New in our Collectible catalogue: three Alexander Trocchi editions.
A rare hardcover copy of John Calder’s notorious 1963 publication of Trocchi’s second novel Cain’s Book.
A 1983 reprint of Trocchi’s first novel Young Adam
A 1992 reprint of White Thighs: one of the pornographic novels that Trocchi wrote for Olympia Press, Paris in the 1950s
Alexander Trocchi’s restless existence took him from Glasgow, where he was born in 1925, first to Paris and from there to California, New Mexico, New York, Montreal, and London. Connected to both the Beats in the US and the Lettrists in France, he formed one of the early links between the Beat Generation and the European avant-garde. In New York, where he worked on a stone scow on the Hudson River to make a living, he wrote his autobiographical second novel Cain’s Book, which was published by Grove Press, New York in 1960. Candid descriptions of the existential bleakness of junky life combined with Trocchi’s refined writing style make the book a classic of post-war literature. Cain’s Book met with acclaim in the US but was banned in the UK after its release by John Calder, London in 1963. The obscenity trial it provoked in Sheffield in 1964 was lost by Calder and following the verdict the book was not only confiscated by the police but also publicly burned in protest by Trocchi.
Trocchi moved from Montreal to London in 1962 and stayed there until his death in 1984. He never managed to finish another novel but continued to publish works under the cloak of his Project Sigma, which was related to Situationist International. The best-known of these works is the 1963 manifesto A Revolutionary Proposal: Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds, which – via Simon Vinkenoog – influenced Provo in Amsterdam.