The youngest of five siblings, she was born Carolyn Elizabeth Robinson in Lansing, Michigan. Of English descent, both of her parents were educators, her mother a former English teacher and her father a biochemist, who raised their children according to strict conventional values. [1] She spent the first eight years of her childhood in East Lansing, then the family moved to Nashville, Tennessee where Carolyn attended the Ward-Belmont Preparatory School for Girls. Although she enjoyed the school, she was less happy with Nashville and chose to spend her summers in Glen Lake, Michigan.

After the move to Nashville, Carolyn developed her lifelong interest in the fine arts and theater arts. She began formal art lessons at age 9, sold her first portrait at age 14, and continued her interest in portrait painting as an adult. At age 12 she joined the Nashville Community Playhouse, where she won awards for set designs and became the head of the make-up department at age 16. She secured a scholarship to Bennington College, an exclusive women's school in Vermont, where she initially studied art then switched to drama.

In 1943 Carolyn was allowed to study for six months in New York City. Until she and her roommate could find an apartment of their own, they were hosted by Robert Sherwood, playwright and author of FDR's speeches. By day she worked for Dazian's fabric company, by night she studied at Traphagen School of Design, and on weekends she browsed the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art for little-known prints of period dress. She also attended Broadway stage productions, witnessed the beginning of the American Ballet Theater, and took in performances of the biggest swing bands of the era. Both she and her roommate became air raid wardens, serving as auxiliary members of the NYPD.

At Bennington, Carolyn took classes with Martha Graham, Erich Fromm, Peter Drucker, Francis Ferguson, Theodore Roethke, and other noted teachers in their fields. She obtained her BA degree in Stanislavsky Drama in 1944.

After graduation, Carolyn became an occupational therapist for the U.S. Army and served at Torney General Hospital in Palm Springs, California. When the war ended she returned to Nashville to continue her work at the Nashville Community Playhouse, paint and recover from her war experiences.

In 1946, Carolyn moved to Denver, Colorado to study for her MA degree in Fine Arts and Theater Arts at the University of Denver. She worked as a teaching assistant and began a Theater Arts department for the Denver Art Museum.

In March 1947, Carolyn met Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Allen stayed in her residence hotel apartment for two weeks before finding an apartment of his own and Jack accompanied her to rehearsals at the University. In the evenings Carolyn, Neal and Jack frequented Denver's clubs to dance and hear music. It was during this period that Carolyn and Neal began their love affair, though at the time he was still married to his first wife, LuAnne Henderson. In August 1947, Carolyn was shocked to find LuAnne, Neal and Allen naked, in bed together. She decided her brief romance with Neal was over and departed for Hollywood, CA on the promise of a job opening as costume designer for Western Costume Company.

While waiting for the job opening, Carolyn moved north to San Francisco, staying initially with an older married sister before finding temporary work and an apartment of her own. But five weeks after she left Denver, Neal re-entered her life and they resumed their romance. His marriage to LuAnne was annulled on March 31, 1948 and the next day Carolyn and Neal were married.

In a 2008 interview with literary magazine Notes from the Underground, Cassady stated that "As far as I'm concerned, the Beat Generation was something made up by the media and Allen Ginsberg." She goes on to say that Jack Kerouac could not stand the public image that was created for him.

The job as costume designer finally came through, however Carolyn declined because she was pregnant. Neal worked at various jobs, finally becoming a brakeman for the Southern Pacific Railroad. On September 6, 1948 Carolyn gave birth to a daughter, Cathleen Joanne, the first of their three children. Carolyn fully expected life to settle down, but was shocked when, in December, Neal spent their savings on a new Hudson and declared he was going to be taking a short trip to pick up Jack Kerouac and provide honeymoon transportation for friend Al Hinkle and his new bride to New York City. Although Neal did make provisions for Carolyn's and baby Cathy's care, she considered Neal's sudden departure desertion and told him not to return.

Neal drove to Denver to pick up ex-wife LuAnne and then picked up Kerouac in North Carolina. The story was immortalized in Kerouac's On the Road. Believing the marriage was finished, Carolyn moved with her infant daughter to an apartment near Mission Dolores in San Francisco. At the end of January 1949, Neal dropped Jack and LuAnne off on a San Francisco street corner and was back in Carolyn's life. Neal took care of baby Cathleen during the day while Carolyn worked as an assistant to a radiologist.

In San Francisco Jack spent a few days as a guest in their apartment before returning to New York. After Neal resumed work with the Southern Pacific Railroad, they moved to better housing. In 1952 Jack joined them for several months, beginning to write Visions of Neal, which later became On the Road, Visions of Cody, and other works. With Neal's encouragement, Carolyn and Jack began an affair that continued until 1960. In 1953, Jack joined Neal working as a brakeman for the Southern Pacific Railroad, and he lived with them after they moved to San Jose, California.

Carolyn and Neal had two more children, a daughter, Jami, and a son, John Allen, who was named after Jack (Jean-Louis) Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. After receiving compensation from a railroad injury, they bought a home in Monte Sereno, California, which was then part of Los Gatos, a suburb about fifty miles south of San Francisco. Jack, Allen and the other Beat writers often visited their Monte Sereno home. Carolyn continued to paint portraits and became costume designer and make-up artist for the Los Gatos Academy of Dance, the Wagon Stagers, the San Jose Opera Company, the San Jose Light Opera Company, and the drama club of the University of Santa Clara.

In 1958, Neal was arrested by narcotic agents to whom he had given three marijuana cigarettes. He was accused of drug trafficking and served two years at San Quentin State Prison, leaving Carolyn to take care of their children and fend for herself on welfare. During this period she also continued her painting and theater work.

After Neal was released from prison, he lost his railroad job for good and became progressively less reliable. When his parole ended in 1963, Carolyn decided to divorce him, mostly to free him from the burden of family obligations, a decision she later regretted. Without employment or family to anchor him, Neal joined Ken Kesey's band of Merry Pranksters and embarked on an endless series of road trips, dying in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico on February 4, 1968, four days short of his forty-second birthday. Although the exact cause of Neal's death was never determined, it is believed to have been caused by a combination of drug/alcohol use and exposure to the elements.

Carolyn worked at a local newspaper and for radiologists, and she also extended her theater activities. In 1970, Doubleday commissioned her to write her memoirs of her life with Neal and Jack. However she was unable to secure permission to print Kerouac's letters, and the book was temporarily shelved.

Carolyn was a founding member of the Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine (APM) and during the early 1970s served for four years as their correspondence secretary. In this capacity, she met many interesting people in the occult and medical world--Uri Geller, Andrija Puharich, the Findhorn people, and astronaut Marcus Bach, who started an institution much like the APM after he'd seen the earth as a blue jewel. She also became acquainted with eminent astrologer Dane Rudhyar, and she corresponded with one of the Russian scientists behind the book "Psychic Discoveries Behind The Iron Curtain."

When the APM closed, Carolyn served as office manager for a company that imported bamboo stakes from China to stock American nurseries.

After all three children had married and left home, Carolyn longed for more cultural life than was available in the San Francisco suburbs. Her ancestors were all buried in England, and she had been brought up with many English customs, so in 1983 she moved to London, England. With London as her home base, she traveled extensively in Europe, Scandinavia and the Soviet Union, making many friends. In 1990, her memoirs were finally published in London as Off the Road: Twenty Years With Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg. She currently makes her home in the country near Bracknell, about an hour outside London.

Bibliography

• Twenty Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg. New York: Morrow, 1990; London: Black Spring Press, 1990; new edition Black Spring Press, 2007

Notes