Beat Meetings #3: Cathy Cassady & Allen Ginsberg
The eldest child of Neal and Carolyn Cassady takes us back to a childhood moment when a poet friend of the family paid her some much-needed attention
Cathy Cassady was the first child in the Cassady family. Her parents’ writer friends would often visit their California home in the 1950s. Cathy is presently working on a graphic biography of her father’s younger years with the artist Rick Bleier. Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) became one of the USA’s most celebrated and influential poets after the publication of Howl and Other Poems in 1956.
Who did you meet?
Allen Ginsberg
Where did you meet?
Allen was a friend of the family, and I don’t remember the first time we met. He was in and out of our lives, as my parents’ friends were. He was no one special to me as a kid.
When did this meeting come about?
This one memorable moment with Allen was when I was in junior high. I was pathologically shy and withdrawn and most of the time wished I could drop through the floor and disappear. To say I was anti-social is a major understatement. In those days I was labeled as having an ‘inferiority complex’.
What did you talk about?
The reason I remember this particular meeting with Allen is because I was astonished and pleased that he was interested in ME and what my life was like. He actually sat with me on the daybed in the family room of our little house at 18231 Bancroft Avenue in what is now Monte Sereno, CA and asked how I was doing.
We talked for a bit and I was happy that he would take the time to find out about me. No one ever did that. (Not even my parents. Dad would on the rare occasions when he was home or when he wrote us ‘kiddies’ letters. Dad was curious about everything and everybody, but Mom was too busy trying to hold down the fort.)
What were your impressions of the Beat you met?
Allen has always been warm and kind. He was one of the calmer friends of our parents (as was Jack) and that appealed to me, being the timid soul I was. His interest in me seemed sincere and it meant a lot. I was most grateful he spent those few minutes with me.
Are there any other thoughts you would like to share? Did you read his work and, if so, what?
I was impressed with Allen’s tranquil demeanor, but am not a fan of his work. It jars my sensitive psyche. I can understand and sympathize with the impulse that drives him to write what he does, but it’s not for me. Therefore, I haven’t read much of what he’s written. My literary tastes run in a different direction.
See also: ‘Graphic memoir: Portrait of Dean as a young boy’, May 2nd, 2022; ‘Down Mexico way: Memories of a father’, February 23rd, 2022