Dansite Reading Journal

Cover of The Subterraneans
The Subterraneans
Added February 21, 2026

Publication Details

Type: Book
Published: 1958

Reading Details

Pages: 134
Location: Lawrence, Kansas (US)

Highlights

First Paragraph:

Once I was young and had so much more orientation and could talk with nervous intelligence about everything and with clarity and without as much literary preambling as this; in other words this is the story of an unself-confident man, at the same time of an egomaniac, naturally, facetious won’t do—just to start at the beginning and let the truth seep out, that’s what I’ll do—. It began on a warm summernight—ah, she was sitting on a fender with Julien Alexander who is … let me begin with the history of the subterraneans of San Francisco…