Hubert Selby Jr.

Author profile

born

January 01, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, The United States

died

April 26, 2004

gender

male

website

http://exitwounds.com

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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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 y...more

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Books by Hubert Selby Jr.

Average rating: 3.97 · 10,968 ratings · 788 reviews · 17 distinct works

	Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr., Darren Aronofsky (Foreword), Richard Price (Foreword) 4.07 avg rating — 5,115 ratings — published 1978 — 20 editions	My rating:
	Last Exit To Brooklyn 3.92 avg rating — 3,772 ratings — published 1964 — 31 editions	My rating:
	The Demon 4.04 avg rating — 478 ratings — 9 editions	My rating:
	The Room by Hubert Selby Jr., Tadeusz Różewicz, Adam Czerniawski (Translator) 3.61 avg rating — 399 ratings — published 1971 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Song of the Silent Snow 3.96 avg rating — 305 ratings — published 1987 — 6 editions	My rating:
	Waiting Period 3.28 avg rating — 333 ratings — published 2002 — 5 editions	My rating:
	The Willow Tree by Hubert Selby Jr., Jr Selby Hubert 3.81 avg rating — 213 ratings — published 1998 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Song of Silent Snow and Other Stories 3.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1997	My rating:
	A Pilgrim's Road: Journey to Santiago 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1995	My rating:
	Paradoxie : Tagebuch eines Raubtiers by Lydia Lunch, Hubert Selby Jr. (Vorwort) 3.67 avg rating — 209 ratings — published 1997 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Requiem for a Dream by Darren Aronofsky, Hubert Selby Jr. 4.18 avg rating — 95 ratings — published 2000	My rating:
	Rapid Eye 1 by Simon Dwyer (Editor), Hubert Selby Jr. (Contributor), William S. Burroughs (Contributor) 4.30 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 1996	My rating:
	Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics by Tim McLoughlin (Editor), H.P. Lovecraft (contributor), Pete Hamill (contributor) 3.73 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2005	My rating:
	New York City Tattoo: The Oral History of an Urban Art by Michael McCabe, Hubert Selby Jr. 4.33 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 1997	My rating:
	Conversations with the Capeman: The Untold Story of Salvador Agron by Richard Jacoby, Hubert Selby Jr. 4.50 avg rating — 6 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Reading The Apocalypse In Bed: Selected Plays and Short Pieces by Tadeusz Różewicz, Hubert Selby Jr. 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1999	My rating:
	Ragged Lion: A Tribute to Jack Micheline by John Bennett (Editor), Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Hubert Selby Jr. 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1999	My rating:
	Topics in Gastroenterology, Vol. 10 by D.P. Jewel, Hubert Selby Jr. 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1983	My rating:

More books by Hubert Selby Jr.…

Quotes by Hubert Selby Jr.

“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

72 people liked it

“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

60 people liked it

“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

54 people liked it

See all Hubert Selby Jr.'s quotes »

Polls

January 2012 Group Reads.

Again top 4 books will be the winners!

Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr.

4 votes, 21.1%

The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

4 votes, 21.1%

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

3 votes, 15.8%

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

3 votes, 15.8%

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

2 votes, 10.5%

Look at Me by Jennifer Egan

1 vote, 5.3%

The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon

1 vote, 5.3%

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

1 vote, 5.3%

Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

0 votes, 0.0%

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

0 votes, 0.0%

19 total votes

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Hubert Selby Jr.

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Hubert Selby Jr.

Quotes by Hubert Selby Jr.

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Books by Hubert Selby Jr.