![]() ![]() ![]() “Al was with Neal Cassady in San Francisco in December 1948 when Neal spied a brand-new ’49 Hudson and found himself $100 short for the down payment. “The importance of Al Hinkle in the myth and legend that later became the Beat Generation cannot be overstated,” said Jerry Cimino, founder of the Beat Museum in North Beach. ![]() When “On the Road” was published in 1957, Hinkle was fictionalized as “Ed Dunkel” or “Big Ed” or “Big tall Ed.” In “Book of Dreams” (1960), he was “Ed Buckle.” In “Visions of Cody” (1972), he was “Slim Buckle.” Kerouac didn’t last beyond ‘student brakeman’ but he got mileage out of it in his free-form poem “October in the Railroad Earth,” which rattles along like a train on a track. “He got them both jobs on the railroad.” Cassady was a brakeman who didn’t miss a day in 10 years. “Dad is the reason Neal and Jack ended up in California,” Davis said. Hinkle was as steady as his job as a brakeman and conductor with the Southern Pacific Railroad, working both freight and passenger lines during a 40-year career. “My dad, Jack, Allen Ginsberg, Bill Burroughs and Al Hinkle were the originals.”Īs a figure in literature, Hinkle was a stabilizing force to the impulsiveness of Cassady and the brooding searches of Kerouac. “He was really the last one of the contemporaries of my mom and dad who were involved in the beginning of the Beat Generation,” said Cathy Cassady, oldest child of Neal and Carolyn Cassady. ![]()
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