he decided to change his style of writing from long Wolfean sentences ('The Town and the City') to something more resembling immediate speech which Cassady had down pat at times in his letters. That is to say, Cassady tried to approximate his writing as closely to actual speech - both his own speech and his dialogue with others - and Kerouac saw how powerful the immediacy of his language was. This is perhaps the greatest legacy that Cassady left behind. I even wonder how aware he was of his impact on others and his generation.
Therefore, the 'voice' that you hear in Kerouac's 'On the Road' is actually CASSADY'S voice but paraphrased through Kerouac's chronicling of what he remembers of their adventures together. Therefore, this book highlights the huge debt of inspiration that Kerouac owes to Cassady.
The authors also point out the large number of 'untruths' in Neal's autobiography fragment, 'The First Third'. Many of the details in that book regarding his family and ancestors have now turned out to be untrue but it appears that Neal Cassady Sr. (his dad) may have been largely to blame for this as a lot of what Neal Jr. wrote was based on what his dad told him growing up. However, Neal Jr. was notorious for embellishing stories or for outright lying in order to feed into the growing myth over his legendary status so it's hard to know how much of his autobiography is based on what his father told him and how much comes down to self-mythologizing.
Caroline Cassady has a great book out called 'Off the Road' which everyone raves about and which I would like to read sometime this year. I think she probably offers another important angle on this great story.
In the movie 'What happened to Kerouac?', Caroyln says that Jack's portrayal of Neal in 'On the Road' only shows one side of who he really was. But, that was the side of Neal that everyone who bought Kerouac's best-selling novel believed him to be (that is those people who didn't mistake Jack for Dean Moriarty!) and according to Jack's first wife Edie Parker, Neal was kind of 'forced' into becoming this romanticized legendary version of himself due to the influence of Kerouac's work. And this may have been one of the things that accelerated his demise.
After the publication of 'On the Road' which had a phenomenal effect on the whole nation, Neal proceeded to perform like a practised 'circus seal' (can't remember Carolyn's exact quote) by trying to perform amazing feats including juggling a type of jackhammer (Williams Lok-Hed sledge hammer to be precise) to the amazement of his adoring fans.
Finally, this book also explores the deep effect of Edgar Cayce's philosophy on Neal and Carolyn, something which I knew nothing about before reading this book and something which tells you about the popularity of altnerative philosophies and schools of thoughts in the US during teh 50s and 60s.
Although Neal was far from being a saint, in fact he was quite a horrible person to family and friends at times, there is something very attractive about the positive aspects of Neal's personality and it was these aspects that Kerouac identified and celebrated in his novels: his love for and embrace of life in the most exuberant manner possible, his unrelenting individualism, his dedication to become the best at everything (both in sports and academically, including memorizing sequences of numbers) and most importantly his adoration of his children.
Some people like Kerouac and Cassady are headed for a tragic end the day they are born but the amount of living they do in that small amount of time they are here on earth with us is truly amazing.
In the contemporary world where people who have a job are largely overworked and miserable, there is much we can learn about the joy and exuberance of the beats.
Many people think that 'beat' just refers to people being 'tired' or 'world-weary' but it was much much more than that. It also meant 'sympathetic' (see Kerouac's reading of excerpts from 'On the Road' and 'visions of Cody' on the Steve Allen show).
There is also a nice short interview with Kerouac from the late 50s or early 60s in French. When the French interviewer asks him what the word 'beat' means, Kerouac talks about negros sleeping in subways who are obviously 'beat' in the sense of tired but then Kerouac looks straight at the camera, winks, and says 'but (they are also) full of joy/glee (in French he says 'joyeux')'. Beautiful.
In summary, a great biography on a truly disturbing but remarkable man. Highly recommended for fans of beat literature.
P.S. There is another (shorter) biography out there on Cassady called 'The Holy Goof'. I have not read that bio but have heard that it is also very good.
Known as 'Cody' in some of Kerouac's novels and 'Sir Speed Limit' as the driver of Ken Kesey's bus of merry pranksters, there is another side of Cassady which this book reveals. Like Kerouac, he was a very troubled young man who had a depressing upbringing in which his alcoholic dad tried to raise him in the slums of Denver, a man who tried to commit suicide at various times throughout his life and who was incredibly restless and full of energy (apparently masturbating up to 5-6 times on any given day!).
The way he treated people close to him like his wife Carolyn and the way he conned other people or stole from them would seem to indicate a man who is just simply selfish and a USER. However, what is fascinating about this man whose energy was so infectious that he inspired a whole new movement which changed America was that he also had a sweet and compassionate side. As other reviewers have pointed out, probably his most redeeming feature is how he adored his children to Carolyn and, when he was around, was actually a good father to them.
There are a few movies either directly or indirectly about Cassady. I have seen 'The Last Time I Committed Suicide' and although Keanu Reeves' performance (supporting role) is pretty cringeworthy as usual, the main actor who plays Cassady puts in a good performance. This movie is based around the famous Joan Anderson letter of which only a fragment remains today. As the authors of this book point out, this letter became very famous as it inspired Kerouac to the point where he decided to change his style of writing from long Wolfean sentences ('The Town and the City') to something more resembling immediate speech which Cassady had down pat at times in his letters. That is to say, Cassady tried to approximate his writing as closely to actual speech - both his own speech and his dialogue with others - and Kerouac saw how powerful the immediacy of his language was. This is perhaps the greatest legacy that Cassady left behind. I even wonder how aware he was of his impact on others and his generation.
Therefore, the 'voice' that you hear in Kerouac's 'On the Road' is actually CASSADY'S voice but paraphrased through Kerouac's chronicling of what he remembers of their adventures together. Therefore, this book highlights the huge debt of inspiration that Kerouac owes to Cassady.
The authors also point out the large number of 'untruths' in Neal's autobiography fragment, 'The First Third'. Many of the details in that book regarding his family and ancestors have now turned out to be untrue but it appears that Neal Cassady Sr. (his dad) may have been largely to blame for this as a lot of what Neal Jr. wrote was based on what his dad told him growing up. However, Neal Jr. was notorious for embellishing stories or for outright lying in order to feed into the growing myth over his legendary status so it's hard to know how much of his autobiography is based on what his father told him and how much comes down to self-mythologizing.
Caroline Cassady has a great book out called 'Off the Road' which everyone raves about and which I would like to read sometime this year. I think she probably offers another important angle on this great story.
In the movie 'What happened to Kerouac?', Caroyln says that Jack's portrayal of Neal in 'On the Road' only shows one side of who he really was. But, that was the side of Neal that everyone who bought Kerouac's best-selling novel believed him to be (that is those people who didn't mistake Jack for Dean Moriarty!) and according to Jack's first wife Edie Parker, Neal was kind of 'forced' into becoming this romanticized legendary version of himself due to the influence of Kerouac's work. And this may have been one of the things that accelerated his demise.
After the publication of 'On the Road' which had a phenomenal effect on the whole nation, Neal proceeded to perform like a practised 'circus seal' (can't remember Carolyn's exact quote) by trying to perform amazing feats including juggling a type of jackhammer (Williams Lok-Hed sledge hammer to be precise) to the amazement of his adoring fans.
Finally, this book also explores the deep effect of Edgar Cayce's philosophy on Neal and Carolyn, something which I knew nothing about before reading this book and something which tells you about the popularity of altnerative philosophies and schools of thoughts in the US during teh 50s and 60s.
Although Neal was far from being a saint, in fact he was quite a horrible person to family and friends at times, there is something very attractive about the positive aspects of Neal's personality and it was these aspects that Kerouac identified and celebrated in his novels: his love for and embrace of life in the most exuberant manner possible, his unrelenting individualism, his dedication to become the best at everything (both in sports and academically, including memorizing sequences of numbers) and most importantly his adoration of his children.
Some people like Kerouac and Cassady are headed for a tragic end the day they are born but the amount of living they do in that small amount of time they are here on earth with us is truly amazing.
In the contemporary world where people who have a job are largely overworked and miserable, there is much we can learn about the joy and exuberance of the beats.
Many people think that 'beat' just refers to people being 'tired' or 'world-weary' but it was much much more than that. It also meant 'sympathetic' (see Kerouac's reading of excerpts from 'On the Road' and 'visions of Cody' on the Steve Allen show).
There is also a nice short interview with Kerouac from the late 50s or early 60s in French. When the French interviewer asks him what the word 'beat' means, Kerouac talks about negros sleeping in subways who are obviously 'beat' in the sense of tired but then Kerouac looks straight at the camera, winks, and says 'but (they are also) full of joy/glee (in French he says 'joyeux')'. Beautiful.
In summary, a great biography on a truly disturbing but remarkable man. Highly recommended for fans of beat literature.
P.S. There is another (shorter) biography out there on Cassady called 'The Holy Goof'. I have not read that bio but have heard that it is also very good.
January 2, 2018
A biography that explores the life, the legend, and the truth of Neal Cassady. Made famous once Jack Kerouac's On the Road became a sensation in 1957, the real life of "Dean Moriarty" is one tinged with wild times, drugs, sex, and sadness. One only wonders what his kids thought as he continually hit the road right up to the year of his untimely death at the age of 41. The Beat Generation has inspired and thrilled me since I was 14, but these are also the people that would probably annoy me in real life. One sentence sums it up: "In a sense it was a contradiction, this preoccupation with spirituality in a man driven by thrill-seeking and pleasures of the flesh". Recommended.
February 15, 2020
Not bad but not getting full story which would of been impossible.
November 8, 2007
I was pulling books for interlibrary loan the other day and was downstairs in the history section when I came across this book. I don't know much about the beat poets and knew even less about Neal Cassady, so I grabbed this book for myself. Cassidy my parnter is named after Neal Cassady, via a Grateful Dead song titled simply, "Cassidy," so that had me interested too.
Turns out that Neal Cassady lied to, manipulated, coerced, and cheated just about everyone he ever knew. From most accounts, he was not a sensitive or caring lover. He had multiple wives and girlfriends at the same time, while letting each think she was the only one. The one redeeming quality that I can identify after reading this book is that he really loved and cared for the kids he had with Carolyn Cassady (at least the first two).
Neal Cassady ran his body into the ground with drugs and fast living, dying when he was in his early 40's. That means he never had a chance to redeem himself in my eyes the way William Burrouhgs, Sr. and Charles Bukowski were able to do as old men.
I enjoyed reading the book. It was engaging and held my interest, unlike other biographies I've tried to read about famous and interesting people that somehow managed to put me to sleep.
Turns out that Neal Cassady lied to, manipulated, coerced, and cheated just about everyone he ever knew. From most accounts, he was not a sensitive or caring lover. He had multiple wives and girlfriends at the same time, while letting each think she was the only one. The one redeeming quality that I can identify after reading this book is that he really loved and cared for the kids he had with Carolyn Cassady (at least the first two).
Neal Cassady ran his body into the ground with drugs and fast living, dying when he was in his early 40's. That means he never had a chance to redeem himself in my eyes the way William Burrouhgs, Sr. and Charles Bukowski were able to do as old men.
I enjoyed reading the book. It was engaging and held my interest, unlike other biographies I've tried to read about famous and interesting people that somehow managed to put me to sleep.
January 30, 2012
I saw this biography in Mac's Backs and knew I had to have it. I knew him only as the basis for character you couldn't take your eyes off of in Kerouac's "On the Road" and wanted to know what his story was.
Neal Cassady was jerk, but a charismatic and influential jerk. In that respect, not unlike most politicians. But he grew up on the other side of the tracks, became a petty criminal, dope fiend, womanizer, and icon of the Beats and the Hippies. Jack Kerouac immortalized him as Dean Moriarty in "On the Road"; Allen Ginsberg fell in love with him, mentioning him by his initials in Howl; besides them he hung out with William Burroughs and Lawrence Ferlinghetti; and he drove Merry Pranksters' psychedelic bus Furthur for Ken Kesey on their epic journey across America. An idyllic hero in the Ayn Rand mold.
Fascinating reading, but I'm glad I never met him.
Neal Cassady was jerk, but a charismatic and influential jerk. In that respect, not unlike most politicians. But he grew up on the other side of the tracks, became a petty criminal, dope fiend, womanizer, and icon of the Beats and the Hippies. Jack Kerouac immortalized him as Dean Moriarty in "On the Road"; Allen Ginsberg fell in love with him, mentioning him by his initials in Howl; besides them he hung out with William Burroughs and Lawrence Ferlinghetti; and he drove Merry Pranksters' psychedelic bus Furthur for Ken Kesey on their epic journey across America. An idyllic hero in the Ayn Rand mold.
Fascinating reading, but I'm glad I never met him.
May 19, 2009
A comprehensive portrait of a Beat Generation Legend that attempts to demythologize the cornucopia of myths swirling around Neal Cassady. However, his life makes such an interesting read that it remains mythological.
March 28, 2007
Good Bio of Neal.
January 3, 2008
OK, the guy invented the hipster and then, helped kick start the hippie movement in the 60's...facinating character this one.
January 26, 2013
Neal Cassady lead the life that I wish I could have if I only had the balls to live it.
May 8, 2020
More interesting than On The Road itself
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