Holmes, John Clellon

Nothing More to Declare

ISBN: 0233960279
London, England: Andre Deutsch Limited, 1968. First UK Edition. Hardcover. "Nothing More to Declare is an account of living and writing by one of the Beat Generation, a friend of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and others less famous but no less interesting and significant- and it makes nonsense of the game of 'generationing' by speaking to everyone, anywhere." (from front flap) A memoir by John Clellon Holmes (1926-1988), who met Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady & others during the late 1940s & was among the earliest to profile them as fictional characters in his novel GO (1952). Although intimately associated with the Beat Generation, Holmes was more of a confidant-observer, especially of Kerouac, than a bona-fide Beat himself in his life & writing styles. In this later work, he focuses on biographical-critical portraits of Ginsberg, Kerouac & two much-less well known Beat figures, Jay Landesman & Gershon Legman. Holmes also muses on a variety of topics including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy & the personality of his alleged killer, Lee Harvey Oswald. Full of clear insight & eyewitness anecdotes with the benefit of some distance & hindsight by a very penetrating writer. Offered here is the first UK edition, published the year following the first American edition of 1967, hardcover in unclipped dust jacket. The very colorful front cover & spine graphics are most exemplary of the British mod-psychedelic sixties, much bolder than the American version. A classic Holmes rarity of great benefit & interest to the collector-scholar of the Beat Generation. Book in very fine condition with only very light rubbing, browning & sparse spotting to edges of text block esp. upper edge; otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Dust Jacket very fine with only only very light rubbing & occasional spotting to front, back covers, spine & flaps; a bit of wear to edges & corners of same; one very small-to-tiny chip-crease-gauge at blank upper edge near left corner of back cover (interestingly on which is printed a contemporary list of publisher's Kerouac titles). Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #4156]

Price: $60.00