Gerald Nicosia

One and Only: The Untold Story of On the Road (Viva Editions)

In celebration of what would have been Jack Kerouac's 90th birthday, we're presenting biographer Gerald Nicosia (Memory Babe), who will be discussing and signing his new book One and Only, about the woman who started Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady on the journey that inspired On the Road. "This is the missing back-story of the back-story of "On the Road," the mysterious missing woman a lot of us sensed was there but invisible and silent. Until now. Nicosia has given her voice and made her visible, and she's extraordinary. No wonder both Kerouac and Cassady loved her." —Russell Banks, author of Cloudsplitter "One and Only is essential reading for anyone wishing to get the full picture of the Beat Generation. Lu Anne Henderson was Neal Cassady's life-long love and was responsible for the friendship with Kerouac that gave us On The Road. Gerald Nicosia was always a loyal advocate of the women of the Beat Generation, and his remarkable interview with Lu Anne fills in an enormous gap in the story. It shows the vulnerability and insecurities of the main characters, and reveals the chaos of their emotional lives so that Kerouac and company finally emerge as real people! A great book." —Barry Miles, author of Ginsberg: A Biography; Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats; and the forthcoming authorized biography of William S. Burroughs, Call Me Burroughs Gerald Nicosia is a biographer, historian, poet, playwright and novelist. His biography of Jack Kerouac, Memory Babe, won the Distinguished Young Writer Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters and was called a “great book” by Allen Ginsberg and “by far the best of the many books published about Jack Kerouac’s life and work” by William Burroughs. It is still widely regarded as the definitive work on Kerouac.  His book Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement won numerous honors and was named one of the Los Angeles Times “Best Books of the Year” in 2001.  He is currently at work on a biography of Ntozake Shange. Nicosia lives in Corte Madera, California. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MARCH 12, 2012