Off the Road: My Years With Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg [Hardcover]

Carolyn Cassady (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1990

This is Carolyn Cassady's story of her life at the centre of the beat generation. In 1948, at the age of 25, she married Neal Cassady. Less than ten years after their marriage, he had become a living legend, his wild spirit immortalized in the character of Dean Moriarty, the heroic traveller in Jack Kerouac's "On The Road". Carolyn Cassady reveals how she had to compete for Neal's attention with his friends and lovers. Their marriage at first alienated poet Allen Ginsberg, who wanted Neal to himself. Even after the civil ceremony, Neal continued to see and "test" other women.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In flesh, and as portrayed in Jack Kerouac's novels On the Road (as Dean Moriarty) and Big Sur (as Cody Pomeroy), Neal Cassady embodied the zeitgeist of his generation, among whom was the author, his wife of 15 chaotic years. He was 22, three years her junior, when she married Cassady in 1948 and became handmaiden to a passionately devoted brotherhood: her husband, her extramarital lover Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, all, as Kerouc put it, " . . . in the car heading for the world unknown." So hazardous proved the terrain that Cassady died at age 43; Kerouac the following year, at 47. Of the famed Beat trio, only Ginsberg would claim his place as elder statesman, his survivorship forecast in his letters to Cassady: "It ain't right to take on so paranoiac just to challenge and see how far you can go"; "I feel so evil when I not agree in blindness." How hard Cassady, possessed of "humid magnetism" and "dangerous glamour," traveled is a tale of self-destruction recreated with felt tragedy by a wife who yearned for conventional family life, to raise their three children in suburban security on the San Francisco peninsula, to be assured that her railway brakeman husband would bring home a weekly paycheck. But compulsive infidelity, drugs, spells in prison, horse-race gambling and the road kept the well-intentioned Cassady otherwise engaged. Among legendary Beats who pass through these memoirs are Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Philip Whalen, Michael McClure, along with others who left an indelible impress on the lives of the Cassadys: Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, an astrologer, a cult of clairvoyants. To the familiar history of the Beat Generation, Carolyn Cassady adds a proprietary chapter marked with newness, self-exposure, love and poignancy. Photos not seen by PW . (July) .
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Neal Cassady has been the subject of several novels, poems, and songs, but he is probably still best known as Dean Moriarty in Kerouac's On the Road . This biography is an expanded, more detailed, far superior version of Carolyn Cassady's Heart Beat ( LJ 9/15/76), the memoir that served as the basis for John Byrum's 1980 film of the same name. Cassady is more expansive here. She describes the complex, intense relationships that developed between her husband, Kerouac, and Ginsberg, and she analyzes their effects on her marriage. Her writing is sincere and engaging, full of pain and struggle but also love. Highly recommended.
- William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 436 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1ST edition (June 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688088910
• ISBN-13: 978-0688088910
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #617,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where the Beat meets the Street, February 5, 2000

By 

Christopher Happ - See all my reviews

This review is from: Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg (Paperback)

This book,written by Carolyn Cassady, wife of famed beat rebel Neal Cassady, offers us a glimpse of the real life and times of the beat poets. The book begins with the tale of how Neal and Carolyn met and ends with his untimely death in Mexico.

Carolyn recounts her twenty-some years of the tumultuos relationship with Neal and his contemporaries which include, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Ken Kesey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, et al. Besides serving as a time-line for the beat generation you will also find a plethora of letters and writings that give a true feel of the period.

After reading this book I came away with a much better insight to the fictional works of Kerouac. In fact the book is as much about Kerouac as it is Cassady.

This work gives an in-depth "taste" of the beat period from New York to San Francisco and it's eventual metamorphosis in the sixties.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great portrait of cassady and kerouac, March 2, 2002

By 

[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (Beaumont, tx USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg (Paperback)

As great as the Beat fiction is, and life-changing as On the Road is, we get too caught up with the fictitive personas of the Beats. It's nice to see the side of Kerouac, Cassady, and Ginsberg that didn't make it into the novels. I'm sure Carolyn's viewpoint is skewed a little, but so is what we read in On the Road. Between her work and their work we can get a picture of what they were like, not as legends, but as men.

There are times when Carolyn bogs down with too much detail, or too much whining, or patches that just aren't great writing, but all in all it is a good biography, autobiography, and novel.

If you want to know more, here is a good place to start, along with these books, though you probably have read them by now: Kerouac's On the Road and The Dharma Bums; Cassady's The First Third; Perry and Babb's On the Bus; Ginsberg's Howl

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A MUST READ FOR ANY BEAT BUFF!, October 15, 2000

By 

K. G. Matt (Strongsville, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg (Paperback)

A recent appetite for any and all written about Beat Generation(Kerouac, Ginsberg, et al), Ken Kesey and Merry Pranksters led me "Off The Road" while browsing at my local library. I found this book insightful and entertaining and yet knew the downside as Neal's life speeds Furthur and Furthur out of control. I was happy to read of NC's unending love for his three offspring and his true devotion to his friends, even though that comradeship was the foundation for his doomed relationship with Carolyn. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a feel for the late 50's and early 60's that altered many lives and lifestyles.