This new edition of the critically-acclaimed biography of Alexander Trocchi has been revised, extended and updated since its first publication in 1991 when it helped to create new interest in the celebrated - and notorious - author of Young Adam and Cain's Book. It was highly influential, led to the reprinting of his novels and inspired a wave of new writers to discover Trocchi for themselves.A story of heartbreak and pain, the minutiae of squalor, tragedy, obsession, of chemical addictions, sexual experimentations, promiscuity and desertion, suicide - and literary genius. So begins this account of one of Britain's most remarkable literary figures. It traces his childhood in war-time Glasgow, his literary apprenticeship in Paris with Beckett, Ionesco and Sartre, his move to New York then Venice Beach among the leaders of the Beat movement. Trocchi charmed and haunted all who met him.... a strange and saddening book... Trocchi... experimenting with drugs and sex...left behind a trail of wrecked lives ... at least he has been lucky in this excellent biography which conveys something of his charm and charisma." COLIN WILSON, Literary Review