{"product_id":"9781907222658","title":"The Surrender of Silence: A Memoir of Ironfoot Jack, King of the Bohemians","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe life of escape artist, fortune-teller, author and raconteur \"Ironfoot Jack,\" aka Jack Rudolph Neave (1881—1959), the self-styled \"King of the Bohemians\" in London's Soho.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"I became acquainted with gipsies, with show people, with buskers, with people who entertained the public by performing in the city, on fair grounds and market places…and with a variety of \"fiddles\" — that is, some dubious methods of obtaining the means of life. I became a member of this fraternity.\" — from \u003ci\u003eThe Surrender of Silence\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEscape artist, fortune-teller, author, and raconteur \"Ironfoot Jack,\" aka Jack Rudolph Neave (1881—1959), the self-styled \"King of the Bohemians,\" was a well-known Soho character in pre- and postwar London. His rich and enthralling story of a lifestyle now gone forever was dictated as his portrait was being painted by the artist Timothy Whidborne in 1956. It was then entrusted to a Soho acquaintance, the author Colin Wilson whose first book \u003ci\u003eThe Outsider\u003c\/i\u003e, had been a success in the same year. Despite his efforts, Wilson failed to find a publisher and, after his death, the manuscript was discovered among his papers by his bibliographer Colin Stanley, who assembled the text, which is accompanied by a contextual introduction by cultural historian Phil Baker.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJack wrote that \u003ci\u003eThe Surrender of Silence\u003c\/i\u003e was \"the outcome of years of struggle to survive; of solving the problem of existence by various and curious methods… Most of the people I am talking about led a precarious life and obtained their livelihood from day to day…. They worked to live; they did not live to work.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis Strange Attractor Press edition is the first publication of this legendary work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Strange Attractor","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47050816159984,"sku":"9781907222658","price":21.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781907222658_p0.jpg?v=1763618318","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781907222658","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}