FREE talk about Lu Anne Henderson and the Untold Story of On The Road

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” — Jack Kerouac, On the Road

That girl in the picture? It’s Lu Anne Henderson, the girl who made the beat writers go crazy. Never heard of her? Tomorrow night, you can hear the inside story for FREE when author Gerald Nicosia talks about his new book One and Only: The Untold Story of On the Road at the SF Public Library.

Nicosia worked with Lu Anne’s daughter Anne Marie Santos to take a deep look at this central woman from the beat world. She was Neal’s first wife, certainly more than just a friend of Kerouac’s, and I’ve even read somewhere that Ginsberg said she could almost get him to go straight…

From the description of One and Only:

Lu Anne Henderson was a beautiful 15-year-old girl in Denver in 1945 when she met Neal, a fast-talking hurricane of male sexuality and vast promises. The two married, and soon they were hanging out with a group of would-be writers, including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Lu Anne became the secret link between Kerouac and Cassady, helping to ignite the Beat Generation, and giving Kerouac material for one of the seminal novels of the 20th century, On the Road.

This is going to be a sweet chance for anyone who loves the beat generation to hear from a beat scholar about a person who is as important as she is unknown.

Image source: Criminalwisdom

The Untold Story of On the Road: Reading and Lecture
San Francisco Public Library
Latino/ Hispanic Meeting Room A and B
Thursday, January 31
6:30-8:00
FREE