Brendan Behan’s New York. With Drawings by Paul Hogarth. PROOF COPY. New York: Geis, 1964. Pp, 159. Publisher’s orange wrappers lettered in black, faded and lightly worn, internally good.

Brendan Behan takes us on his last tour of what he calls ‘The most exciting city in the World’.

Behan landed in New York for the Broadway premiere of The Hostage in September 1960. He would return to the city for periods of time over the next three years. Ulick O’Connor in his revealing biography of Behan, Brendan, said, “While he was sober in New York, Brendan was happier than he had been anywhere else, except Dublin. He found certain literary circles there congenial and less inhibited than in London. The artist seemed to have fewer layers of encrusted social background to break through in order to find himself.”