A Life in Pieces

This biography attempts to portray the many sides to Alexander Trocchi’s personality through the words and memories of some of those who interacted with Trocchi during his lifetime. Contributors range from Patti Smith to Edwin Morgan, William Burroughs to Irvine Welsh, Leonard Cohen to Terry Southern, Jane Lougee Bryant to Allen Ginsberg, Ned Polsky to Marianne Faithful, Greil Marcus to Kit Lambert. Combined with these pieces are extracts taken from key essays by the man himself, including “Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds” and “Cain’s Film” and previously unpublished interviews. Born in Glasgow in 1925, Alexander Trocchi had by the time of his death in 1984, cut a colourful swathe through many of the important post-war cultural movements both in Europe and America. A controversial figure, he has been variously described as a junkie, visionary, pimp, Scottish beat, literary outlaw, pornographer, philosopher, underground organizer and antique-book collector.