5Fiction. A letter from Neal Cassady to his best friend and travelling companion Jack (On the Road) Kerouac. Kerouac received the letter from Cassady in 1950 and later told the Paris Review that it had inspired On the Road along with his new literary style; referring to it as the greatest piece of writing I ever saw. The energy of Cassady's fast-paced, free-flowing, confessional prose pulsates through the 15,000 word missive; bringing gloriously to life the personality of one of the most high profile figures in literary, and Beat movement, history.