I bought a copy of On the Road in 1995. I knew nothing about Kerouac, in fact I only bought the book because of a girl. She was infatuated with Kerouac, and I was infatuated with her. Can you think of a better reason to read a book?

On the first read I wasn’t that impressed and never thought anymore of it. Fast forward a few years later and I was living in Scotland; the girl was ancient history, and the book far in the back of my mind. The only books I had access to were at the Edinburgh Public Library. Though decent for a public library, after a year and a half I was running out of things to read. I used to walk the isles every Sunday morning looking for something to catch my interest. One morning I came across On the Road and decided to give it another run. The second time around I got “IT”.

Fast forward another year and I was back in Montreal completing my Master’s degree. When it came time to write my thesis, I chose Neal Cassady as my subject. The experience was one of the most memorable of my life. For 8 months, I devoted every waking hour reading, researching and living vicariously through Cassady’s exploits. I also discovered the other Neal; the one that Kerouac didn’t portray in his books: Neal the father; Neal the hard worker; the Neal that tore himself apart with guilt; I discovered Neal Cassady the man and found him far more interesting than his literary counterpart, aka: Dean Moriarty and Cody Pomeray.

I had originally intended to continue my academic pursuits by completing a PhD and working further on Cassady; however, at the time I was forced to find a new thesis director (my graduate director was unavailable). When I approached the only other suitable department member, he said the following to me, verbatim: “Kerouac and company are mildly interesting as juvenile delinquents, but they didn’t write anything worth reading.”

That was the end of my academic career. Tired of the pretentiousness of the “ivory tower”, I chose to walk away, and instead continued my studies independently; which of course included some practical “road experience”.

This project is part of my ongoing endeavors to explore and study not only Cassady, but the Beat Generation in a broader sense, one that is not limited by the confines of academic research. I hope that it’s entertaining and informative, and of interest not only to long-time Beat enthusiasts and Kerouac-eans, but to anyone that has recently discovered the incredible journey that is the Beat Generation.