Carolyn Cassady

Carolyn Cassady (born in Lansing, Michigan, in 1923; died in 2013) was an American writer linked to the Beat Generation through her marriage to Neal Cassady and her friendship with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Though she is remembered mainly for that circle, her training was in the arts: she studied art and then drama at Bennington College and later earned a master's degree from the University of Denver, where she worked in the theater arts.

She met Neal Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg in Denver in 1947, and her relationship with Neal took her to San Francisco. They married in 1948 and had three children. Kerouac became a frequent figure in her life and in his own work, and Carolyn described the three of them in her memoir, published in 1976 as Heart Beat. While raising her children she continued to paint portraits and designed costumes for theater and dance companies.

Her memoir was adapted into a 1980 film, in which Sissy Spacek played Carolyn. Beyond her writing, she kept up her interest in painting and theater for the rest of her life.