Borstal Boy. New York: Knopf, 1959. First American Edition. Publisher’s blue cloth boards, with titles in silver to upper cover & spine, in pictorial dust jacket. Light wear to head & tail of jacket, otherwise a nice bright copy.

Regarded as Behan’s literary masterpiece this autobiographical novel is a vivid memoir of his time at Hollesley Bay Borstal, Suffolk, England.

Behan arrived in New York on the 2nd September 1960 for the Broadway debut of his play ‘The Hostage,’ and stayed at the Algonquin Hotel during the first two weeks of his visit.