On the Road Without a Map: The Women of the Beat Writers

Abstract

Many of the women who consorted with the early Beat writers suffered poverty, abortions, abandonment, and, in some cases, physical and sexual abuse. Were they merely passive facilitators and financial supporters of the talented but careless men — the kind of conformists that they and the Beat men detested? This interpretation would not do them justice. Five brief portraits of these women appear in this article, showing how once freed, years later, from the suffocating influence of the frenetic, immature men, some of these early fellow travelers emerged as major talents of their own. The article is a cautionary tale for bright women tempted to throw themselves at self-centered young men.

Keywords: social construction of women, Beat writers, Carolyn Robinson Cassady, Edie Parker Kerouac, Joan Haverty Kerouac, Joan Vollmer Burroughs, Joan Glassman Johnson