From Publishers Weekly
Though he inspired the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, Beat icon Cassady never published a single book in his lifetime. A restless and uneven writer, he lacked the discipline of his more determined friends, noting himself in a 1948 letter to Kerouac, "My prose has no individual style as such…perhaps, words are not the way for me." But stylistically sound or not, Cassady’s writing inspired a whole generation of authors, and, as evidenced by the copious letters he penned, his life was marked by artistic conflict and wanderlust. Compiling all of the thrice-married writer’s correspondence into one volume for the first time, British editor Moore adeptly documents Cassady’s rise from teenaged inmate at the Colorado State Reformatory to chauffeur for Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. Unfortunately, few of these letters record Cassady’s most famous adventures, such as the cross-country trip with Kerouac that inspired On the Road. The vast majority of the epistles concern Cassady’s failed love affairs and his inability to both keep a job and financially support his wives. Moore gives much needed historical commentary in places, although his decision to sporadically insert letters to Cassady from his ex-wives breaks up the flow of his subject’s central narrative. Although there are a few literary gems within Cassady’s body of work, such as his free-flowing "Joan Anderson" letter, for the most part, his letters prove that his most enduring legacy is his tremendous influence on his Beat friends. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Neal Cassady--that happening, hard-living, hard-loving hero of the Beat culture is fully here--in his own words. Cassady was part raw sexuality, part inspiration for Kerouac and Ginsberg, part arrogant con man, and part insecure, indecisive drifter. The only thing we can be sure of is that Cassady possessed some major charisma. Women bore his children and his absences and not only coped with but even approved of his interchangeable partner approach. Men fell in love with him, too, whether sexually or in pure awe. Cassady's letters show this and more, revealing a sometimes manic yet incredibly insightful and electric mind and a man so charged with emotion for life and open to his urges that he seemed unable to settle anywhere (including within his various selves) for very long. Well edited and annotated, this volume is an essential addition to Beat literature that strengthens the notion of Cassady as a major Beat figure and, more important, presents Cassady as a man, not an icon. Janet St. John
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Neal Cassady is best remembered today as Jack Kerouac’s muse and the basis for the character "Dean Moriarty" in Kerouac’s classic On The Road, and as one of Ken Kesey’s merriest of Merry Pranksters, the driver of the psychedelic bus "Further," immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. This collection brings together more than two hundred letters to Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, John Clellon Holmes, and other Beat generation luminaries, as well as correspondence between Neal and his wife, Carolyn. These amazing letters cover Cassady’s life between the ages of 18 and 41 and finish just months before his death in February 1968. Brilliantly edited by Dave Moore, this unique collection presents the "Soul of the Beat Generation" in his own words—sometimes touching and tender, sometimes bawdy and hilarious. Here is the real Neal Cassady—raw and uncut.
About the Author
Neal Cassady (1926–1968) was born on the side of the road in Salt Lake City and raised in Denver by an alcoholic father. On a trip to New York City in 1946, he encountered Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg on the campus of Columbia University, a meeting many consider the beginning of the Beat movement.
Collected Letters, 1944 - 1967 FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Neal Cassady is best remembered today as Jack Kerouac's muse and the basis for the character Dean Moriarty in Kerouac's classic On the Road, and as one of the merriest of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, the driver of the psychedelic bus Further, immortalized in Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." This definitive new collection brings together for the first time more than two hundred letters to Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, John Clellon Holmes, and other Beat generation luminaries, as well as an important selection between Neal and his wife, Carolyn. These letters (for the most part previously unpublished) cover Neal's life between the ages of eighteen and forty-one and finish just a few months before his death in February 1968. This collection presents the real Neal Cassady - raw and uncut.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Neal Cassady (l926-68), whose life ended prematurely alongside a railroad track in Mexico after a night of drinking and barbiturate use, is considered by many to be the creative impetus behind the Beat Generation movement. Edited by Moore (the author of numerous articles on the Beat writers), this collection of some 200 letters, mostly written by Cassady to Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and two of his three wives, chronicles the short but chaotic life of a man who reveled in goodwill, sentiment, sexual behavior, and philosophy. The letters, of which two thirds have never before been published, reveal such exploits as, for example, his affair with Ginsberg; his friendship with Kerouac, who was influenced and inspired by Cassady's conversational style while writing On the Road; and his friendship with Ken Kesey, whom he joined on his journey across America in his famous psychedelic bus and whom he introduced to Kerouac. The letters also reveal that he worked as a brakeman in California while living with his second wife, Carolyn (who contributed the introduction), that he fathered several children with several women, and that he had a passion for writing letters. More than a few of the letters are inspired and fueled by hope; others are merely hedonistic, despairing, and repetitive but still well worth the reading. Recommended for public and academic libraries with strong literature collections.-Robert Kelly, Fort Wayne Community Schs., IN Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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