Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi (July 30, 1925 - April 15, 1984) was a Scottish novelist. He was born and educated in Glasgow and died in London. July 30 is the 211th day (212th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 154 days remaining. ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ...

After working as a seaman on the Murmansk convoys he attended the University of Glasgow. On graduation he obtained a travelling grant which enabled him to relocate to continental Europe. He lived in Paris in the early 1950s and edited the literary magazine Merlin, which published Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, Christopher Logue and Pablo Neruda, among others. Trocchi claimed that this journal came to an end when the US State Department cancelled its many subscriptions in protest over an article by Jean-Paul Sartre praising the homo-eroticism of Jean Genet. Though established somewhat in rivalry with the Paris Review, George Plimpton also served on its editorial board. The Arctic convoys of World War II travelled from the United States and the United Kingdom to the northern ports of the Soviet Union - Archangel and Murmansk. ... The University of Glasgow, founded in 1451, is the largest of the three universities in Glasgow, Scotland. ... The 1950s was the decade spanning the years 1950 to 1959. ... Merlin was the name of an avant-garde literary magazine, which published, amongst others, the work of Samuel Beckett, Henry Miller, Christopher Logue, Pablo Neruda and Jean-Paul Sartre. ... Henry Miller photo taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1940 Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American writer and, to a lesser extent, painter of German Catholic heritage. ... Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (April 13, 1906 – December 22, 1989) was an Irish playwright, novelist and poet. ... Christopher Logue (born Portsmouth, 1926) is an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival. ... Neruda recording poems at the U.S. Library of Congress in 1966 Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the pen name of the Chilean writer and communist activist Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. ... The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, equivalent to foreign ministries in other countries. ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Jean Genet (December 19, 1910 - April 15, 1986), was a prominent, sometimes infamous, French writer and later political activist. ... The Paris Review, which is actually based in New York, is a literary magazine started in 1953 by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg, and Harold L. Humes, and edited until his death in 2003 by George Plimpton. ... George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer and actor. ...

Maurice Girodias published many of Trocchi's novels through the notorious Olympia Press. He often wrote these under pen names, such as Frances Lengel, Frank Harris (for the fake 5th volume of his memoirs) and Carmencita de las Lunas. Maurice Girodias was the founder of the The Olympia Press. ... Olympia Press was a Paris based publisher, best known for the first print of Nabokov s Lolita; this led to copyright issues, since Nabokov was not satisfied with the publisher and the reputation it had, since besides some serious literature, it published mostly erotic novels. ... Frank Harris by Alvin Langdon Coburn. ...

It was at this time that Trocchi acquired his lifelong heroin addiction. He left Paris for the United States and spent time in Taos, New Mexico, before settling in New York City. His time is chronicled in the novel Cain's Book which became something of a sensation at the time. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Taos (IPA: ) is a city located in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico. ... Nickname: Big Apple Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ...

In October 1955 he became involved with the Lettrist International and subsequently with the Situationist International. The Lettrist International (LI) was the first breakaway group from Isidore Isous Lettrist Movement (LM). ... The Situationist International (SI), an international political and artistic movement, originated in the Italian village of Cosio dArroscia on 28 July 1957 with the fusion of several extremely small artistic tendencies: the Lettrist International, the International movement for an imaginist Bauhaus, and the London Psychogeographical Association. ...

In the late 1950s he lived in Venice, California, then the center of the southern California Beat Generation. The 1950s was the decade spanning the years 1950 to 1959. ... Venice Beach and Boardwalk Venice, is a district in west Los Angeles, California. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... The term Beat Generation refers primarily to a group of American writers of the 1950s. ...

His text "Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds" was published in the Scottish journal New Saltire in 1962 and subsequently as "Technique du Coup du Monde" in Internationale Situationniste number 8. It proposed an international "spontaneous university" as a cultural force and marked the beginning of his movement towards his sigma project, which played a formative part in the UK Underground. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

After a memorable appearance at the 1962 Edinburgh Writers Festival (where Hugh MacDiarmid denounced him as "cosmopolitan scum"), and Trocchi claimed "sodomy" as a basis for his writing, Trocchi then moved to London, where he remained for the rest of his life. However, while this incident is well known, it is little remarked upon that the two men subsequently engaged in correspondence, and actually became friends. Both were controversialists of a kind. Hugh MacDiarmid was the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve (August 11, 1892, Langholm - September 9, 1978), perhaps the most important Scottish poet of the 20th century. ...

He began a new novel, The Long Book which never appeared, although it was announced by his publisher. Much of his sporadic work of the 1960s was collected as The Sigma Portfolio. The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ...

Trocchi continued writing but published little. He also became a book dealer/drug dealer with a small business near his Kensington home. He was known in the Notting Hill locale as 'Scots Alec'. A small business may be defined as a business with a small number of employees. ... Kensington is an area to the west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. ...

Interest in Trocchi and his role in the avant-garde movements of the mid 20th century began to rise soon after his death. Edinburgh Review published a "Trocchi Number" in 1985 and their parent house published a biography and anthology in 1991. During the 1990s, various American and Scottish publishers (most notably Rebel Inc.) reissued his originally pseudonymous Olympia Press novels and a retrospective of his articles for Merlin and others, A Life in Pieces (1997), was issued in response to revived interest in his life and work by a younger generation. His early novel Young Adam was finally adapted to film in 2003 after several years of wrangling over finance. The Edinburgh Review was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. ... Rebel Inc. ... Young Adam film poster Young Adam is a 2003 film written and directed by David Mackenzie, based on the novel of the same name by Alexander Trocchi, which was first published in 1957. ...

Tainted Love (2005) by Stewart Home contains a lengthy 'factional' meditation on Trocchi's post-literary career period in Notting Hill. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Stewart Home (born 1962) is a British fiction writer, subcultural pamphleteer, underground art historian, and activist. ...

Bibliography

By Trocchi:

• Helen and Desire (1954)
• Carnal Days of Helen Sefaris (1954)
• White Thighs (1955)
• School for Wives (1955)
• Thongs (1955)
• Young Adam (1957)
• My Lifes and Loves (1959)
• Sappho of Lesbos (1960)
• School for Sin (1960)
• Cain's Book (1961)

Collections:

• Man at Leisure (1972)
• Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds: A Trocchi Reader (1991)

Biographies:

• Alexander Trocchi: The Making of the Monster (1992) by Andrew Murray Scott
• The Outsiders: Alexander Trocchi and Kenneth White (1998) by Gavin Bowd

About Merlin and Paris Professor Kenneth White (born 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a poet, academic and writer. ...

• Paris Interzone: Richard Wright, Lolita, Boris Vian and others on the Left Bank (1994) by James Campbell
• A Life in Pieces (1997) by Allen Campbell and Tim Niel

Exiled in Paris is a 1994 (reprinted 2001) book by James Campbell, a Scottish cultural historian specialising in studies of the Beats and post-war Paris. ...

External links

• Guardian (UK) article
• BBC profile
• 3:AM piece on later life