“Here I was in Denver … I stumbled along with the most wicked grin of joy in the world, among the bums and beat cowboys of Larimer Street.” — Jack Kerouac, On The Road
I overnighted in Denver, yesterday, which gave me an opportunity to explore some of the “must do” haunts of the Beats.
Neal Cassady, the pansexual muse of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, John Clellon-Holmes, Tom Wolfe, Ken Kesey and others, was raised by his alcoholic father on the pestilence-ridden skidrow of Larimer Square in the 1930s. That is, when he wasn’t in reform school for car theft.
Pictured here, Larimer Square is now heritage listed and populated with posh eateries and high end designer clothing boutiques.
A couple of miles down 15th Street is My Brothers, a suburban bar where Cassady and Kerouac often got drunk on their many explorations of late-1940s Jazz dives in pursuit of musicians, like Slim Gaillard, who had “IT!” I decided to do the same while I was here, enjoy its architecture and chat with locals.
My Brothers is unchanged. Just outside the bathroom, pictured, is Carolyn Cassady’s portrait photograph of Jack and Neal, adorned with the original letter Neal had sent to Justin Brierly, a prominent Denver educator who had helped him - and others like him - get out of reform school.
Neal asks Brierly to pay off his bar tab debt at My Brothers for him. Those lines are pretty easy to read between.
Where I slept: The Brown Palace Hotel: Stunning building with period rooms harking back to the old west.
Where I ate: Corinne: Nothing fancy, good honest fare served really well.
