Neal cassady on the road6/2/2023 ![]() Those relationships, which lasted the rest of his short life, became the foundation of some of the most important and influential works of Beat literature.Īs a friend and lover to both Kerouac and Ginsberg, he inspired classic characters and moments in their work. In 1946, on a trip to New York, he met Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, the cornerstones of the Beat movement in literature. ![]() He lived a transient existence with his alcoholic father and was first arrested when he was fifteen. His mother died when he was 10, after which he moved with his father to Colorado. He died in Mexico after a wedding reception of exposure, an appropriately long list of chemicals found in his blood.Ĭassady’s early life was marked by tragedy. ![]() In novels and poems where he appears (there are quite a few of them), he is nearly always portrayed as a kind of drug-fueled human supernova, a fast-talking combination of holy man and devil. ![]() He became something like a real American version of John Milton’s Satan from Paradise Lost – someone who was willing to appear evil to wider society in order to celebrate his own individuality. Cassady’s influence changed English literature and helped to usher in both Beat poetry and literature and the succeeding hippy movement. Neal Cassady (1926-1968), born in Salt Lake City, “Adonis of Denver” (according to Allen Ginsberg), never published a book in his life but gained international notoriety and fame as the near-official muse of the Beat movement. ![]()
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