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Hubert Selby, Jr. was born in Brooklyn in 1928. At the age of 15, he dropped out of school and went to sea with the merchant marines. While at sea he was diagnosed with lung disease. With no other way to make a living, he decided to try writing: 'I knew the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer.' In 1964 he completed his first book, Last Exit to Brooklyn, which has since become a cult classic. In 1966, it was the subject of an obscenity trial in the UK. His other books include The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream, Song of the Silent Snow, The Willow Tree and Waiting Period. In 2000, Requiem for a Dream starred Jared Leto and Ellen Burstyn and was directed by Darren Aronofsky. Hubert Selby Jr died in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California in April 2004.
Selby's place is in the front rank of American novelists ... to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America New York Times Book Review Selby deploys street slang, common speech, argot and scatology to create a high poetic art ... it seems to derive from the greatest American poetry--Whitman, Pound, Williams, and Olson The Nation Selby brings a scorching light to a limited area of human existence, which most people know of but do not know Newsweek
