Kristen Calls Lu Anne Henderson the "Necessary Estrogen" in 'On The Road'

In his latest book, Gerald Nicosia has unlocked the dynamic of Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, and not a moment too soon. Nicosia, the author of “Memory Babe,” the definitive Jack Kerouac book, was an advisor to the “On The Road” movie due to be premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival. “On The Road,” published in 1951, was of course, the book that made Kerouac famous. It was inspired by Jack London’s famed book, “The Road,” published in 1907.

Nicosia’s new book is “One And Only: The Untold Story of On The Road.”

Its genesis was on the set of "On The Road," when he was hired to teach the actors what beatnik life was all about.

“The new film is more from the viewpoint of Lu Anne, Cassady’s first wife. That is because Nicosia as the preeminent Kerouac scholar was hired as an advisor for “On The Road.” When he played the tapes for actress Kristen Stewart, both he and the actress had some major revelations.

Stewart plays Marylou, who was 15 when she met Cassady. Marylou was a sweet 16 when they married, discounted as the stunning 16-year-old blond bimbo who Kerouac and Cassady shared, but otherwise was of little account. “One And Only: The Untold Story of On The Road” strongly disputes that account, and portrays Lu Anne as as the glue that bound these two powerful characters. She molded their relationship, and thus was a major catalyst of American literature…

To be sure, a lot of serendipity was involved in how the story unfolded. Nicosiadecided to play the interview for Stewart during a beat boot camp “On The Road” director Walter Salles set up in Montreal in the summer of 2010. Nicosia had recorded the hours-long interview with Lu Anne in 1978. For Stewart, she was looking for the rhythm of Lu Anne’s language. For Nicosia, he realized that he had not really understood what Lu Anne was saying when he first recorded the interview…”

Rolfe asked Nicosia to try and make of it what he could.

“What we now know is that the dynamic duo of Kerouac and Cassady was actually a trio: Neal, Lu Anne, and Jack,” he replied. ”It was always assumed that these two guys, cultural outlaws, a kind of modern-day Butch Cassady and Sundance Kid, just magically found each other, combined forces, and started the Beat Generation.”

“What we now know, thanks to Lu Anne’s testimony, is that both these guys were enormously insecure and vulnerable, that they were very different (though both were misfits in post-World War II America), and that neither one liked or trusted the other when they met.

“It took the depth and insight of a woman’s love, Lu Anne’s, to allow them to see enough in each other’s character, and in each other’s heart, to begin to form the friendship that changed contemporary America. Without Lu Anne–the “necessary estrogen,” as Kristen Stewart put it–the chemical reaction, the new and potent compound of Kerouac-Cassady, simply wouldn’t have happened or existed.”

Read the full article at RandomLengthsNews

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