NY, Grossman, 1973. The first book to be published by an "above-ground" publisher by this poet who was prominent in the New York City counterculture in the late Sixties. Carroll was already something of a legend before he was 18, and he had received glowing praise from even such a literary luminary as Jack Kerouac, who wrote "at 13 years of age, Jim Carroll writes better prose than 89% of the novelists working today." He was part of the social milieu that included performers like Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground and poets such as Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett and others. It was a cultural scene heavily defined by drugs and rock and roll, and Carroll's writings comprise one of the great coming-of-age documents of the drug culture. Near fine in a near fine Larry Rivers-designed dust jacket with a small black sticker on the front flap over the price. A Viking Press catalog clipping announcing the then-forthcoming book is laid in. [#031351] SOLD