Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and Natalie Jackson underneath movie marquee, San Francisco1955 silver gelatin print (Image courtesy of the University of Toronto Collection)
Inscription: Neal Cassady and his love that year before her suicide Natalie Jackson conscious of their roles in Eternity. Cassady had been prototype idealized for Jack Kerouac’s late 1940s On The Road picaresque saga hero Dean Moriarty, as later in 1960s he’d taken the driver’s wheel of ken Kesey’s psychadelic-era Merry Pranksters crosscountry bus "Further". Neal’s illuminated American automobile energy, crossreferential eager eloquence & grass-roots erotic drive had already written his name in bright-lit signs in our literary imaginations before moviews were made imitating his charm. That’s why we stopped without plan under the marquee to fix the passing hand on the watch, San Francisco, Probably march 1955.
Any unauthorized reproduction, storage, transmittal or distribution, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited.