Kenneth Patchen | The Journal of Albion Moonlight (1944 United Book Guild)

Description

First published in 1941 and here issued in its 1944 United Book Guild edition, The Journal of Albion Moonlight is Kenneth Patchen’s wildest work — a surreal, fragmented novel that rages against war, fascism, and moral complacency. It follows the titular Albion Moonlight on a fevered, apocalyptic journey across a wartime America warped into allegory. Somewhere between a novel and a prose poem, the book fuses mysticism, anti-authoritarian politics, and surrealist experimentation. Critics have compared it to Naked Lunch and Gravity’s Rainbow, though Patchen’s vision is uniquely his own: lyrical, furious, and driven by moral urgency. This edition retains the striking original jacket design and is considered one of the most important early appearances of American literary resistance.

Published by The United Book Guild in 1944 — three years after its debut by New Directions — this edition is scarce in dust jacket and often misattributed as a “book club printing” (it is not). For Patchen collectors, this edition represents an important second state — a wartime reprint distributed to maintain the book’s underground momentum. An essential volume for anyone collecting mid-century American dissent.

A hallucinatory howl of conscience — Patchen’s Albion Moonlight remains a searing protest against violence and spiritual decay.