Beckett Rosset's Reading List

Five books that inspire the man behind NYC's notorious and beloved literary salon.

Beckett Rosset is best known as the founder and host of BECKETT'S, where he hosted underground literary salons from 2022 to 2023 out of a now-sold eccentric 1920’s townhouse in the West Village — championing some of our favorite writers, including Nico Walker, Megan Nolan, and Madeline Cash.

Now, Rosset is as determined as ever to protect and encourage all that literature can and should be: pure, experiential, strange, and glamorous, with his new monthly salon series, TENSE, which is aimed at continuing New York’s great literary tradition by hosting readings and performers at various locations around the city.

The next TENSE event is on November 15 at Sovereign House, and will feature readings by Rosset, Lucy Sante, Guy Dess, Adeline Swartzendruber, Mairead Kiernan, Chloe Pingeon, and Chris Bray. There will be a short film screened by Max Tullio, a dance performance by Oona Landgrache, and music by Sadie Shea. 

Below, Beckett Rosset curated a reading list, exclusively for Language Arts.

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It’s impossible to list just five books, so I chose these because they’ve influenced the way I write, and I’ve recently recommended them to people. Notice that four of the five are published by Grove Press (now Grove/Atlantic). That’s because my father was the owner of Grove, and so I grew up surrounded by mostly Grove Press books. Nuff said!

Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby, Jr.

Grove Press, 1964 

The language. Selby broke barriers, did not obey “rules” of writing and described in the most visceral way possible the gritty, horrific underbelly of urban American society in the 1950s. The violence, the hidden sexuality, the casual hatred, the hopelessness all written in language that I haven’t seen since. Some of you may have seen the film Requiem for a Dream. This is way better. Also the poor guy had a rough life despite his literary successes. Without a doubt one of my literary heroes. 

Murphy by Samuel Beckett

Grove Press, 1957 

The humor in the face of despair. “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.” Need I say more? I’ll say more. Is that saying? Is that more? Beckett’s first novel, the only one he wrote in English until the last thing he wrote (Stirrings Still). You know I had to have one book by my namesake, though I easily could make all five of my recs Beckett books (check out Krapp’s Last Tape if you haven't already!). Again, like Selby, Jr., the language, though in a totally different style. What’s better than a tragicomedy? After reading Murphy while living in an SRO in the Bronx after getting out of jail, this novel prompted me to start writing. It changed my life. 

Cherry by Nico Walker

Alfred A. Knopf, 2018

I wanted to include something by a living author, for one thing, and for another, this book is absolutely worthy of mention. Nico’s writing is streamlined, fast moving, pragmatic, dark but also humorous at times. He has a pace, a rhythm that as a writer I find very compelling. I wish I could write like this. A solid, real, brutal piece of America. Engaging to the point that I read it in two sittings. Also personally, I identify with some of what the main (unnamed, by the way) character goes through. I could go on but I won’t. Just buy it and read it. Trust me. 

Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Grove Press, 1967 

Juvenal and Horace may have started things off but Bulgakov took satire to a place that few, if any, can match. 20th century satire at its finest. Dark, absurd, theatrical, magical, funny as fuck. Where else will you find a character named “Homeless?” Censorship, repression, living in constant fear. Are we headed back to a time like this (shudder)? No matter. Just thinking about this book makes me want to read it again. 

The Lotus Crew by Stewart Meyer

Grove Press, 1984

The grittiest, most truthful story I have ever read about the dope scene in the Lower East Side in the 1970s and 80s. Makes books like The Basketball Diaries seem tame. And sure, Stew takes some poetic license, but overall the story he tells is as close to the real thing (which I unfortunately experienced myself in the 1990s) as any book I have ever read. If you read and liked William Burroughs’ Junky you will want to read this.