The novel that launched the beat generation's literary legacy describes the world of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady. Published two months before Kerouac began ON THE ROAD, GO is the first and most accurate chronicle of the private lives the Beats lived before they became public figures. In lucid fictional prose designed to capture the events, emptions and essence of his experience, Holmes describes an individualistic post-World II New York where crime is celebrated, writing is revered, and parties, booze, discussions, drugs and sex punctuate life.
John Clellon Holmes (1926-1988) was an essayist, poet, and novelist; and was a "sometime member" of the Beat Generation. He published GO in 1952; The Horn, a novel about jazz, would follow in 1958, and Get Home Free, depicting the later fate of two characters from Go, would appear in 1964.
