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Hubert Selby Jr. left school at 15, went to sea, caught tuberculosis and came out of hospital missing ten ribs and part of a lung. In Brooklyn, with no training, he started to write, encouraged by his childhood friend Gilbert Sorrentino, and worked on his stories at night while holding clerical jobs by day. The result was Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964), a novel so bleak that it was put on trial for obscenity in Britain. Fourteen years later came Requiem for a Dream, which he adapted for the screen with Darren Aronofsky in 2000. This guide covers his 7 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 key books · 1964–2002 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Hubert Selby Jr. published seven books: six novels and one story collection. The best known are Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964) and Requiem for a Dream (1978), followed by The Room (1971) and The Willow Tree (1998). Start with Requiem for a Dream, the most widely read; then go back to Last Exit to Brooklyn, the book that went on trial in Britain.
Where to Start with Hubert Selby Jr.
If you want his best-known story
→ Requiem for a Dream (1978) — four New Yorkers and their dreams, undone by addiction.
If you want the book that made his name
→ Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964) — six linked stories from 1950s Brooklyn.
If you want his most hopeful novel
→ The Willow Tree (1998) — a boy from the Bronx and a Holocaust survivor.
If you want him at his most extreme
→ The Room (1971) — one man, one cell, his own mind.
7 Hubert Selby Jr. Books, in Order
Last Exit to Brooklyn
Six loosely linked parts, each prefaced by a passage from the Bible, set among the bars, docks and housing projects of 1950s Brooklyn, in what is now Sunset Park. The characters include Georgette, a transgender woman thrown out by her brother; Tralala, a young woman who robs sailors; and Harry, a union official during a strike, and most of their stories end in violence. Published by Grove Press, it was banned in Italy and prosecuted for obscenity in Britain. Uli Edel filmed it in 1989.
The Room
An unnamed man waits in a prison cell, and almost the whole novel takes place inside his head. He replays his arrest and builds long fantasies of revenge against the police officers who arrested him, swinging between dreams of noble crusades and brutal punishment. Selby himself called it “the most disturbing book ever written”. It sold far less well than his first novel.
The Demon
Harry White is a young man whose compulsive affairs with women give him no peace. Marriage to Linda brings only a pause; the compulsion grows into theft and finally murder. Published by Playboy Press, it was the favourite book of the comedian Andy Kaufman, who said of it, “That’s my mind in a nutshell.”
Requiem for a Dream
Sara Goldfarb, a lonely widow in Coney Island, hopes to appear on a television game show and becomes dependent on the diet pills a doctor prescribes her. Her son Harry, his girlfriend Marion and his friend Tyrone buy heroin to sell and fund their own plans, and end up using it themselves. All four lose what they hoped for. Darren Aronofsky’s 2000 film, written with Selby, earned Ellen Burstyn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Song of the Silent Snow
His only story collection, published by Grove Press and Marion Boyars. The stories follow people who are usually overlooked — janitors, salesmen, office workers, children — mostly in New York, and include “Hi Champ”, “Double Feature” and “The Coat”. The title story, set in suburban Connecticut, ends on a rare note of recovery.
The Willow Tree
Bobby, a 13-year-old Black boy in the South Bronx, is attacked with his girlfriend Maria by a street gang. Moishe, an elderly Holocaust survivor, takes him in. Bobby sets out to take revenge on the gang, while Moishe tries to show him that hatred will destroy him. It was his first novel in twenty years.
Waiting Period
An embittered, unnamed narrator tries to buy a gun to kill himself, but is told he must wait. In the waiting period he decides instead to rid the world of people he considers harmful, starting with the Veterans Administration official who turned down his claim. Narrated in the first person, it was his last book published in his lifetime.
In What Order to Read Hubert Selby Jr.
None of Selby’s books continue from one another, so you can read them in any order. Each stands alone, though several of his men are called Harry, and New York is almost always the setting.
Publication order does show a change. The early books, from Last Exit to Brooklyn to Requiem for a Dream, look at people who are unable to escape their own needs. The late novels, The Willow Tree and Waiting Period, turn on a single choice between revenge and something else. All of them deal with violence, addiction and abuse, so check the subject before you begin.
A reading path
1. Requiem for a Dream (1978)
2. Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964)
3. The Willow Tree (1998)
4. The Room (1971)
The years · 1928–2004
Quick facts about Hubert Selby Jr.
- Known for
- Hubert Selby Jr. is known for unflinching novels about addiction, violence and self-destruction among the poor of New York, written in a raw, spoken style.
- 1928
- Born in Brooklyn, New York
- 1950
- Leaves hospital after years with tuberculosis
- 2000
- Co-writes the film of Requiem for a Dream
- 2004
- Dies in Los Angeles, aged 75
- Born
- 23 July 1928, Brooklyn, New York
- Died
- 26 April 2004, Highland Park, Los Angeles, of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Health
- Tuberculosis in his youth; lost several ribs and part of a lung
- Day jobs
- Clerk, insurance analyst and freelance copywriter while he wrote at night
- Teaching
- Creative writing at the University of Southern California for the last twenty years of his life
- Screen
- Co-wrote Requiem for a Dream (2000) and wrote Fear X (2003)
The red mark is 1964: Last Exit to Brooklyn, the novel that made his name and went on trial in Britain.
How Hubert Selby Jr. Writes: By Ear
Selby never studied writing. He said he wrote “by ear”: the narration slides into the voices of his characters, often in a stream of consciousness, and runs for pages without a break. Dialogue goes without quotation marks, and he used his own punctuation and layout, such as a slash in place of an apostrophe; the 2005 documentary about him is called It/ll Be Better Tomorrow.
His subject is people trapped by a need they cannot control: drugs in Requiem for a Dream, sex in The Demon, rage in The Room and Waiting Period. He tells these stories from the inside, without a narrator to comment, so the reader stays as close to the character’s collapse as the character is. The violence is written plainly and is often hard to read.
He came out of the New York literary world of the late 1950s, through Gilbert Sorrentino and the circle around LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), and Grove Press, the publisher of William S. Burroughs and Henry Miller, brought out his first novel. In the 1980s the musician Henry Rollins championed his work, recorded him reading and took him on tour, which brought him a new, younger readership.
Listen
Hubert Selby Jr. in Conversation with Michael Silverblatt
Michael Silverblatt talks with Hubert Selby Jr. on KCRW’s Bookworm, broadcast on 27 February 2003, about the controversy around Last Exit to Brooklyn, the poets and artists he knew, the literary magazines he worked on and how he wrote the book. From the archive of KCRW.
Frequently asked questions about Hubert Selby Jr.’s books
How many books has Hubert Selby Jr. written?
Seven: six novels and one collection of short stories. The novels are Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream, The Willow Tree and Waiting Period; the stories are collected in Song of the Silent Snow.
What are Hubert Selby Jr.’s books in order?
Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964), The Room (1971), The Demon (1976), Requiem for a Dream (1978), Song of the Silent Snow (1986), The Willow Tree (1998) and Waiting Period (2002).
Where should I start with Hubert Selby Jr.?
Requiem for a Dream (1978), his most widely read novel and the one many readers know from the film. Then read Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964), the book that made his name.
What is Hubert Selby Jr.’s most famous book?
Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964) is the book that made him famous, through its reviews and the obscenity trial in Britain. Since the 2000 film, Requiem for a Dream (1978) has become at least as well known.
Why was Last Exit to Brooklyn put on trial?
After the British edition appeared in January 1966, the Conservative MP Sir Cyril Black brought a private prosecution, and the publishers Calder and Boyars were then charged under the Obscene Publications Act. A jury found them guilty on 23 November 1967. In 1968 the Court of Appeal, in an appeal led by John Mortimer, quashed the conviction because the judge had not properly directed the jury on the defence case. The book was also banned in Italy. The appeal is often seen as a turning point for literary censorship in Britain.
Which Hubert Selby Jr. books have been made into films?
Two. Uli Edel directed Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), in which Selby has a small part as a driver. Darren Aronofsky directed Requiem for a Dream (2000), with a screenplay by Selby and Aronofsky; Ellen Burstyn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and Selby appears as a prison guard.
Was Hubert Selby Jr. a Beat writer?
He is often grouped with the Beats. He moved in the same New York circles in the late 1950s, around LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), and Allen Ginsberg wrote that Last Exit to Brooklyn would “explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America”. His books, though, are about the urban poor rather than about the Beats’ own lives.
Did Hubert Selby Jr. struggle with addiction himself?
Yes. He was given painkillers during his years in hospital with tuberculosis and later used heroin and alcohol. He was arrested for heroin possession in 1967 and spent two months in jail in Los Angeles, after which he stayed off illegal drugs.
Is Hubert Selby Jr. still alive?
No. He died on 26 April 2004 at his home in Highland Park, Los Angeles, of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, aged 75. A novel he was working on, The Seeds of Pain and the Seeds of Love, was left unfinished.
Footnotes
- Hubert Selby Jr. — Wikipedia
- Last Exit to Brooklyn — Wikipedia
- Requiem for a Dream (novel) — Wikipedia
- Selby, Hubert, Jr. — Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, via Encyclopedia.com
- Under review — Tribune, 9 August 1968
- Waiting Period — Kirkus Reviews
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I know the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer.”
— Hubert Selby Jr., introduction to Last Exit to Brooklyn (2000 edition)
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