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Notes on the Underground 5Y VICTOR S Notes on the Underground 5y VICTOR S. NAVASICY a series of ads inviting the reading Congressional investigation is the ex-post-facto event (like the revela- ft I F an of the critics who reviewed public to "Join the Underground! exception rather than the rule If we tion nat.= author of the controver- The Secret Swinger' actually (Your best friend may be a mem- are to understand why some books sial movie, "Dr. Strangelove" and read my first book (The Revelations ber.)" Grove's underground consists ride the local and others the express, the co-author of "Candy" was also of Doctor Modesto') like they said and has contested of such books as why some books eventually see day- the author of "The Magic Christian") they did, why did It only sell 4.500 'The Olympia Press Reader" edited light while others take a perpetual comes along and thrusts the book copies?" asks Alan Remington, the by Maurice Girodias, "Tropic of Can- shuttle from subculture to subculture, into prominence. perplexed author of both novels. The cer" by Henry Miller, "Naked Lunch" why some get a free ride and others Of course there is always the dan- answer is easy. "Revelations," which by William Burroughs, "City of end up trampled in the rush of the ger that a book will come out after was published In 1955 and which Night" by John Reeky and "The avant-garde to catch the latest trend, its time or, to complicate matters some critics have seen as the begin- Marquis de Sade." then a comprehensive survey further, that it will be behind its ning of black humor, was en =der- Traditionally, underground books Is needed. Such a survey will take time in some respects and ahead in ground book. And anybody who knows like underground tests, come to the into account the book, the author, others. For instance, "The Ecstasy anything about undergrmmd books attention of the reading public only the subject, the timing and the situa- of Owen Muir" by Ring Lardner =owe that by definition, they are (a) when somebody gets around to tion or, as they say in "the under- Jr., which came out in the early read by, circulated and celebrated banning them, or (b) when the =- ground, the scene. tittles, reflected the politics of the among, a select group of relatively plosion is so great that the rumbles -thirties but anticipated the literary sophisticated literati whose tastes are can't be contained beneath the sur- THE list of Ideal-types which fol- styles of the sixties. In any event, at least a book ahead of the market- face. Many of Grove's books are ex- lows does not pretend to be that by some principle of consanguinity place. The general public does not as amples of the former. And Ralph survey. It is, however, intended to H is often the case that a book which a rule, ride the underground railroad. Nader's devastating critique of auto serve as a map to assist future ex- makes the transition from the un- This does not mean that the gen- industry safety practices, "Unsafe at plorers In this relatively uncharted derground is replaced by an earlier eral public does not read underground Any Speed" (Grossman Publishers), terrain. There are, fundamentally, work of the same author. Thus, now books. They often do. It's Just that is a good example of the latter. eight different kinds of underground that all of the media are busy inter- the public at large follows a differ- Even prior to publication, Nader's books: preting the meaning of Marshall Mc- ent timetable Henry Roth's Depres- book had won an underground fol- 1. The Pure Underground Book. Luhan's erstwhile tmderground book, sion novel, "Call It Sleep," for in- lowing based on a chapter which The average underground book as- "Understanding Media," we are as- stance, was an underground book for had appeared in The Nation, Nader's pires to daylight, to visibility, to sured that his first book, 'The Me- 30 years, when an etterprigng paper- annual recruitment of attaché-case- elevation. As often as not its editor chanical Bride" (out of print), is the back publisher (Peter Mayer of carrying doctors and lawyers is the one who started all the talk real underground McLuhan book. Avon Books) and a front-page review to picket the auto show at New York in the first place, as Simon & Schus- R. The Author's Underground in this section managed to bring it City's Coliseum, a rumor that one ter editor Bob Gottlieb and others Book. This book is, of comae, an to the public's attention. or more national magazines had de- did about "Catch-22" before it tmdergrotmd book only in the au- cided against reviewing the book for caught It is the distinction of the thor's imagination. In everybody William Goldings "Lord of the fear of jeopardizing multi-million-dol- Pure Underground Book that it will Flies" and Terry Southern's "The else's eyes it Is a flop. This might lar advertising contracts, and a wide never see =Flight being destined to seem like a trivial category until one Magic Christian" (both tinged with acquaintanceship in journalistic and have a quiet subsurface sale for the mysticism, as an many of the under- realizes that the list of imagined political circles among people who duration of its unnatural life. Such underground boo= is almost as long ground genre seem to be) enjoyed had come to respect his single-minded a book seer= to be "The Recogni- happy reputations as underground as the list of books in print In fact integrity. Yet It took a private eye, tions" by William Gaddis, originally one theory is that It is the list of best severs before each found its a series of nationally televised U.S. published in 1955 by Harcourt, Brace own route to public attention. And books in print, minus 10 (the 10 Senate hearings and an apology from & World. books on the best-seller list at the recently, Grove Press, trying to speed the President of General Motors to The principal means of survival up the conversion process, has taken time). get "Unsafe at Any Speed" onto the of the Pure Underground Book Is 4. The Usideneater Book. The best-seller lists. the pure devotion of its principal sup- underwater book is a special kind Mr. Umiak, Le editor of Monocle, Yet any serious student of the porters. Robert Ockene, an editor at of underground book not recognized Which surfaces periodically. underground railroad knows that a Hobbs-Merrill, which has nothing to as such at Brat because when It do with 'The Recognitions," is a comes out It is greeted with a big typical Gaddis-enthusiast He reports ....—Q—.■==== splash and inundated in such praise ee that he has given away 25 copies and fame that everyone assumes to ee a- allailin"Ad"creI' ". NA" MI NM MI 111%.1Marl of 'The Recognitions," three in the ere sox it is just another typical best seller. al.ld.111116.61e=1 MN last year, that his own copy is on Eventually, however, the truth comes i I. a gigs% on in me w wg in NB loan to someone who had lent hint III011 ,11113=111=1111g1 out and despite the waves of favor- g lb NE III IIII_MI IIII a copy of another underground book able publicity and the fact that 1111111r-MEMO NI gi III ("V." by Thomas Pynchca), and that Mill.: iii g g II Ig la everybody else is reading it, the .17 ff." be had never heard of Gaddis before book is discovered by the illit EINIENENIE , '2,Ar 47: the book came 01.1t. "The 111D1III00NNINEI i;:ir"Ar - • marvelous tuiderground. That at any rate, is the II I I IP IP Pi 13 PI N PI PI Wag'," Mr. Ockene says, "Is that I history of Beetle John Lennon's col- I L • E --- discovered it myself. We all did. This lection of puns, In His Own Write." II hurl a book which was talked up 5. The Unpublished Underground by the agent, editor or publisher." Book. Perhaps the most prestigious Not all enthusiasts, however, are underground book is the one which content for such books to remain wins its reputation in manuscript underground. which brings up . form. Many people had read and 2. The In- Transit Underground talked about Jack Keswsac's "On the Book. The In-Transit Underground Road" long before publication; the Book is only a temporary resident, same reportedly went for such an traveling underground on its way ambitious undertaking as Marguerite to a more visible destination Often Young's "Miss MacIntosh, My Dar- this is a matter of timing. When ling' (e. 1,198 page book, 17 years a book appears before its time, It in the writing): the original Tom only a matter of tone before a re- Wolfe used to carry around his manu- view (as in the case of Irving Howe's scripts to cocktail parties; and Mark front-page review of "Call It Sleep" Lane's yet-to-be-published critique of 30-odd years after the fact) or an the Warren Commission's report ban bees making the rounds for over a year in continuously revised drafts. The difficulty with this particular form of underground circulation Is that a manuscript's reputation often abruptly ends with publica- rases. Or Deefases Invoke Cm. tion. I prefer to believe that this seams: emu tee Mew= of Mod- em AIL Ism MOM, reorlatlae is because (Cosninned on Page 513.1 Till NOW YORK TIMIS POOK HMV .
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