Mamaroneck, Appel, 1997. The 25th anniversary edition of his first book, widely considered the first novel of the "Beat generation," the original predating Jack Kerouac's On the Road by 5 years. Signed by Holmes, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Herbert Huncke and with a rambling two-page inscription by Peter Orlovsky. Holmes's book deals with a "group of young people whose lives are frenetic and...are driven by a craving for excess. Their long nights involve liquor and marijuana, with the beat of bebop in the background." A seminal novel of postwar American youth, which helped set the parameters of rebellion and cultural revolt over the next twenty years. Trace shelf wear, still a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with a bit of rubbing to the spine and one internally mended edge tear on the lower rear panel. A unique copy, signed by a number of the key figures of the Beat movement, all of them now gone. [#031697] SOLD