Neal Cassady was better known as the man who inspired artists in the Beat Generation than as an artist himself.
The fabled “Joan Anderson Letter’ of December 1950 was sent by Cassady to Jack Kerouac. It inspired Kerouac’s “On The Road” and set off a literary revolution. The letter was once considered “lost” for more than 60 years until it was rediscovered in the files of Golden Goose press in 2012, the same small company that printed the works of Allen Ginsberg and Kenneth Rexroth.
Cathy Cassady Sylvia, the daughter of Neal Cassady, joins Insight to recount the journey of the Joan Anderson Letter to its final destination and her father’s part in the history of the Beat Generation.