Editing Alexander Trocchi (section)

==Early life and career==
Trocchi was born in [[Glasgow]] to Alfred (formerly Alfredo) Trocchi, a music-hall performer of Italian parentage, and Annie (née Robertson), who ran a boarding house and died of food poisoning when Trocchi was a teenager.<ref>[[Angus Calder|Calder, Angus]], [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/60219 "Trocchi, Alexander Whitelaw Robertson (1925–1984)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, 23 September 2004. Retrieved 2 December 2021. {{subscription required}}</ref> He attended [[Hillhead High School]] in the city and [[Cally Palace|Cally House School]] in [[Gatehouse of Fleet]], having been evacuated there during World War II.<ref name="Uni Glasgow">Sammaddra (16 December 2013), [https://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/the-edwin-morgan-papers-alexander-trocchi-cosmonaut-of-inner-space/ "The Edwin Morgan Papers: Alexander Trocchi – ‘cosmonaut of inner space’"]. ''University of Glasgow Library Blog''. Retrieved 2 December 2021.</ref> After working as a seaman on the [[Arctic convoys of World War II|Murmansk convoys]], he studied English Literature and Moral Philosophy at the [[University of Glasgow]], and was awarded second-class honours in 1950.<ref name="Uni Glasgow"/> 

Without graduating, Trocchi obtained a travelling grant that enabled him to relocate to continental Europe. In the early 1950s he lived in Paris and edited the literary magazine ''[[Merlin (literary magazine)|Merlin]]'', which published [[Henry Miller]], [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Christopher Logue]], and [[Pablo Neruda]], amongst others. Although not published in ''Merlin'', American writer [[Terry Southern]], who lived in Paris from 1948 to 1952, became a close friend of both Trocchi and his colleague [[Richard Seaver]], and the three later co-edited the anthology ''Writers In Revolt'' (1962).<ref>Hill, Lee. ''A Grand Guy: The Life and Art of Terry Southern'' (Bloomsbury, 2001), pp. 46–48, p. 102</ref> Though ''Merlin'' had been established somewhat in rivalry with the ''[[Paris Review]]'', [[George Plimpton]] also had served on the magazine's editorial board. Trocchi claimed that this journal came to an end when the [[United States Department of State|US State Department]] cancelled its many subscriptions in protest over an article by [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] praising the [[homoeroticism]] of [[Jean Genet]].

[[Maurice Girodias]] published most of Trocchi's novels through [[Olympia Press]],<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zcp4GAk8SmIC&dq=%22My+Life+and+Loves%22+%22frank+Harris%22++Trocchi&pg=PA146 ''Exiled in Paris Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Samuel Beckett and Others on the Left Bank''], pp. 146–147</ref> often written under pen names, such as Frances Lengel and Carmencita de las Lunas. Girodias also published ''[[My Life and Loves]]: Fifth Volume'', which purported to be the final volume of the autobiography of Irish-American writer [[Frank Harris]]. However, though based on autobiographical material by Harris, the book was heavily edited and rewritten by Trocchi.<ref>Harris, Frank. Alexander Trocchi, editor. ''[[My Life and Loves]]: Fifth Volume'', (1954)</ref> Girodias subsequently commissioned Trocchi to write erotica along with his friends and Merlin associates Logue, Plimpton and [[John Stevenson (writer)|John Stevenson]]. Under the name Frances Lengel, he churned out numerous pornographic books including the now classic ''Helen and Desire'' (1954) and a dirty version of his own book ''Young Adam'' (1954). Trocchi and his friends also published Samuel Beckett's ''War and Memory'' and Jean Genet's ''Thief's journal'' in English for the first time.<ref>Cult Fiction a readers guide, Andrew Calcutt, Richard Shephard published 1998 page 275</ref>