Cover of First Third & Other Writings - Revised & Expanded Edition Together With A New Prologue

First Third & Other Writings - Revised & Expanded Edition Together With A New Prologue

Immortalized as Dean Moriarty by Jack Kerouac in his epic novel, On the Road, Neal Cassady was infamous for his unstoppable energy and his overwhelming charm, his savvy hustle and his devil-may-care attitude. A treasured friend and traveling companion of Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Ken Kesey, to name just some of his cohorts on the beatnik path, Cassady lived life to the fullest, ready for inspiration at any turn.

Read more

Before he died in Mexico in 1968, just four days shy of his forty-second birthday, Cassady had written the jacket blurb for this book: "Seldom has there been a story of a man so balled up. No doubt many readers will not believe the veracity of the author, but I assure these doubting Thomases that every incident, as such, is true."

As Ferlingetti writes in his editor's note, Cassady was "an early prototype of the urban cowboy who a hundred years ago might have been an outlaw on the range." Here are his autobiographical writings, the rambling American saga of a truly free individual.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 222 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked First Third & Other Writings - Revised & Expanded Edition Together With A New Prologue? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked First Third & Other Writings - Revised & Expanded Edition Together With A New Prologue. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg Shares beats, beat, biography
  2. Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac Shares beats, biography, beat
  3. Go Shares beat, beats, beat generation
  4. Memoirs of a Beatnik Shares beat, beats, memoir

“People who read First Third & Other Writings - Revised & Expanded Edition Together With A New Prologue tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution
  2. Jack's Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac
  3. Selected Letters, 1940-1956
  4. I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg

“If you want more of the same (biography), start with these.”

  1. John Wayne: My Father
  2. Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson
  3. Gladiator: A True Story of 'Roids, Rage, and Redemption
  4. Taylor Swift: The Whole Story

“If it was the beat that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Girls Who Wore Black: Women Writing the Beat Generation
  2. Jack Kerouac: Angelheaded Hipster
  3. Baby Driver: A Story About Myself
  4. Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Adventures of Mr. Toad: From The Wind in the Willows
  2. Dance With The Devil
  3. Covenant and Kingdom: The DNA of the Bible
  4. Saffy's Angel