I recently saw a Facebook post about Neil Cassady, followed by someone commenting “I don’t get why he was such an icon.”
I once heard about Robin Williams entertaining people by spontaneously talking to a gas pump for 30 minutes. I’ve met a few people like that who seem to have a self-directed and limitless supply of energy that can be transformative. I imagine this was the effect Neil Cassidy had on others. The owner of the Barn in Scotts Valley, which was a hippy gathering place in the 60’s, first met Neil as a prisoner at San Quentin while working there as a psychologist (Leon Taboury). His daughter said, “Cassady lit my dad’s fire.” I imagine he had this effect on lots of people, but you had to be there. And since he emerges through the form of what others have created or written down, that’s how we know him. He becomes a kind of symbol of beat hippie freedom love gusto, without all the baggage of creative works to stumble over. He’s literally the content. Thus an icon.