Cassady, Neal

Neal Leon Cassady, Jr., 1926-1968, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, while his parents were traveling from Iowa to Hollywood, California. Neal's father earned a living intermittently as a barber, and his mother had been widowed and already had seven children before marrying the senior Cassady. Neal was six when his parents separated and Neal went to live with his father in the slums of Denver.

Exposed at an early age to poverty, alcoholism, and the despair to which men can be driven, young Neal learned to use his intellect to move up in the world. A good reader with an excellent memory, and eager to be liked by authority figures, he did well in school and pushed himself to be a good athlete, playing football and running track. While he was impressing teachers and coaches at school, he was also becoming involved in petty crime, eventually becoming a car thief. He had been arrested six times by the age of 21. Cassady frequently ran away from home and around the age of 15 he began trading in on his good looks and worked as a male prostitute. An attorney, the nephew of one of Cassady's clients, took an interest in his welfare and endeavored to help him better himself. Besides helping him out of legal difficulties he introduced Cassady to Hal Chase, a student at Columbia University.

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