Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi ( ; 30 July 1925 – 15 April 1984) was a Scottish novelist.

Early life and career

Trocchi was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

to Alfred (formerly Alfredo) Trocchi, a music-hall performer of Italian parentage, and Annie (née Robertson), who ran a boarding house and died of food poisoning when Trocchi was a teenager. He attended

Hillhead High School Hillhead High School is a day school in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oakfield Avenue, neighbouring the University of Glasgow. Admissions It is one of the largest schools in Glasgow. History Grammar school Until 1972 it was a co-educational selectiv ...

in the city and Cally House School in

Gatehouse of Fleet Gatehouse of Fleet ( ) is a town, half in the civil parish of Girthon, and half in the parish of Anwoth, divided by the river Water of Fleet, Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, within the council administrative area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. ...

, having been evacuated there during World War II.Sammaddra (16 December 2013)
"The Edwin Morgan Papers: Alexander Trocchi – ‘cosmonaut of inner space’"
''University of Glasgow Library Blog''. Retrieved 2 December 2021. After working as a seaman on the Murmansk convoys, he studied English Literature and Moral Philosophy at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, and was awarded second-class honours in 1950. Without graduating, Trocchi obtained a travelling grant that enabled him to relocate to continental Europe. In the early 1950s he lived in Paris and edited the literary magazine ''

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

'', which published

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, so ...

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

Christopher Logue Christopher Logue, CBE (23 November 1926 – 2 December 2011)Mark EspineObituary: Christopher Logue ''The Guardian'', 2 December 2011 was an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival, and a pacifist. Life Born in Portsmouth, ...

, and

Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda ( ; ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 190423 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old an ...

, amongst others. Although not published in ''Merlin'', American writer

Terry Southern Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 – October 29, 1995) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style. Part of the Paris postwar literary movement in the 1950s and a companion to ...

, who lived in Paris from 1948 to 1952, became a close friend of both Trocchi and his colleague

Richard Seaver Richard Woodward Seaver (December 31, 1926 – January 5, 2009) was an American translator, editor and publisher. Seaver was instrumental in defying censorship, to bring to light works by authors such as Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Henry Mi ...

, and the three later co-edited the anthology ''Writers In Revolt'' (1962). Though ''Merlin'' had been established somewhat in rivalry with the ''

Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

'',

George Plimpton George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was known for " participat ...

also had served on the magazine's editorial board. Trocchi claimed that this journal came to an end when the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

cancelled its many subscriptions in protest over an article by

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

praising the

homoeroticism Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, including both male–male and female–female attraction. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be tempor ...

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; ; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Th ...

Maurice Girodias Maurice Girodias (12 April 1919 – 3 July 1990) was a French publisher who founded the Olympia Press, specialising in risqué books, censored in Britain and America, that were permitted in France in English-language versions only. It evol ...

published most of Trocchi's novels through

Olympia Press Olympia Press was a Paris-based publisher, launched in 1953 by Maurice Girodias as a rebranded version of the Obelisk Press he inherited from his father Jack Kahane. It published a mix of erotic fiction and avant-garde literary fiction, and is ...

, often written under pen names, such as Frances Lengel and Carmencita de las Lunas. Girodias also published '' My Life and Loves: Fifth Volume'', which purported to be the final volume of the autobiography of Irish-American writer

Frank Harris Frank Harris (14 February 1856 – 26 August 1931) was an Irish-American editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United State ...

. However, though based on autobiographical material by Harris, the book was heavily edited and rewritten by Trocchi. Girodias subsequently commissioned Trocchi to write erotica along with his friends and Merlin associates Logue, Plimpton and John Stevenson. Under the name Frances Lengel, he churned out numerous pornographic books including the now classic ''Helen and Desire'' (1954) and a dirty version of his own book ''Young Adam'' (1954). Trocchi and his friends also published Samuel Beckett's ''War and Memory'' and Jean Genet's ''Thief's journal'' in English for the first time.

Drug addiction

Trocchi acquired his lifelong

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

addiction in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He left Paris for the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and spent time in

Taos, New Mexico Taos () is a town in Taos County, New Mexico, Taos County, in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Santa Fe ...

, before settling in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where he worked on a stone scow on the Hudson River. This time is chronicled in the novel '' Cain's Book'', which at the time became something of a sensation, being an honest study of heroin addiction with descriptions of sex and drug use that got it banned in Britain, where the book was the subject of an obscenity trial. In the United States, however, it received favorable reviews. Trocchi was then deep in the throes of heroin addiction; he even failed to attend his own launch party for ''Cain's Book''. His wife Lyn

prostitute Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pe ...

d herself on the streets of the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

. He injected himself on camera during a live television debate on

drug abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definitions ...

, despite being on

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...

at the time. He had been charged with supplying heroin to a minor, an offence then punishable by

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

. A jail term seemed certain, but with the help of friends (including

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...

), Trocchi was smuggled over the Canada–US border where he was given refuge in Montreal by poet

Irving Layton Irving Peter Layton, OC (March 12, 1912 – January 4, 2006) was a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following but also made him enemies. As T. Jacobs notes in his biography (2001 ...

and met up with

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

. His wife Lyn was arrested and son Marc detained, but later joined Trocchi in London.

Later life

In the late 1950s he lived in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, then the centre of the Southern California

Beat Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of inte ...

scene. In October 1955, he became involved with the Lettrist International and then the

Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

. 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 The British counter-culture or underground scene developed during the mid-1960s, and was linked to the hippie subculture of the United States. Its primary focus was around Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill in London. It generated its own magazin ...

. Trocchi appeared at the 1962 Edinburgh Writers Festival where he claimed "

sodomy Sodomy (), also called buggery in British English, principally refers to either anal sex (but occasionally also oral sex) between people, or any Human sexual activity, sexual activity between a human and another animal (Zoophilia, bestiality). I ...

" as a basis for his writing. During the festival,

Hugh MacDiarmid Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid ( , ), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish ...

denounced him as "cosmopolitan scum". However, while this incident is well known, it is little remarked upon that the two men subsequently engaged in correspondence, and actually became friends. Trocchi then moved to London, where he remained for the rest of his life. He began a new novel, ''The Long Book'', which he did not finish. Much of his sporadic work of the 1960s was collected as '' The Sigma Portfolio''. In March 1966 the ''Internationale Situationniste,'' issue number 10, announced "Upon the appearance in London of the first publications of the 'Project Sigma' initiated by Alexander Trocchi, it was mutually agreed that the SI could not involve itself in such a loose cultural venture... It is therefore no longer as a member of the SI that our friend Alexander Trocchi has since developed an activity of which we fully approve of several aspects." He continued writing but published little. He opened a small book store near his

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

home. He was known in Notting Hill as "Scots Alec". In the 1960s and 70s, Trocchi lived at 4 Observatory Gardens, Kensington, London on the two top floors of a 19th-century terrace block comprising six storeys. He had two sons: Marc Alexander and Nicholas. The elder son, Marc died of cancer at age 19 in 1976, shortly after Alexander's American wife Lyn died of complications from hepatitis. After undergoing surgery for lung cancer, he died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

in London on 15 April 1984. The younger son, Nicholas, returned to the family's home in London less than a year after his father's death and leapt to his death from the top floor of the five-storey building. When the terrace block was extensively refurbished into luxury apartments in the 1980s, the number on Alexander Trocchi's house was removed.

Resurgence

Interest in Trocchi and his role in the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

movements of the mid-20th century began to rise soon after his death. ''

Edinburgh Review The ''Edinburgh Review'' is the title of four distinct intellectual and cultural magazines. The best known, longest-lasting, and most influential of the four was the third, which was published regularly from 1802 to 1929. ''Edinburgh Review'', ...

'' published a "Trocchi Number" in 1985 and their parent house, Polygon, published the biography, ''The Making of the Monster'' in 1991 by

Andrew Murray Scott Andrew Murray Scott (born 1955 in Aberdeen, Scotland) is a novelist, poet and non-fiction book writer. His first novel, ''Tumulus'', appeared in 2000, as the winner of the inaugural Dundee International Book Prize for unpublished novels, against 8 ...

simultaneously with an anthology, ''Invisible Insurrection'', also compiled by Scott who had known Trocchi for four years in London. These works were influential in bringing Trocchi back to public attention and were widely reviewed. Scott assisted the Estate in attempting to regain control of Trocchi's material and to license new editions in the UK and US and Far East, also collating and annotating all remaining manuscripts and documents in the Estate's possession. 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 ''Young Adam'' is a 1954 novel by Alexander Trocchi which tells the story of Joe, a young man who labours on the river barges of Glasgow, and who discovers the body of a young woman floating in the canal. The novel focuses on the relationship ...

'' was adapted into a film starring

Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama and ...

and

Tilda Swinton Katherine Matilda Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress. She is known for playing eccentric and enigmatic characters, often working with auteurs. Her accolades include an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and a Volpi Cup, in addit ...

in 2003 after several years of wrangling over finance. ''Tainted Love'' (2005) by

Stewart Home Kevin Llewellyn Callan (born 24 March 1962), better known as Stewart Home, is an English artist, filmmaker, writer, pamphleteer, art historian, and activist. His novels include the non-narrative '' 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess'' (2002 ...

contains a lengthy 'factional' meditation on Trocchi's post-literary career period in Notting Hill. In 2009

Oneworld Publications Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market. Based in London, it later added a li ...

reissued ''Man at Leisure'' (1972), complete with the original introduction by

William Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and ...

, and in 2011 Oneworld Publications also re-released ''Cain's Book'', with a foreword by Tom McCarthy.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Helen and Desire'' (as Frances Lengel)'','' The Olympia Press, Paris, 1954. * ''The Carnal Days of Helen Seferis'' (as Frances Lengel)'','' The Olympia Press, Paris, 1954. *''

'' (as Frances Lengel), The Olympia Press, Paris, 1954. *''My Life and Loves: Fifth Volume,'' The Olympia Press, Paris, 1954. * ''White Thighs'' (as Frances Lengel)'','' The Olympia Press, Paris, 1955. * ''School for Sin'' (as Frances Lengel), The Olympia Press, Paris, 1955. * ''Thongs'' (as Carmencita de las Lunas), The Olympia Press, Paris, 1956. * ''Sappho of Lesbos'', Castle Books, New York, 1960. * '' Cain's Book'', John Calder, London, 1960. * ''School For Wives'', 1967.

Poetry

* ''Man at Leisure,'' John Calder, London, 1972.

Short fiction

* ''The Holy Man and Other Stories'', Calder Publications, London, 2019.

Collections

* Scott, Andrew Murray, editor. ''Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds: A Trocchi Reader'', (1991, Reprint 1996) * Seaver, Richard, Terry Southern and Alexander Trocchi (eds). ''Writers in Revolt: An Anthology'' (1962)

Biographies

*Scott, Andrew Murray. ''Alexander Trocchi: The Making of the Monster'' (hb, Polygon, 1991) 2nd revised and extended Edition published in 2012 (Kennedy & Boyd) *Bowd, Gavin. ''The Outsiders: Alexander Trocchi and

Kenneth White Kenneth White (28 April 1936 – 11 August 2023) was a Scottish poet, academic and writer. Biography Kenneth White was born in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland, but he spent his childhood and adolescence at Fairlie near Largs on the ...

'' (1998) *Campbell, Allan, and Tim Niel (eds.). ''A Life in Pieces: Reflections on Alexander Trocchi'' (1997) * Slater, Howard. "Alexander Trocchi and Project Sigma" (1989)

About ''Merlin'' and Paris

*Campbell, James. ''Exiled in Paris: Richard Wright, Lolita, Boris Vian and others on the Left Bank'' (1994) *Scott, Andrew Murray. ''Trocchi and MacDiarmid, Where Extremists Meet'', ''Chapman magazine'', no. 83, 2003. *Hill, Lee. ''A Grand Guy: The Life and Art of Terry Southern'', (Bloomsbury, 2001)

References

External links

The Alexander Trocchi Papers
at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

Grove Press – An inventory of its records
at Syracuse University
Alexander Trocchi: A Primer by Gillian Tasker January 19, 2012
!-
'Alexander Trocchi: An Introduction'
(Gillian Tasker. Thesis Title: '"Far Out": The Life and Writing of Alexander Trocchi' Supervisors: Dr Eleanor Bell and Dr Jonathan Hope) https://web.archive.org/web/20110316062921/http://strath.academia.edu:80/GillianTasker https://ebsn.eu/members/christopher-gair/ https://uk.linkedin.com/in/gill-tasker-b91663ba-->
3:AM piece on later life

Scots Alec: articles and links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trocchi, Alexander 1925 births 1984 deaths Beat Generation writers Writers from Glasgow Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish people of Italian descent Deaths from pneumonia in England Cultural activists