Hubert Selby Jr.

“Last Exit to Brooklyn, wrote Allen Ginsberg, “should explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years.”

Last Exit To Brooklyn,  Hubert Selby Jr’s first novel, now recognized as a classic, was published by Grove Press in 1964

Hubert “Cubby’ Selby Jr was born in Brooklyn, July 23, 1928, and died in Los Angeles in 2004, where he’d been living (teaching and writing and influencing a whole generation of writers, and whole new generations) for more than two decades

Michael W Dean’s 2005 documentary gives something of the flavor of his influence.

Not just Last Exit.. but Requiem For A Dream stand among his most memorable works. Both books were turned into films and both films feature a cameo by the author

Darren Aronofsky‘s  2000 Requiem For A Dream (with the screenplay by Selby himself) has become something of a classic itself.  Here’s the trailer:

Here, while we’re at it, is the trailer for 1989’s Last Exit to Brooklyn adaptation:

Here’s Ellen Burstyn (star of Requiem..) interviewing Selby:

& continuing here:

Cubby Selby acting, Cubby Selby improvising: