Brian Hassett is the author of a Beat Trilogy — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac, How the Beats Begat the Pranksters, and On the Road with Cassadys. He also wrote two of the keynote essays for The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats. And “The Grateful Dead: Jack Manifested as Music” for Kerouac on Record. He inducted Kerouac into the High Times Counterculture Hall of Fame in Amsterdam and has performed his words on both sides of the Atlantic. He’s been a featured performer at Lowell Celebrates Kerouac for the last decade, including the “Jack on Film” shows featuring every portrayal of Kerouac on the big or small screen. He’s also toured North America with original Merry Prankster and close friend of Neal Cassady George Walker, performing a “Jack & Neal Ride Again” show, bringing the duo to life on stage, using On The Road passages. And in keeping with Hunter’s Campaign Trail tradition, he also wrote Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy: Adventures in Politics 1980–2020.