John Clellon Holmes’s Followers (45)

John Clellon Holmes

Born

in Holyoke, Massachusetts, The United States

March 12, 1926

Died

March 30, 1988

Genre

Literature & Fiction

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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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John Clellon Holmes’s books

Average rating: 3.85 · 2,397 ratings · 194 reviews · 27 distinct works • Similar authors

	Go 3.80 avg rating — 1,792 ratings — published 1952 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Horn by John Clellon Holmes, Archie Shepp (Foreword) 3.98 avg rating — 160 ratings — published 1988 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Get Home Free: A Novel 3.96 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 1964 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gone in October: Last Reflections on Jack Kerouac 4.64 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 1985 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Displaced Person: The Travel Essays 4.31 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 1987 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Passionate Opinions: The Cultural Essays 4.64 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 1988 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nothing More to Declare 3.77 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 1967 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Visitor: Jack Kerouac in Old Saybrook (The Unspeakable Visions of the Individual ; V. 11) 4.27 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 1980 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Representative Men: The Biographical Essays 4.10 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 1988 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Night Music: Selected Poems 4.22 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 1989 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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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

8 likes

“A joy without object or reason rose within him, but like all such joys ebbed into frustration almost immediately because he did not know how to express it.”
― John Clellon Holmes, Go

5 likes

“The idiotic industry of an ant building his hill in the path of a glacier, and imagining that he is free.”
― John Clellon Holmes, Go

tags: beat, thought-provoking

4 likes

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