Jack Kerouac

[Esau]

Would have been 84 today....

Cheers to him.

"…We're fallen angels

Who didn't believe

That nothing means nothing."

-Excerpt From '8th Chorus'

[StoneMtn]

Wow. Truly deserving of a memoriam-thread to say the least.

I've never seen it, but I've always had my eye out for a book I've only heard of called "Off The Road", which I think was written by his wife; essentially complaining about being left at home while Jack was out there; on the road. Anyone ever read it?

[SteveThe Owl]

I've always had my eye out for a book I've only heard of called "Off The Road"

Actually' date=' it was written by Carolyn Cassady, ex-wife of Neal (best known as Dean in On the Road, and later as the driver of the 'Furthur' bus).

I [i']think I have a copy of it, but I haven't had the chance to read it yet (I think she ended up writing two or three books about her life with Neal and Jack). I've gotten only mixed reviews of it from friends, but it is important as it is an outsider's take on everything that went into On the Road and other works in the Kerouac mythology.

[SteveThe Owl]

By the way, Esau, thanks for the reminder. Blessings to you.

Cheers to him indeed.

[meggo]

many thanks.

[Boochawan]

Actually, it was written by Carolyn Cassady, ex-wife of Neal (best known as Dean in On the Road, and later as the driver of the 'Furthur' bus)

I know Dean was the pseudonym of Neal Cassidy in On The Road...is Camille (one of Dean's wives in the book) supposed to be Carolyn?

Edited March 13, 2006 by Guest

[YearsAlongTheSea]

Funny, while moving today, I found some diaries that I had written while travelling in South America. Anyways, I had been reading a lot of Kerouac at the time and it was funny to see how often my own scribings included words like "dig" and "cat"

All the best to Kerouac's memory.

[zero]

I don't know if Carolyn Cassidy has a pseudonym in On The Road or any of the Duluoz Chronicles which is how Jack imagined the whole of his ouevre. I know that Ed Dunkel the character had the wife Galatea Dunkel who showed up at Old Bull Lee (Burroughs) place in New Orleans but that is the only spouse I can think of. There is the book Maggie if I'm not mistaken by Kerouac which is about Carolyn maybe - am I getting this wrong? The wives always had far more probing insights if you ask me - in hindsight of course.

I was always blown away by how sexually probing and outright bi and homosexual all of their relationships were. Cassidy used to let Ginsberg blow him but only if there was a chick in the room. Classic! Burroughs and Ginsberg were of course full on flamers and blew many sailors in stairways, vestibules and alleyways. Oddly enough I gather, and this is one of those great unspoken facts of American history, but I gather both Ginsberg and Burroughs were interviewed by Kinsey or one of his associates and that their sexual delictations themselves made up some of the aggregate data that became the Kinsey Report.

[boogieknight]

I've never seen it, but I've always had my eye out for a book I've only heard of called "Off The Road", which I think was written by his wife; essentially complaining about being left at home while Jack was out there; on the road. Anyone ever read it?

I read Off The Road. Good book. It was interesting to hear about Neil Cassidy from a different perceptive. It reveled Cassidy more as the person then the cultural icon.

[Boochawan]

I was always blown away by how sexually probing and outright bi and homosexual all of their relationships were.

...in addition to their huge amounts of womanizing.

Edited March 13, 2006 by Guest