Alexander Trocchi

Trocchi was taught by Morgan in Glasgow, met Beckett in Paris, and was his first publisher in English. His journal ‘Merlin’ also published work by Sartre, Logue, Neruda, Creeley, Éluard, Ayer, Hikmet and Miller. Cocteau reputedly introduced him to hard drugs. Debord wrote “almost amicably” to ‘resign’ him from the Situationist International (Jorn was a fellow-member), then wrote again annulling it. He met Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg and Corso in Paris, as well as his friend Southern and good friend Burroughs. Laing introduced Leary to heroin at Trocchi’s, while he himself (fleeing New York) overdosed Cohen on opium.