Neal Cassady: The Fast Life of a Beat Hero

I saw this biography in Mac's Backs and knew I had to have it. I knew him only as the basis for character you couldn't take your eyes off of in Kerouac's “On the Road” and wanted to know what his story was.
Neal Cassady was jerk, but a charismatic and influential jerk. In that respect, not unlike most politicians. But he grew up on the other side of the tracks, became a petty criminal, dope fiend, womanizer, and icon of the Beats and the Hippies. Jack Kerouac immortalized him as Dean Moriarty in “On the Road”; Allen Ginsberg fell in love with him, mentioning him by his initials in Howl; besides them he hung out with William Burroughs and Lawrence Ferlinghetti; and he drove Merry Pranksters' psychedelic bus Furthur for Ken Kesey on their epic journey across America. An idyllic hero in the Ayn Rand mold.
Fascinating reading, but I'm glad I never met him.