Love, literature, and friendship at the heart of the Beat Generation Off the Road tells the intimate story of the now legendary Neal Cassady and his remarkable friendship with Jack Kerouac (who immortalized Cassady as Dean Moriarty in On the Road ) and Allen Ginsberg. Written by the woman who loved them all--as wife of Cassady, lover of Kerouac, and friend of Ginsberg---this riveting memoir spans one of the most vital eras in twentieth-century literature and culture, including the explosive successes of Kerouac's On the Road and Ginsberg's Howl , the flowering of the Beat movement, and the social revolution of the 1960s. Carolyn Cassady reveals a side of Neal Cassady rarely seen--that of husband and father, a man who craved respectability, yet could not resist the thrills of a wider and ultimately more destructive lifestyle. "Bursts with emotions of joy and enlightenment, anger and restlessness, delight and desolation."- Boston Herald "A great book as well as a wonderful autobiography."- Washington Post Book World "Intensely readable."--Peter Ackroyd "This is the book to be read in tandem with Kerouac's On the Road , Ginsberg's Howl , and Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool Aid Acid Test . It fits like the lost half of a broken plate."-- Literary Review (London) "Carolyn Cassady's book is the one that I have been waiting to read for the past forty years, the one that sets the record straight...one hell of a story."--Jay Landesman, Sunday Times (London)