Last Exit to Brooklyn

Last Exit to Brooklyn is a 1964 novel by American author Hubert Selby Jr. The novel has become a cult classic because of its harsh, uncompromising look at lower class Brooklyn in the 1950s and for its brusque, "every man" style of prose.

Writing and Publication History

Last Exit to Brooklyn started as The Queen is Dead, one of several short stories Selby wrote about people he had met around Brooklyn while working as a copywriter and general laborer. The piece was published in three literary magazines in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Related Topics:
Short stories - 1950s - 1960s

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Tralala also appeared in The Provincetown Review in 1961 and drew some intense criticism.

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The pieces later evolved into the full-length book, which was published in 1964 by Grove Press, which had previously published such controversial authors as William S. Burroughs and Henry Miller.

Related Topics:
1964 - Grove Press - William S. Burroughs - Henry Miller

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Critics praised and flamed the publication. poet Allen Ginsberg said that it will "explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years" and

Related Topics:
Poet - Allen Ginsberg

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