In 1947, Jack Kerouac was told by a friend at Columbia University he needed to head to Denver to meet with a man named Neal Cassady, a legendary free spirit who would become the prototype for the Beat Generation.
Though he was only in town for 10 days, his meeting with Cassady developed a relationship that would forever impact the Beat Generation and the generations that came later who read Kerouac’s work “On the Road.” The sights and sounds of Denver figured prominently into the novel, with Cassady being the influence behind Dean Moriarty, the novel’s narrator’s carefree best friend.
– Jacqueline Gualtieri, The 100 Companies