Paul Edward Herr - the author lets loose with a barrage of descriptive writing that marks him as a literary comer. He has written a moving parable of the man of integrity alienated from a world increasingly without integrity

 

Paul Edward Herr, Journey Not to End, Tough

Poets Press, 2021 [1961]

The novel relates the experiences of an unnamed protagonist, beginning with his escape from a displaced-persons camp in Europe at the end of World War II, followed by years of aimless travel on various freighters, and eventually leading to a chance encounter with a high-ranking Mexican military official who convinces him to help organize shipments of arms to Cuban revolutionaries attempting to overthrow the Batista dictatorship. As the novel progresses, the protagonist discovers his talents as a writer, and seeks to replace his existential fatalism with real purpose in life and an ever-elusive inner peace.

Described as "a principal part of a longer work in progress," the first section of Paul Herr's only published novel, Journey Not to End, appeared in the Autumn 1959 issue of Chicago Review. The full novel was originally published in 1961 by Bernard Geis Associates and released as a paperback the following year by Signet Books.

"This is a great and important piece of fiction. . . . You must read it." — Los Angeles Times

"In this first novel, the author lets loose with a barrage of descriptive writing that marks him as a literary comer... Herr is a master word-manufacturer, a splendid mood writer. We should be hearing more from him." — Hartford Courant

"I believe that readers of Journey Not to End by Paul Herr are witnessing the emergence of a new writer of considerable stature... Nelson Algren, the aging American rebel, has said of this book, 'If it doesn’t get major attention, something is awfully wrong in the U.S.A.'" — Los Angeles Mirror

"Mr. Herr's first novel is a good one. His hero is believable, his story exciting and interesting. These two qualities alone get many novels published. But Mr. Herr's novel is better beyond these two qualities. He has written a moving parable of the man of integrity alienated from a world increasingly without integrity." — St. Louis Dispatch

"Paul Herr could easily become one of the foremost writers of our age, if Journey Not to End is any barometer of his potential as a novelist... Herr's novel displays a raw, naked ego which exerts a rare power when challenged. It is a unique and important book." — The Ada Evening News

"An exciting piece of literature, this. At times we wondered if it were fiction at all... As a vehicle for ideas, the novel succeeds admirably. It's even good entertainment. We highly recommend it—particularly to those who, to borrow a hackneyed phrase, 'think for themselves.'" — Cincinnati Enquirer Sun

"A brilliant novel by an extraordinary new writer." — Greenbelt News Review

Paul Edward Herr (1920-1980) was a Midwestern writer whose style was often compared to that of Albert Camus. His first novel, Journey Not to End, was heralded as a literary triumph in 1961, and was translated into many languages following its release. During his years in Chicago in the 1950s and early '60s, Herr was part of a talented circle of writers which included Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, and Studs Terkel, among others. He was also a frequent correspondent with German/American political theorist Hannah Arendt during that time. While pursuing his career as a writer, Herr worked in advertising and was a freelance editor. He also taught English literature at the University of Southern California and the University of Indiana for several years, specializing in James Joyce and other modernists. His second novel, The Amnesiacs, was never published, although chapters from it were published in The Chicago Review and other literary magazines. Paul Herr was the father of three children, two of whom are writers, including Natalia Rachel Singer, author of Scraping by in the Big Eighties, and Mira Bartok, author of The Memory Palace. Paul Herr died in New Orleans in 1980.