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John Clellon Holmes

Author profile

born

March 12, 1926 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, The United States

died

March 30, 1988

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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John Clellon Holmes, born in Holyoke Massachusetts, was an author, poet and professor, best known for his 1952 novel Go. Go is considered the first "Beat" novel, and depicted events in his life with friends Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. He was often referred to as the "quiet Beat," and was one of Kerouac's closest friends. He also wrote what is considered the definitive jazz novel of the Beat Generation, The Horn.

Holmes was more an observer and documenter of beat characters like Ginsberg, Cassidy and Kerouac than one of them. He asked Ginsberg for "any and all information on your poetry and your visions" (shortly before Ginsberg's admission into hospital) saying that "I am interested in knowing also anything you may wish to...more

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Books by John Clellon Holmes

Average rating: 3.80 · 475 ratings · 51 reviews · 18 distinct works

	Go 3.73 avg rating — 394 ratings — published 1952 — 7 editions	My rating:
	The Horn by John Clellon Holmes, Archie Shepp (Foreword by) 3.81 avg rating — 42 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	Get Home Free 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1964 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Visitor: Jack Kerouac in Old Saybrook 5.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1980	My rating:
	Gone in October 4.80 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1985	My rating:
	Displaced Person: The Travel Essays 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1987 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Representative Men: The Biographical Essays 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Passionate Opinions: The Cultural Essays 4.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1988 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Night Music 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Dire Coasts 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	My rating:

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Quotes by John Clellon Holmes

“While leaning over the toilet getting up his nerve, he thought that the moment before making yourself throw up must be very like the instant before suicide. You are almost content to bear the sickening headache and the torment in your stomach rather than go through that moment. But the prospect of relief made you foolhardy and you jammed your finger down your throat.”
― John Clellon Holmes, Go

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