The Holy Goof: A Biography of Neal Cassady
by William Plummer
64 Members (3.00)
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Description
Criminal. Saint. Lunatic. Genius. Muse. Neal Cassady was once described by Jack Kerouac as "more like Dostoevsky than anyone I know." Serving as the model for Kerouac's frenetic hero, the hip, Noble Savage Dean Moriarty in On the Road, and "N.C., the secret hero" of Allen Ginsberg's provocative poem "Howl," Cassady was a genius of life lived on the edge of the abyss. In The Holy Goof, William Plummer strips away the mystery surrounding this enigmatic figure. Plummer brings Cassady to life: show more his coming of age in a Denver flophouse, his hustling across America, the car thefts that landed him in jail, his meeting with Kerouac and their mad-cap cross-country adventures, his experiments with sex and drugs, his second marriage to Carolyn Cassady, his teaming with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters on an epochal acid trip, and finally his bizarre death in Mexico. With a revealing interview by Al Aronowitz added to this second edition, William Plummer's biography of this amazing figure remains one of the best portraits ever written about the man who lived what others could only write about. Book jacket. show lessTags
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Author Information
3 Works 76 Members
William Plummer (1945-2001) lived in Montclair, New Jersey, and was an editor at People magazine. The author of Wishing My Father Well and Buttercups and Strong Boys, he wrote for such publications as The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, Esquire, Newsweek, Hudson Review, and Men's Journal
Common Knowledge
- Epigraph
- America when will you be angelic? When will you take off your clothes? from Allen Ginsberg's "America"
- Dedication
- For Molly
- First words
- Jack Kerouac had to wait six years, until September 1957, to see On The Road published.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prarie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 973.92 — History & geography History of North America United States 1901- Cold War, Vietnam War, Digital Age (1953-2001)
- LCC
- CT275 .C3458 .P59 — Auxiliary Sciences of History Biography Biography National biography
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 64
- Popularity
- 484,140
- Rating
- (3.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 2
