Henry Rollins / 2.13.61 • Books • Henry Rollins - Black Coffee Blues

I saw the word Solipsist while reading the dictionary in 1993. I was living in NYC at the time and the word defined how the city made me feel. I worked on this book in several cities all over the world until 1996. The writing is obsessive and claustrophobic. To be solipsistic is to totally realize the ego and the nightmare of utter self-possession. I went for it and it swallowed me whole. -- Henry Rollins

The first five books by Henry Rollins combined in one volume. Includes High Adventure in the Great Outdoors, Bang!, Art to Choke Hearts, Pissing In The Gene Pool and One From None.

Henry Rollins graphic account of life on the road recounts his harrowing exploits with one of the most important rock bands in modern history, Black Flag. From his acceptance into the band in 1981 to its demise in 1986, Get in the Van comprehensively documents his six year "tour of duty" with the band. Primarily constructed from his tour journals, Rollins chronicles his years in the band with brutal candor and incisive humor -- years strewn with overzealous fans, truculent policemen, poverty and all-night drives. Contains Rollins' 1981-1986 Black Flag tour journals, nearly 200 photographs and illustrations, and his entire 1981-1986 tour itinerary.

Work on Eye Scream started in 1986. I was crossing America constantly and experiencing the morality shifts, attitudes, and rituals in different parts of the country - the difference in the way people were in the Bible Belt as opposed to New York City, the way blacks and whites interfaced, the intolerance of homosexuality, the morality plays. I started to become aware of how brutal the country is and how much ferocity, cruelty, and oppression are inherent in the culture and how much of it was in me. I wanted to document it and create a book that brought the whole thing to a boil and see w here it left me off. In the summer of 1995, I finished the book and started to edit. Re-reading the manuscript over and over, I realized all the things I had picked up over a decade of playing Devil's advocate and it was inspiring because it clearly defined who my enemies are. As an American, I feel it impossible not to be infuriated by the way things are and have been. I refuse to be happy about the day-to-day and go along with it. There's too much spitting in my face and too much spitting in the faces of people who don't know any other way of life. This book is brutal, and at times, funny. I know that I will probably get a ton of shit for Eye Scream. Enjoy, or better yet... don't. -- Henry Rollins

Two companion pieces released in one volume, containing selected writing and tour journal entries from 1988-1992.

In Roomanitarian, Henry Rollins returns to the combative prose that has won him critical acclaim and a legion of devoted fans. The book is divided into three parts: The first section, "Walking the Chasm," written in the form of a poem, epitomizes Rollins’s beautifully stark, hard-hitting style. The second part, "Ended," is a series of short prose pieces reminiscent of Solipsist. Finally, the biting humor and social commentary Rollins is renowned for is on full display in "To Ann Hitler with Love," a series of mock love letters to a fictional woman who bears a striking resemblance to conservative pundit Ann Coulter.

A Mad Dash picks up where 2007’s A Preferred Blur left off. A seemingly endless stream of words, one after another, details his travels all over the world, over one hundred performances and the shooting of five documentaries. The book goes right to the end, only stopping at the last page. Henry Rollins is still writing himself into obscurity and from the looks of this book, he’s almost there! This self-published punk is criminally implicated in several books that bear his name. Someone should have a word with him about that. This back cover blurb is not the first time he has written in third-person singular. Thank you. -– Henry Rollins Note: Autographed copies are SOLD OUT.

Signed copies are SOLD OUT! Occupants pairs Rollins' visceral full-color photographs taken in Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and elsewhere over the last few years—with writings that not only provide context and magnify the impact of the images but also lift them to the level of political commentary. Simply put, this book is a visual testimony of anger, suffering, and resilience that will help its readers realize what is so easy to miss when tragedy and terror become numbing, constant forces—the quieter, stronger forces of healing, solidarity, faith and even joy.

A Preferred Blur picks up where 2006’s A Dull Roar left off, chronicling the effects of a self-inflicted schedule designed to reduce sleep, over stimulate to the point of stupor and induce a case of nervous exhaustion. A marathoner’s depression was the desired effect which was achieved on 12-31-07 when the book comes to an end with the two word sentiment that got the whole project started in the first place.

A Dull Roar is a five month chronicle of the spin, misinformation and sabre-rattling in the build up to the... oh, wait a minute. OK, A Dull Roar is a journal of my life from April to early September 2006 as I prepared for, went out on and completed a tour of North America with the Rollins Band from late July to early September. In the months before the tour, I completed the 2nd season of The Henry Rollins Show for the Independent Film Channel, worked on the film Wrong Turn 2 and slaved over my radio show Harmony in My Head. Some might advise that I get a life. I've got one. This is is it. -- Henry Rollins