The 1950 drug-fuelled letter, written by Beat legend Neal Cassady and valued at more than $500,000, was thrown overboard on Stern’s California houseboat. “Allen shouldn’t have been so careless with it, nor the guy on the houseboat,” Kerouac told the Paris Review. Or at least that’s the story Kerouac told the press. Cassady’s 18-page letter to Kerouac describes a drunken and sexually charged visit to his hometown of Denver, Colorado. Kerouac told the Paris Review he passed the exceptional letter on to friend and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, who then loaned it to Stern.

Source: National Post May 26, 2016 10:37 UTC