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Hubert Selby Jr.

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Hubert Selby Jr.


Born
in Brooklyn, New York, The United States
July 23, 1928

Died
April 26, 2004

Website

Genre
Literature & Fiction, Crime, Horror

Influences
Ludwig van Beethoven, James Joyce ...more


Hubert Selby, Jr. was born in Brooklyn and went to sea as a merchant marine while still in his teens. Laid low by lung disease, he was, after a decade of hospitalizations, written off as a goner and sent home to die. Deciding instead to live, but having no way to make a living, he came to a realization that would change the course of literature: "I knew the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer." Drawing from the soul of his Brooklyn neighborhood, he began writing something called "The Queen Is Dead," which evolved, after six years, into his first novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964), a book that Allen Ginsberg predicted would "explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years."

Selby's second nove ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 4.01 · 106,270 ratings · 4,622 reviews · 38 distinct works • Similar authors
Requiem for a Dream
by
4.11 avg rating — 62,723 ratings — published 1978 — 74 editions
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Last Exit to Brooklyn
by
3.92 avg rating — 28,529 ratings — published 1964 — 138 editions
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The Room
3.70 avg rating — 6,521 ratings — published 1971 — 37 editions
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The Demon
3.90 avg rating — 3,440 ratings — published 1976 — 36 editions
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Song of the Silent Snow
3.84 avg rating — 1,452 ratings — published 1986 — 29 editions
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Waiting Period
3.40 avg rating — 1,562 ratings — published 2002 — 20 editions
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The Willow Tree
3.92 avg rating — 782 ratings — published 1998 — 15 editions
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Last Exit To Brooklyn / Req...
4.04 avg rating — 100 ratings — 2 editions
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The Room
3.67 avg rating — 9 ratings
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Song of myself
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2004
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More books by Hubert Selby Jr.…
Quotes by Hubert Selby Jr.  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done. ”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream
tags: responsibility
444 likes
Like

“But you cant shut everyone out. I mean you have to have someone to love. . .someone to hold on to. . . someone--”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream
tags: fear, love, trying
272 likes
Like

“I suspect there will never be a requiem for a dream, simply because it will destroy us before we have the opportunity to mourn it's passing.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream
269 likes
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Polls

May 2025 - New School Poll

 
  26 votes, 22.0%

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1980) 219 pages
 
  25 votes, 21.2%

 
  19 votes, 16.1%

Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett (1951) 127 pages
 
  18 votes, 15.3%

 
  17 votes, 14.4%

Random Harvest by James Hilton (1941) 326 pages
 
  7 votes, 5.9%

In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor (1961) 259 pages
 
  6 votes, 5.1%

118 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Challenge: 50 Books: Evan's 50 for 2009 42 717 Sep 08, 2009 11:24AM  
The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Fall Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread) 2785 1200 Nov 30, 2010 09:03PM  
Reading with Style: This topic has been closed to new comments. Spring 2012 Reading w/Style Completed Tasks 952 273 May 31, 2012 08:59PM  
readers advisory ...: gritty urban novel 20 208 Aug 28, 2012 08:23AM  
Chaos Reading: Readers Advisory Resources 5 30 Jan 16, 2013 02:32PM  
Chaos Reading: DISCUSSION OPEN: Last Exit To Brooklyn *SPOILERS* 36 309 Jan 16, 2013 02:34PM