OBIT: Hubert Selby Jr.

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Hubert Selby Jr., author of Last Exit to Brooklyn, dead at 75
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hubert Selby Jr., the acclaimed and anguished author of Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, died Monday of a lung disease, his wife said. He was 75.
Selby died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his home in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, said his wife of 35 years, Suzanne.
Born in New York City, Selby’s experience among Brooklyn’s gritty longshoremen, homeless and the down-and-out formed the basis for his lauded 1964 novel Last Exit to Brooklyn, which was made into a film in 1989.
“It was a seminal piece of work. It broke so many traditions,” said Jim Regan, head of the master’s of professional writing program at the University of Southern California, where Selby taught as an adjunct professor for the past 20 years.
“There was that generation of writers: William Burroughs, Henry Miller, and there was Hubert Selby. And he’s one of the last of that generation, of some of the greatest writers in this country.”
Suzanne Selby said her late husband was kind and generous but in recent years suffered from depression and occasionally would launch into rages.
“He screamed, he yelled, he broke things,” she said. “But he did not have rages when he was writing.”
Selby shared a screenwriting credit on the 2000 film version of his 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream, a harrowing look inside a family’s many addictions. His other novels include The Room (1971), The Demon (1976) and The Willow Tree (1998). A collection of short stories, Song of the Silent Snow, was published in 1986.
Selby continued to work on screenplays and teach at USC until he was hospitalized last month. He had been in and out of the hospital in recent weeks and died with his wife by his side, she said.
He contracted tuberculosis as a child and had suffered from breathing problems ever since, Suzanne Shelby said. He was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease several years ago.
Selby often wrote at an apartment he kept in West Hollywood. He worked in a bedroom there for at least five hours most days, and always left one line unfinished at night to have a place to start the next morning, Suzanne Selby said.
She said that he had battled addictions, but while much of his work dealt with the topic, he always wrote while sober and had not had any alcohol or any drugs since 1969.
Along with his wife, he is survived by four children and 11 grandchildren.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

RIP, damn.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I have the CD he did with Nick Tosches.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Song of the Silent Snow is probably my single favourite short story collection. When I was a teenager, I found great inspiration and even after reading one of the stories, emulated it, getting drunk in a movie theatre. I paid $15 in late fines at the library for that book.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I was just going to post this myself.

I've often described 'Last Exit To Brooklyn' as the finest novel in the English language to friends who haven't read it. It probably isn't, but it felt like it when you read it, didn't it?

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

oh man.

i'm upset.

rip hubert. you are the only novelist who made me want to take a bath after reading one of yr books.

― doomie x, Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

WHY DON'T ANY OF THE OBITS MENTION "FEAR X" ??!!! his most recent movie starring John Turturro doing what is apparently his best work in yonks??!

And why can't I see it anywhere.

Perhaps these two questions are related.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

that bit in LEtB, where it's just escalating shouting, yelling, SCREAMING (I haven't read it in about 10 years), that blew my mind.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

A writer who I was always surprised to hear was still alive, for one reason or another. Very strange the way he's put into the same generation of writers as Henry Miller, who would have been 113-years old if he was still alive, and wrote most of his greatest books in the 30's and 40's.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

one of my fave ever writers. sad news.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Very sad. He was tops. But i'm guessing from everything I've ever read about his health that 75 was beyond most expectations. Just read Waiting Period last year. I picked it up used and I remember being so surprised that it even existed. It only came out a few years ago, but I hadn't read anything about it at all. I highly recommend it too. Very funny and a good note to go out on. The interview on the Requiem DVD is great too if you have never seen it.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:19 (twenty-one years ago)

A great writer, and widely undervalued, I think - maybe it was his lack of productivity, but I always thought he deserved to be bracketed with the greatest living American writers, until now of course, and he never was. Damn.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

He was a character. I know he still did alot of spoken word touring, and everytime I saw his name in a newspaper ad for a show, I was always heartened: "He's still alive, and he's still on the road!" I'm sure he had a full, rich life.

― andy, Tuesday, 27 April 2004 17:46 (twenty-one years ago)

tracer: you should see it, it's on at the prince charles this sat and next weds...

― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

("it" = fear x...)

also the obit on front row this eve mentioned fear x, in fact they interviewed what'shisname who directed it about selby jr.

― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Sad.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

RIP, d00d

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

toby - thank you!!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Martin raises an interesting point - why didn't Selby get more love? Did he just come along at the wrong time for his style?

I suspect he suffers from some association with traditionally critically/academically-disliked authors like Chuck Bukowski.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

For one, I don't think he ever really established himself as a personality in the same way as many of his contemporaries. I've read a lot of his stuff, and I don't really know that much about Hubert Selby, Jr. the man.
But you read Burroughs, Miller (whether or not he belongs), or Bukowski, and you're inundated with that sort of stuff. You can escape the writer.
Like, you'd never see some college kid wearing a Hubert Selby tshirt to a punk rock show. Also, Burroughs/Bukowski made their subject matter seem, at some level, attractive. I never found that with Selby. Compelling, yeah, but never sexy.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

In the UK, LETB was prosecuted for obscenity, so here I don't think Selby ever really escaped the stigma/critical shorthand of "author of banned book...". Also, he was not prolific, was often ill and infirm, wrote a lot abt drugs + prostitution in a post-Joycean stream of consciousness, and was tied to a long contract w/ a UK publisher who - to put it politely - did not have the resources to effectively promote their author and enhance his critical rep. I remember the critic Martin Seymour-Smith always gave Selby incredible rave-ups in the broadsheet newspapers.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think his prose ever got enough recognition. I think he was a magnificent prose writer.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I just reread the first chapter of LEtB (I have a great-looking decent condition 1965 first paperback edition with the words: "A MAJOR WORK OF FICTION" between the title and "by HSjr"). So raw and violent. I can only imagine how devastating it must have been to read this book 40 yrs ago.
Arguably, aside from some cool guitar, there's nothing Lou Reed ever did that HSjr didn't do in this book far more effectively. And then a whole lot more.
The Demon was the first book of his that I read, I think I was 15 and recognized his name from the interview with him in Lou Reed's first collection of lyrics. I got my first copy of that at a library castoff sale and later gave it to my friend Dan. I picked up another copy a few years later, before I was done high school. Wow, I was reading LEtB on my own around the same time as my grade 12 English class was reading Catcher in the Rye (which I had already read at 14), and when the teacher would read aloud, she would replace Caulfield's constant "god damn" with "G.D." And my dad knew what I reading. I wonder if my dad knows?

― Huck, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 04:14 (twenty-one years ago)

what is the FUCkING one about the guy in the cell and the dogs??? JESUSSSSSSS!!

― mullygrubber (gaz), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 04:51 (twenty-one years ago)

... is that "The Room"? That's tough stuff. So long Hubie!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 08:24 (twenty-one years ago)

The Room is truly frightening and disturbing. Makes most stuff that people call "transgressive lit" look like kid's stuff. I think that was one of his gifts as a writer: He really really made you feel like you were stuck inside these people's heads and that might help explain why he wasn't more popular. He can make the experience quite uncomfortable. His books were the opposite of "escapist". But don't get me wrong, they could also be really funny and a pleasure to read. I wonder too if his punctuation (or lack thereof) style is a turn-off or distracting to people. I love the way the pages look in his books.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 10:49 (twenty-one years ago)

i never found him an easy read, either. selby's books are not to be read if you're feeling on edge, unhappy, lost or fragile. scott's nailed it, he really puts you *inside* other people's worlds and minds. they're often not the nicest places to be and that's where the shock factor comes in. the drugs and sex and violence in letb/requiem etc are really visceral and that's pretty scary if you're not used to it/open-minded/in the right mood. i could imagine letb offending public morality very easily, it shocked me the 1st time i read it. however, that said, the sheer physicality of his prose and the way his narratives/caharcterisations draw you in are utterly compelling.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 11:35 (twenty-one years ago)

seven years pass...

never read this dude before but been reading Last Exit and holy shit dude's alright

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 18:39 (fourteen years ago)

'Holy shit' summs him up for me too -- probably my favourite US novelist over the last 50 years.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 20 July 2011 18:44 (fourteen years ago)

wtf @ wikipedia saying that a young Sorrentino helped him w/ the Last Exit manuscript, that's some lou reed/metallica shit

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 18:46 (fourteen years ago)

"he replaced his apostrophes with forward slashes "/" due to their closer proximity on his typewriter, thus allowing uninterrupted typing."

man what a great reason for this

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 18:48 (fourteen years ago)

Holy shit thirded. I mostly know the short stories. Any recommendations on similar authors gladly taken here (not in an odd punctuation/run-on sentence style, just the gritty urban mindset, if that makes sense.)

― An influential prophet from Denton, Texas (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 19:22 (fourteen years ago)

read the room next if you can find a copy. brrrr.

― apichathong song (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 19:32 (fourteen years ago)

This (amazing) photo is sorta where I go mentally when I read Selby:

http://www.cubbymovie.com/cubby1989.jpg

― An influential prophet from Denton, Texas (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 19:40 (fourteen years ago)

dan did you ever read denis johnson's first one, angels? the prose is obviously very different but the fuckup petty criminals looking for redemption thing could be pretty easily grafted onto a selby novel.

― apichathong song (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 19:44 (fourteen years ago)

No, I haven't. Noted.

― An influential prophet from Denton, Texas (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 19:47 (fourteen years ago)

jesus' son covers that nicely too imo

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 20 July 2011 19:48 (fourteen years ago)

i am sorta biased as its prolly my fave novel of the last 30, but i think it fits yr criteria.

― apichathong song (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 19:48 (fourteen years ago)

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