- William S. Burroughs
Infobox Writer
name = William S. Burroughs
caption=William S. Burroughs at his 69th birthday in 1983.
birthdate = birth date|1914|2|5
birthplace = St. Louis,Missouri
deathdate = death date and age|1997|8|2|1914|2|5
deathplace = Lawrence,Kansas
occupation = Novelist, Short story writer, Essayist
pseudonym = William Lee
spouse = Ilse von Klapper (1937-1946)Joan Vollmer (1946-1951)
partner =
children =William S. Burroughs, Jr.
relatives =William Seward Burroughs I , grandfatherIvy Lee , maternal uncle
genre = Beat,science fiction ,satire
movement = Beat
Postmodern
notableworks = "Naked Lunch "
influences = Céline, Rimbaud, Black, Genet, Sartre, Beckett, Miller, Korzybski, Spengler, Gysin, Hammett, Welch
influenced = Kerouac, Ginsberg, Acker, Ballard, Di Filippo, Pynchon, Leyner, Cooper, Self, Van Sant, Gibson, Moore, Welsh, Cronenberg, Lunch, Smith, Wyatt, Bowie, Eno,Genesis P-Orridge , Zorn, Cobain, Kesey, Reed
website =William Seward Burroughs II (birth date|1914|2|5 – death date|1997|8|2; pronEng|ˈbʌroʊz) was an American
novelist ,essayist ,social critic , painter andspoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as anopiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life. A primary member of theBeat Generation , he was anavant-garde author who affected popular culture as well as literature. In 1984, he was elected to theAmerican Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters .Early life and education
Burroughs was born in 1914, the younger of two sons born to Mortimer P. Burroughs (
16 June ,1885 –5 January ,1965 ) and Laura Hammon Lee (5 August ,1888 –20 October ,1970 ). The Burroughs were a prominent family inSt. Louis, Missouri . His grandfather,William Seward Burroughs I , founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which evolved into theBurroughs Corporation . Burroughs's mother, Laura Hammon Lee, was the daughter of a minister whose family claimed to be related toRobert E. Lee . His maternal uncle,Ivy Lee , was an advertising pioneer later employed as a publicist for the Rockefellers. His father, Mortimer Perry Burroughs, ran an antique and gift shop, Cobblestone Gardens; first in St. Louis, then inPalm Beach, Florida .Burroughs attended
John Burroughs School in St. Louis where his first published essay, "Personal Magnetism," was printed in the "John Burroughs Review" in 1929. [ [http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/william_s_burroughs.html William S Burroughs] . Popsubculture.com's Biography.] He then attendedThe Los Alamos Ranch School inNew Mexico , which was stressful for him. The school was aboarding school for the wealthy, "where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens." [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p.44.] . Burroughs keptjournal s documenting an erotic attachment to another boy. These remained undiscovered, and in fact he kept his sexual orientation concealed well into adulthood. He was soon expelled from Los Alamos after takingchloral hydrate in Santa Fe with a fellow student.Harvard University
He finished high school at Taylor School in St. Louis and, in 1932, left home to pursue an arts degree at
Harvard University . During the summers, he worked as a cub reporter for theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch , even covering the police docket. He disliked the work, and refused to cover some events like the death of a drowned child. He lost his virginity in anEast St. Louis brothel that summer with a female prostitute he regularly patronized. [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p.62.] While at Harvard Burroughs made trips toNew York City and was introduced to the gay subculture there. He visitedlesbian dives, piano bars, and theHarlem andGreenwich Village homosexual underground with a wealthy friend from Kansas City, Richard Stern. They would drive from Boston to New York in a reckless fashion. Once, Stern scared Burroughs so much, he asked to be let out of the vehicle. [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p.611]Burroughs graduated from
Harvard University in 1936. According to Ted Morgan's "Literary Outlaw",:His parents, upon his graduation, had decided to give him a monthly allowance of $200 out of their earnings from Cobblestone Gardens, a tidy sum in those days. It was enough to keep him going, and indeed it guaranteed his survival for the next twenty-five years, arriving with welcome regularity. The allowance was a ticket to freedom; it allowed him to live where he wanted to and to forgo employment. [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p.65]Burroughs's parents were not overly wealthy; they had sold the rights to his grandfather's invention and had no share in the
Burroughs Corporation . Shortly before the 1929 stock market crash Burroughs's parents sold their stock in the Burroughs Corporation for $200,000.cite news|title=William S. Burroughs Dies at 83; Member of the Beat Generation Wrote 'Naked Lunch'|first=Richard|last=Severo|date=August 3 ,1997 |publisher=New York Times |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEED6123DF930A3575BC0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|accessdate=2007-10-22]Europe
After leaving Harvard, Burroughs's formal education ended, except for brief flirtations as a graduate student of
anthropology at Harvard and as a medical student inVienna ,Austria . He traveled toEurope , which proved a window into Austrian and HungarianWeimar -Era homosexuality; he picked up boys in steam baths in Vienna, and moved in a circle of exiles, homosexuals, and runaways. There, he met Ilse Klapper, aJew ish woman fleeing the country's Nazi government. The two were never romantically involved, but Burroughs married her, inCroatia , against the wishes of his parents, in order to allow her to gain a visa to the United States. She made her way toNew York City , and eventually divorced Burroughs, although they remained friends for many years. [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". pp 65-8] After returning to the U.S., he held a string of uninteresting jobs. In 1939, his emotional health became a concern for his parents, especially after he deliberately severed the last joint of his left little finger to impress a man with whom he was infatuated. [Grauerholz, James. Introduction p. xv, in William Burroughs. "Interzone". New York: Viking Press, 1987.] This event made its way into his early fiction as the short story "The Finger".Beginning of The Beats
Burroughs enlisted in the
U.S. Army early in 1942, shortly after the bombing ofPearl Harbor brought the U.S. intoWorld War II . But when he was classified as a 1-A Infantry, not an officer, he became dejected. His mother recognized her son's depression and got Burroughs a civilian disability discharge — a release from duty based on the premise he should have not been allowed to enlist due to previous mental instability. After being evaluated by a family friend, who was also a neurologist at a psychiatric treatment center, Burroughs waited five months in limbo at Jefferson Barracks outside St. Louis before being discharged. During that time he met a Chicago soldier also awaiting release, and once Burroughs was free, he moved to Chicago and held a variety of jobs, including one as anexterminator . When two of his friends from St. Louis,Lucien Carr , aUniversity of Chicago student, and David Kammerer, Carr's homosexual admirer, left for New York City, Burroughs followed.Joan Vollmer
In 1944, Burroughs began living with
Joan Vollmer Adams in an apartment they shared withJack Kerouac andEdie Parker , Kerouac's first wife. Vollmer Adams was married to a GI with whom she had a young daughter, Julie Adams. Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder. The murder involved Lucien Carr, who had killed David Kammerer in a confrontation over Kammerer's incessant and unwanted advances. During this time, Burroughs began usingmorphine and quickly became addicted. He eventually soldheroin inGreenwich Village to support his habit.Vollmer also became an addict, but her drug of choice was
Benzedrine , an amphetamine sold over the counter at that time. Because of her addiction and social circle, her husband immediately divorced her after returning from the war. Vollmer would become Burroughs’ common law wife. Burroughs was soon arrested for forging a narcotics prescription and was sentenced to return to his parents' care in St. Louis. Vollmer's addiction led to a temporary psychosis, which resulted in her admission to a hospital, and the custody of her child was endangered. Yet after Burroughs completed his "house arrest" in St. Louis, he returned to New York, released Vollmer from the psychiatric ward ofBellevue Hospital , and moved with her and her daughter toTexas . Vollmer soon became pregnant with Burroughs's child. Their son,William S. Burroughs, Jr. , was born in 1947. The family moved briefly toNew Orleans in 1948.Burroughs was arrested after police searched his home and found letters between him and
Allen Ginsberg referring to a possible delivery ofmarijuana . Burroughs fled toMexico to escape possible detention inLouisiana 's Angola state prison. Vollmer and their children followed him. Burroughs planned to stay in Mexico for at least five years, the length of his charge'sstatute of limitations . Burroughs also attended classes at Mexico City College in 1950 studying Spanish, "Mexican picture writing". codices, and the Mayan language.In 1951, Burroughs shot and killed Vollmer in a drunken game of "
William Tell " at a party above the American-owned Bounty Bar inMexico City . He spent 13 days in jail before his brother came to Mexico City and bribed Mexican lawyers and officials, which allowed Burroughs to be released on bail while he awaited trial for the killing, which was ruledculpable homicide . [cite web |url=http://www.lawrence.com/news/2003/dec/09/the_death/ |title=The Death of Joan Vollmer Burroughs: What Really Happened? |accessdate=2008-07-28|last=Grauerholz |first=James |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year= |month= |format= |work=American Studies Department,University of Kansas |publisher=lawrence.com |pages= |language= |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] Vollmer’s daughter, Julie Adams, went to live with her grandmother, and William S. Burroughs, Jr. went to St. Louis to live with his grandparents. Burroughs reported every Monday morning to the jail in Mexico City while his prominent Mexican attorney worked to resolve the case. According toJames Grauerholz two witnesses had agreed to testify that the gun had gone off accidentally while he was checking to see if it was loaded, and the ballistics experts were bribed to support this story. [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p. 202.] Nevertheless, the trial was continuously delayed and Burroughs began to write what would eventually become the short novel "Queer" while awaiting his trial. However, when his attorney fled Mexico after his own legal problems involving a car accident and altercation with the son of a government official, Burroughs decided, according toTed Morgan , to "skip" and return to the United States. He was convicted in absentia of homicide and sentenced to two years, which was suspended. [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p. 214.]Birth of a writer
Burroughs later said that shooting Vollmer was a pivotal event in his life, and one which provoked his writing:
I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would have never become a writer but for Joan's death... I live with the constant threat of possession, for control. So the death of Joan brought me in contact with the invador [sic] , the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a life long struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out ["Queer", Penguin, 1985 p.xxiii] .
Yet he had begun to write in 1945. Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks ", a mystery novel loosely based on the Carr/Kammerer situation that was left unpublished. Years later, in the documentary "What Happened to Kerouac?", Burroughs described it as "not a very distinguished work." An excerpt of this work, in which Burroughs and Kerouac wrote alternating chapters, was finally published in "Word Virus"James Grauerholz . "Word Virus", New York: Grove, 1998] , a compendium of William Burroughs's writing that was published after his death in 1997.Before Vollmer died, Burroughs had largely completed his first two novels in Mexico, although "Queer" would not be published until 1985. His first novel was adapted from letters he originally wrote to Ginsberg who encouraged him to think of writing a novel. "Junkie" was written at the urging of
Allen Ginsberg , who was instrumental in getting the work published, even as a cheap mass market paperback.Ace Books published the novel in 1953 as part of anAce Double under the pen name William Lee, retitling it "Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict." (it was later republished as "Junkie" or "Junky"). After Vollmer's death, Burroughs drifted throughSouth America for several months, looking for a drug calledYage , which promised the user an ability fortelepathy . A book resulted from this time, "The Yage Letters ," published in 1963 by San Francisco'sCity Lights Books which comprised the letters between Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg."Naked Lunch"
"For more information on Naked Lunch as a literary text, see main article: Naked Lunch"
During 1953, Burroughs was at loose ends. Due to legal problems, he was unable to live in the cities towards which he was most inclined. He spent time with his parents in
Palm Beach, Florida , and New York City with Allen Ginsberg. When Ginsberg refused his romantic advances, [Bill Morgan, "I Celebrate Myself", 2006, New York Viking Press, p.159] Burroughs went toRome to meetAlan Ansen on a vacation financed from his parents' continuing support. When he found Rome and Ansen’s company dreary, inspired byPaul Bowles ' fiction, he decided to head forTangier ,Morocco . [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p.232-34.] In a home owned by a known procurer of homosexual prostitutes for visiting American and English men, he rented a room and began to write a large body of text that he personally referred to as "Interzone". [James Grauerholz writes in Interzone, the body of text that Burroughs was working on was called "Interzone", see Burroughs, William S. "Interzone". "Introduction", p.ix-xiii. New York: Viking Press, 1987.] Burroughs lived in Tangier for several months, before returning to the United States where he suffered several personal indignities - Ginsberg was in California and refused to see him,A. A. Wyn , the publisher of "Junkie", was not forthcoming with his royalties and his parents were threatening to cut off his allowance. All signs pointed him back to Tangier, a place where his parents would have to continue the support and one where drugs were freely available. He left in November 1954 and spent the next four years there working on the fiction that would later become "Naked Lunch ", as well as attempting to write commercial articles about Tangier. He sent these writings to Ginsberg, his literary agent for "Junkie", but none were published until 1989 when "Interzone", a collection of short stories, was published. Under the strong influence of a marijuana confection known as majoun and a German-madeopioid called Eukodol (oxycodone ), Burroughs settled in to write. Eventually, Ginsberg and Kerouac, who had traveled to Tangier in 1957, helped Burroughs edit these episodes into "Naked Lunch". [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p.238-42.]Whereas "Junkie" and "Queer" were conventional in style, "Naked Lunch" was his first venture into a non-linear style. At around the time he was composing "Naked Lunch", Burroughs was also exposed to
Brion Gysin 's cut-up technique at the Beat Hotel in Paris in September 1959, he began slicing up phrases and words to create new sentences. [Miles, Barry "The Inventive Mind of Brion Gysin" in José Férez Kuri (ed) "Brion Gysin: Tuning in to the Multimedia Age", London: Thames and Hudson, 2003, p.124-125.] At the Beat Hotel Burroughs discovered "a port of entry" into Gysin's canvases: "I don't think I had ever seen painting until I saw the painting of Brion Gysin." [Burroughs, William S., "Ports of Entry - Here is Space-Time Painting", p.32.] The two would cultivate a long-term friendship that revolved around a mutual interest in artworks and cut-up techniques. Scenes were slid together with little care fornarrative . Perhaps thinking of his crazed physician, Dr Benway, he described "Naked Lunch" as a book that could be cut into at any point. Although notscience fiction , the book does seem to forecast — with eerie prescience — such later phenomena asAIDS ,liposuction ,autoerotic fatalities and the crack pandemic. [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p.355.]Burroughs's 'Interzone' could be seen as a metaphorical stateless city, but the term probably was derived from the "
International Zone " in Tangier, a city occupied afterWorld War II by French, English, Spanish, and American expatriate communities, each with its own courts and administration. During this time in its history, Tangier was an international refuge for criminals, artists, drug smugglers and tax-evading tycoons. It was not an exaggeration to say everything could be had for a price. When in Tangier, Burroughs's son Billy, now a teenager, came to live with him at the insistence of his parents. It was Burroughs's lover, Ian Sommerville, who recognized that the boy was homesick and urged Burroughs to send him back to the U.S. and the surroundings he had grown up in. After several months with his father, Billy returned to Palm Beach to live with his grandparents again.Excerpts from "Naked Lunch" were first published in the United States in 1958. The novel was initially rejected by
City Lights Books , the publisher of Ginsberg's "Howl", andOlympia Press publisherMaurice Girodias , who had published English language novels in France that were controversial for their subjective views of sex and anti-social characters. But Allen Ginsberg worked to get excerpts published in "Black Mountain Review" and "Chicago Review" in 1958. Irving Rosenthal, student editor of "Chicago Review", a quarterly journal partially subsidized by the university, promised to publish more excerpts from "Naked Lunch", but he was fired from his position in 1958 after "Chicago Daily News" columnist Jack Mabley (1915-2006) called the first excerpt obscene. Rosenthal went on to publish more in his newly created literary journal "Big Table No. 1"; however, these copies elicited such contempt, the editors were accused of sending obscene material through the United States Mail by theUnited States Postmaster General , who ruled that copies could not be mailed to subscribers. This controversy made "Naked Lunch" interesting to Maurice Girodias again, and he published the novel in 1959. After the novel was published, it slowly became notorious across Europe and the United States, garnering interest from not just members of thecounterculture of the 1960s , but literary critics such as Mary McCarthy. Once published in the United States, "Naked Lunch" was prosecuted as obscene by the Commonwealth ofMassachusetts , followed by other states. In 1966 theMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared the work "not obscene" on the basis of criteria developed largely to defend the book. The case against Burroughs's novel still stands as the last obscenity trial against a work of literature — that is, a work consisting of words only, and not including illustrations or photographs — prosecuted in the United States.The manuscripts that produced "Naked Lunch" also produced the later works "
The Soft Machine " (1961), "The Ticket That Exploded " (1962), and "Nova Express " (1963). These novels feature extensive use of the cut-up technique, which influenced all of Burroughs subsequent fiction to a degree. During his friendship and artistic collaborations with Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville the technique was combined with images, Gysin's paintings, and sound, via Somerville's tape recorders. Burroughs was so dedicated to the cut-up method that he often defended his use of the technique before editors and publishers, most notably Dick Seaver atGrove Press in the 1960s [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p. 425.] andHolt, Rinehart & Winston in the 1980s. The cut-up method, because of its seemingly random or mechanical basis for text generation, combined with the possibilities of mixing in text written by other writers without descending to plagiarism, to some extent de-emphasizes the traditional role of the writer as creator or originator of a string of words, while simultaneously exalting the importance of the writer's sensibility as an editor. In this sense the cut-up method may be considered as analogous to thecollage method in the visual art.Paris and the 'Beat Hotel'
Burroughs moved to a run down hotel in Latin Quarter of Paris in 1959 when "Naked Lunch" was still looking for a publisher. Tangier with its easy access to drugs, small cliques of homosexuals, growing political unrest and odd collection of criminals became increasingly unhealthy for Burroughs. [Grauerholz, James. Introduction p. xviii, in William Burroughs. "Interzone". New York: Viking Press, 1987.] He went to Paris to meet Ginsberg and talk with
Olympia Press . In so doing, he left a brewing legal problem, which eventually transferred itself to Paris.Paul Lund , a former British career criminal and cigarette smuggler Burroughs met in Tangier, was arrested on suspicion of importing narcotics into France. Lund gave up Burroughs and some evidence implicated Burroughs in the possible importation into France of narcotics. Once again, the man faced criminal charges, this time in Paris for conspiracy to import opiates, when the Moroccan authorities forwarded their investigation to French officials. Yet it was under this impending threat of criminal sanction that Maurice Girodias published "Naked Lunch", and it was helpful in getting Burroughs a suspended sentence, as a literary career, according toTed Morgan , is a respected profession in France.The '
Beat Hotel ' was a typical European stylerooming house hotel, with common toilets on every floor, and a small place for personal cooking in the room. Life there was documented by the photographerHarold Chapman , who lived in the attic room. This shabby, inexpensive hotel was populated byGregory Corso , Ginsberg andPeter Orlovsky for several months after "Naked Lunch" first appeared. The actual process of publication was partly a function of its 'cut-up' presentation to the printer. Girodias had given Burroughs only ten days to prepare the manuscript for print galleys, and Burroughs sent over the manuscript in pieces, preparing the parts in no particular order. When it was published in this authentically ‘random’ manner, Burroughs liked it better than the initial plan. International rights to the work were sold soon after, and Burroughs used the $3,000 advance fromGrove Press to buy drugs. [ Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p.316-326.] "Naked Lunch" was featured in a 1959 "Life " magazine cover story, partly as an article that highlighted the growing Beat literary movement.The London years
Burroughs left Paris for
London in 1966 to take the cure again with Dr. Dent, a well known English medical doctor who spearheaded a painless heroin withdrawal treatment using an electronic box affixed to the patient's temple.Keith Richards andAnita Pallenberg would take this same cure over a decade later from Dr. Dent's nurse, Smitty. [Stratton, Richard. "Keith Richards Interview 1978". "High Times Reader". Thunder's Mouth, Nation Books: New York, 2004.] Though he ultimately relapsed, Burroughs ended up working out of London for six years, traveling back to the United States on several notable occasions, including one time escorting his son to Lexington Narcotics Farm and Prison after the younger Burroughs had been convicted of prescription fraud inFlorida . In the "Afterward" to the compilation of his son's two previously published novels "Speed" and "Kentucky Ham", Burroughs writes that he thought he had a "small habit" and left London quickly without any narcotics because he suspected the U.S. customs would search him very thoroughly on arrival. He claims he went through the most excruciating two months of opiate withdrawal while seeing his son through his trial and sentencing, actually traveling with Billy toLexington, Kentucky fromMiami to ensure his son entered the hospital he once spent time in as a volunteer admission. This confession, published in 1981, might strike many readers as proof of Burroughs poor parenting and example, but read in full light of the difficult circumstances he found himself in, it seems like some stubborn proof that Burroughs did care enough about his son to return and see him through the criminal process, even though it caused him much personal pain. [Burroughs, William, S. "Afterward". "Speed/Kentucky Ham: Two Novels". Overlook Press: New York, 1984.] Earlier Burroughs revisitedSt. Louis, Missouri taking a large advance from "Playboy " to write an article about his trip back to St. Louis that eventually was published in "The Paris Review ", after Burroughs refused to alter the style for "Playboy"'s publishers. In 1968 Burroughs joinedJean Genet ,John Sack , andTerry Southern in covering the1968 Democratic National Convention for "Esquire" magazine. Southern and Burroughs, who had first become acquainted in London, would remain lifelong friends and collaborators. In 1972, Burroughs and Southern unsuccessfully attempted to adapt "Naked Lunch" for the screen in conjunction with American game show producerChuck Barris . [Lee Hill "A Grand Guy: The Art and Life of Terry Southern".]Burroughs supported himself and his addiction by publishing pieces in small literary presses. His avant garde reputation grew internationally as the hippie counterculture discovered his earlier works. He developed a close friendship with Anthony Balch and lived with a young hustler named John Brady who continuously brought home young women despite Burroughs' protestations. In the midst of this personal turmoil, Burroughs managed to complete two works: a novel written in
screen play format, "The Last Words of Dutch Schulz" (1969); and the traditional prose-format novel "The Wild Boys" (1971).In the 1960s Burroughs also joined and left the
Church of Scientology . In talking about the experience, he claimed that the techniques and philosophy of Scientology helped him and that he felt that further study into Scientology would produce great results. However, he was skeptical of the organization itself, and felt that it fostered an environment that did not accept critical discussion. [ [http://www.suburbia.com.au/~fun/scn/etc/wsb3.html Burroughs on Scientology] , "Los Angeles Free Press", 6 Mar 1970.] His subsequent critical writings about the church and his review of "Inside Scientology " byRobert Kaufman led to a battle of letters between Burroughs and Scientology supporters in the pages of "Rolling Stone " magazine.Exile returns
In 1974, concerned about his friend's well-being, Allen Ginsberg gained for Burroughs a contract to teach
creative writing at theCity College of New York . Burroughs successfully withdrew from heroin use and moved to New York. He eventually found an apartment, affectionately dubbed 'The Bunker', on theLower East Side ofManhattan . The dwelling was a partially convertedYMCA gym, complete with lockers and communal showers. The building fell within New York Cityrent control policies that made it extremely cheap; in fact, it was only about four hundred dollars a month until 1981 when the rent control rules changed, doubling the rent overnight. [Bockris, Victor. "With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker". St. Martin's Griffin, New York: 1996] Burroughs chalked up 'teacher' to another one of the jobs he did not like, as he lasted only a semester teaching; he found the students uninteresting and without much creative talent. Although he needed income desperately, he even turned down a teaching position at theUniversity at Buffalo for $15,000 a semester. "The teaching gig was a lesson in never again. You were giving out all this energy and nothing was coming back." [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p. 477.] His savior was the newly arrived, twenty-one-year-old book seller and Beat Generation devoteeJames Grauerholz , who worked for Burroughs part-time as a secretary as well as in abook store . It was Grauerholz who floated the idea of reading tours, something similar to rock and roll touring, or stand-up comedian dates in clubs across the country. Grauerholz had managed several rock bands in Kansas and took the lead in booking Burroughs reading tours that would help support him throughout the next two decades. It raised his public profile which eventually aided in new publishing contracts. Through Grauerholz, Burroughs became a monthly columnist for the noted popular culture magazine "Crawdaddy ", for which he interviewedLed Zeppelin 'sJimmy Page in 1975. Thus Burroughs capitalized on the emerging Americancelebrity culture, deciding to relocate back to the United States permanently in 1976. He then began to associate with New York cultural playersAndy Warhol ,John Giorno ,Lou Reed ,Patti Smith , andSusan Sontag , frequently entertaining them at the Bunker. Throughout early 1977, Burroughs collaborated with Southern andDennis Hopper on a screen adaptation of "Junky". Financed by a reclusive acquaintance of Burroughs, the project lost traction after financial problems and creative disagreements between Hopper and Burroughs.Organized by Columbia professor
Sylvère Lotringer , Giorno, and Grauerholz, the Nova Convention was a multimedia retrospective of Burroughs's work held from 30 November to 2 December 1978 at various locations throughout New York. The event included readings from Southern, Ginsberg, Smith, andFrank Zappa (who filled in at the last minute forKeith Richards , then entangled in a legal problem) in addition to panel discussions withTimothy Leary &Robert Anton Wilson and concerts featuringThe B-52s , Suicide,Philip Glass , andDebbie Harry &Chris Stein .In 1976, Billy Burroughs was eating dinner with his father and Allen Ginsberg in
Boulder, Colorado at Ginsberg’sBuddhist poetry school (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics ) atChogyam Trungpa 'sNaropa University when he began to vomit blood. Burroughs senior had not seen his son for over a year and was alarmed at his appearance when Billy arrived at Ginsberg’s apartment. Although Billy had successfully published two short novels in the 1970s, and was deemed by literary critics likeAnn Charters as a bona fide "second generation beat writer", [Charters, Ann. "Introduction". "Speed/Kentucky Ham: Two Novels". Overlook Press: New York, 1984.] his brief marriage to a teenage waitress had disintegrated. Under his constant drinking, there were long periods where Billy was out of contact with any of his family or friends. The diagnosis wasliver cirrhosis so complete the only treatment was a rarely performed liver transplant operation. Fortunately, the University of Colorado Medical Center was one of two places in the nation that performed transplants under the pioneering work of Dr.Thomas Starzl . Billy underwent the procedure and beat the thirty percent survival odds. His father spent many months in 1976 and 1977 in Colorado, helping Billy through many additional surgeries and complications. Ted Morgan’s biography asserts that their relationship was not spontaneous and lacked real warmth or intimacy. Allen Ginsberg was supportive to both Burroughs and his son throughout the long period of recovery. [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p. 495-536.]In London, he had begun to write what would become the first novel of a three book trilogy. Between 1981 and 1987 he published "
Cities of the Red Night " (1981), "The Place of Dead Roads " (1983) and "The Western Lands " (1987). Grauerholz helped edit "Cities" when it was first rejected by Burroughs’ long-time editor Dick Seaver at Holt Rinehart, after it was deemed too disjointed. The novel was written as a straight narrative and then chopped up into a more random pattern leaving the reader to sort through the characters and events. This technique was definitely different than earlier cut-up methods which were organically accidental from the start. Nevertheless, the novel was reassembled and published, still without a straight linear form, but with fewer breaks in the story. The back and forth sway of the read replicated the theme of the trilogy, time travel adventures where Burroughs’ narrators re-write episodes in history and thus reform mankind.Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p. 565.] Reviews were mixed for "Cities". Novelist and criticAnthony Burgess panned the work in "Saturday Review" saying Burroughs was boring readers with repetitive episodes ofpederast fantasy and sexual strangulation that lacked any comprehensibleworld view ortheology , but other writers, likeJ. G. Ballard argued Burroughs was shaping a new literary "mythography".In 1981, Billy Burroughs died in Florida. He had cut off contact with his father several years before, even publishing an article in "Esquire" magazine claiming the author had poisoned his life and revealing that he had been molested by one of his father's friends as a fourteen year old while visiting his dad in Tangier, something that he had previously kept to himself. The
liver transplant had not cured his urge to drink and Billy suffered from serious health complications years after the operation. He had stopped taking histransplant rejection drugs, and was found near the side of a Florida highway by a stranger. He died shortly afterwards. Burroughs was in New York when he heard from Allen Ginsberg of the tragedy. Burroughs himself, by 1979, was once again addicted toheroin . The cheap heroin that was easily purchased outside his door in the Lower East Side "made its way" into his veins, coupled with "gifts" from the overzealous if well-intentioned admirers who frequently visited the Bunker. Although Burroughs would have episodes of being free from heroin, from this point until his death, he was regularly addicted to the drug; he died in 1997 on amethadone maintenance program and James Grauerholz mentioned in an introduction to "" that it was part of his job, while managing Burroughs reading tours in the 80s and 90s, to deal with the “underworld” in each city to secure the author’s needed drugs. [ Burroughs, William. "Introduction". "Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs". New York: Grove Press, 2000.]Later years in Kansas
Burroughs moved to Lawrence,
Kansas , in 1981 and lived the remainder of his life there. In 1984 he signed a seven book deal withViking Press after he signed with literary agent Andrew Wylie. This deal included the publication rights to the 1953 unpublished novel "Queer". With this money he purchased a small bungalow for $29,000. [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p.596.] He was finally inducted into theAmerican Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983 after several attempts by Allen Ginsberg to get him accepted. He attended the induction ceremony in May 1983.Lawrence Ferlinghetti remarked the induction of Burroughs into the Academy provedHerbert Marcuse 's point that capitalistic society had a great ability to incorporate its one-time outsiders. [Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw". p.577.]By late 1980s, Burroughs had become a counterculture figure and collaborated with performers ranging from
Bill Laswell 's Material andLaurie Anderson toThrobbing Gristle ,Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Ministry, and inGus Van Sant 's 1989 film "Drugstore Cowboy ," playing a character based on a short story he published in "Exterminator! ", "the "Priest" they called him ". In 1990, he released the spoken word album "Dead City Radio," with musical back-up from producersHal Willner andNelson Lyon , andalternative rock bandSonic Youth . A collaboration with musiciansNick Cave andTom Waits resulted in a collection of short prose, "Smack my Crack", later released as a spoken word album in 1987. He also collaborated withTom Waits and director Robert Wilson to create "The Black Rider ", a play which opened at the Thalia Theatre inHamburg in 1990, to critical acclaim, and was later performed all over Europe and the U.S. In 1991, with Burroughs's sanction, directorDavid Cronenberg took on the seemingly impossible task of adapting "Naked Lunch " into a full-length feature film. The film opened to critical acclaim. He became a member of a chaos magic organization, theIlluminates of Thanateros in 1993, [The Illuminates of Thanateros. 1993, available online at: [http://www.ashejournal.com/index.php?id=164 Magick and Photography, Douglas Grant, "Ashé Journal" 2(3)] ] a group whose very existence would not have been possible without Burroughs's works.During his later years in Kansas, Burroughs also developed a painting technique whereby he created abstract compositions by placing spray paint cans in front of, and some distance from, blank canvasses, and then shooting at the paint cans with a shot gun. These splattered canvasses were shown in at least one New York City gallery in the early 1990s.
Burroughs's final filmed performance was in the video for "Last Night on Earth" by Irish rock band U2, filmed in Kansas City, Missouri, directed by Richie Smyth and also featuring
Sophie Dahl . [ [http://movies.msn.com/celebrities/celebrity/william-s-burroughs/ William S. Burroughs: Overview] frommsn.com ]Death
Burroughs died in Lawrence, at 6:50 p.m. on
August 2 ,1997 from complications of a heart attack he had suffered the previous day. He was interred in the family plot inBellefontaine Cemetery inSt. Louis, Missouri [ [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6201607 Burroughs's grave site] fromFind A Grave ] , with a marker bearing his full name and the epitaph "American Writer." [ [http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheehan-family/2582454892/ Photo of Burroughs' Tombstone] fromFlickr ] The grave lies to the right of the white granite obelisk ofWilliam Seward Burroughs I (1857-1898).After his death
Since 1997, several posthumous collections of Burroughs's work have been published. A few months after his death, a collection of writings spanning his entire career, "Word Virus", was published (according to the book's introduction, Burroughs himself approved its contents prior to his death). Aside from numerous previously released pieces, "Word Virus" also included one of the few surviving fragments of "
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks ", an unpublished novel by Burroughs and Kerouac. A collection of journal entries written during the final months of Burrough's life was published as the book "Last Words" in 2000. Publication of a memoir by Burroughs entitled "Evil River" byViking Press has been delayed several times; after initially being announced for a 2005 release, Web retailers such asAmazon.com indicated a 2007 release, complete with an ISBN number (ISBN 0670813516), but no such release occurred. In December 2007,Ohio State University Press released "Everything Lost: The Latin American Journals of William S. Burroughs". Edited by Oliver Harris, the book contains transcriptions of journal entries made by Burroughs during the time of composing "Queer" and "The Yage Letters". [ [http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0814210805 Amazon.ca listing] , with cover art and review information.] In addition, special editions of "The Yage Letters", "Naked Lunch" and "Junkie/Junky" have been published in recent years, all containing additional material and essays on the works.In March 2008,
Penguin Books announced that the Kerouac/Burroughs manuscript, "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks " will be published for the first time in November 2008. [Chris Hastings and Beth Jones, " [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/02/wkerouac102.xml New Jack Kerouac book to be published] , "The Telegraph", 2 March 2008 (accessed 3 March 2008)] Previously, a fragment of the manuscript had been published in the compendium, "Word Virus".Literary style and periods
Burroughs's major works can be divided into four different periods. The dates refer to the time of writing, not publication, which in some cases was not until decades later:
* Early Work (early 1950s): "Junkie", "Queer" and "The Yage Letters " are relatively straightforward linear narratives, written in and about Burrough's time in Mexico City and South America.
* The Cut-Up Period (mid 1950s to mid 1960s): "Naked Lunch " is a fragmentary collection of "routines" from "The Word Hoard " - manuscripts written in Tangier, Paris, and London, blending over into the cut-up and fold-in fiction also heavily drawn from "The Word Hoard": "The Soft Machine ", "Nova Express ", "The Ticket That Exploded ", also referred to as "The Nova Trilogy " or "the Nova Epic", self-described by Burroughs as an attempt to create "a mythology for the space age". "Interzone" also derives from this period.
* Experiment & Subversion (mid 1960s to mid 1970s): This period saw Burroughs continue experimental writing with increased political content and branching into multimedia such as film and sound recording. The only major novel written in this period was "The Wild Boys", but he also wrote dozens of published articles, short stories, scrap books and other works, several in collaboration with Brion Gyson. The major anthologies representing work from this period are "The Burroughs File ", "" and "Exterminator! ".
* The Red Night Trilogy (mid 1970s to mid 1980s): The books "Cities of the Red Night ", "The Place of Dead Roads " and "The Western Lands " came from Burroughs in a final, mature stage, creating a complete mythology.Burroughs has also produced numerous essays and a large body of autobiographical material, including a book with a detailed account of his own dreams ("My Education: A Book of Dreams").
Reaction to critics and view on criticism
Several literary critics treated Burroughs's work harshly. For example
Anatole Broyard andPhilip Toynbee wrote devastating reviews of some of his most important books. In a short essay entitled "A Review of the Reviewers", Burroughs answers his critics in this way:Burroughs clearly indicates that he prefers to be evaluated against such criteria over being reviewed based on the reviewer's personal reactions to a certain book. He specifically criticized
Anatole Broyard for readingauthorial intentionality into his works where there is none.Fact|date=September 2008 Thus he distanced himself from the movement aroundNew Criticism , by referring to the old school (as exemplified by Matthew Arnold).Legacy
Burroughs is often called one of the greatest and most influential writers of the twentieth century, most notably by
Norman Mailer whose quote on Burroughs, "The only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius", appears on many Burroughs publications. Others, however, consider him overrated. Others still consider his concepts and attitude more influential than hisprose . Prominent admirers of Burroughs's work have included British critic and biographerPeter Ackroyd , therock critic Lester Bangs and the authorsJ.G. Ballard ,Angela Carter ,Jean Genet ,William Gibson ,Charles Bukowski ,Alan Moore andKen Kesey .Burroughs continues to be named as an influence by contemporary writers of fiction. Both the New Wave and, especially, the
cyberpunk schools ofscience fiction are indebted to him, admirers from the late 1970s, early 1980s milieu of this sub-genre includingWilliam Gibson andJohn Shirley , to name only two. First published in 1982, the British slipstream fiction magazine (which later evolved into a more traditionalscience fiction magazine ) "Interzone" paid tribute to him with its choice of name. He is also cited as a major influence by musiciansPatti Smith ,Genesis P-Orridge ,Ian Curtis ,Laurie Anderson , andKurt Cobain .The themes of drugs, homosexuality and death, common to Burroughs's routines, are taken up by
Dennis Cooper , of whom Burroughs said, "Dennis Cooper, God help him, is a born writer." Cooper, in return, wrote, in his essay 'King Junk', "along withJean Genet ,John Rechy , and Ginsberg, [Burroughs] helped make homosexuality seem cool and highbrow, providing gay liberation with a delicious edge."Splatterpunk writerPoppy Z. Brite has also continuously referenced this aspect of Burroughs's work. Burroughs's works continue to be referenced years after his death; for example, a November 2004 episode of the TV series "" included an evil character named Dr. Benway (named for an amoral physician who appears in a number of Burroughs's works). This is an echo of the hospital scene in the movie "Repo Man ", made during Burroughs's lifetime, in which both Dr. Benway and Mr. Lee (a Burroughs pen name) are paged.Burroughs was cited by
Robert Anton Wilson as the first person to notice the "23 Enigma ":Appearances in media
In music
Burroughs participated on numerous album releases by
Giorno Poetry Systems , including "The Nova Convention" (also featuringFrank Zappa ,John Cage andPhilip Glass ) and "You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With" (withJohn Giorno andLaurie Anderson ). He is featured doing a spoken word piece entitled "Sharkey's Night," on theLaurie Anderson album "Mister Heartbreak". In addition, Burroughs provided vocal samples for the soundtrack of Anderson's 1986concert film , "Home of the Brave", and made a cameo appearance in it. He also recites the lyrics ofR.E.M. 's "Star Me Kitten" for a special version of the song on the " soundtrack, which was also featured in the two-disk release of "".In 1990,
Island Records released "Dead City Radio ", a collection of readings by Burroughs set to a broad range of musical compositions. It was produced byHal Willner andNelson Lyon , with musical accompaniment fromJohn Cale ,Donald Fagen ,Lenny Pickett ,Chris Stein , andSonic Youth , among others. The remastered edition of Sonic Youth's 1990 album "Goo " features an instrumental piece entitled "Dr. Benway's House," which had appeared, in a shorter version, on "Dead City Radio".In 1992 he recorded "Quick Fix" with the band Ministry, which appeared on their single for "Just One Fix." The single featured cover art by Burroughs and a remix of the song dubbed the "W.S.B. mix." Burroughs also made an appearance in the video for "Just One Fix."
Burroughs and
Kurt Cobain collaborated on a CD entitled "The Priest They Called Him ", in which Burroughs does a spoken word performance of the short story of the same name, while Cobain creates layers of guitar feedback and distortions.Nirvana bassistKrist Novoselic is featured on the cover as the titular "Priest."Burroughs also featured in the 1997 music video "Last Night on Earth" by
U2 . He appears at the end of the video pushing a shopping cart with a large spotlight positioned inside it. The video ends with a close up of Burroughs's eyes. His scenes were filmed only a few weeks before his death.Fact|date=July 2008In film and television
Burroughs made
cameo appearance s in a number of films and videos, such asDavid Blair 's "", in which he plays a beekeeper, in an elliptic story about the firstGulf War , and "Decoder" [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087129/ Decoder (1984)] fromIMDb ] by Klaus Maeck. He played an aging junkie priest in "Drugstore Cowboy " byGus Van Sant . He appears briefly at the beginning of "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" (based on the Tom Robbins novel, also directed by Gus Van Sant) in which he is seen crossing a city street; as the noise of the city rises around him he pauses in the middle of the intersection and speaks the single word "ominous". He also made a number of short films [ [http://www.ubu.com/film/burroughs.html U B U W E B : William S. Burroughs Films ] ] in the 1960s based upon his works, directed by Anthony Balch. Near the end of his life, recordings of Burroughs reading his short stories "A Junky's Christmas" and "Ah Pook is Here" were used to great effect on the soundtracks of two highly acclaimed animated film adaptations of the pieces. He also gave a reading on "Saturday Night Live " on7 November ,1981 , in an episode hosted byLauren Hutton . A documentary titled "Burroughs", directed by Howard Brookner, was released in 1984. It included footage of Burroughs and many of his friends and colleagues.Played Opium Jones in the 1966 film "Chappaqua", written and directed by Conrad Rooks, with cameo roles from other Beat poets, Allen Ginsberg and Moondog. In 1968, an abbreviated version of the film "
Häxan " (77 minutes as opposed to the original's 104 minutes) was released subtitled "Witchcraft Through The Ages". This version featured an eclectic jazz score byJean-Luc Ponty and dramatic narration by William S. Burroughs, produced by Anthony Balch. Burroughs narrated part of the 1980 documentary "Shamans of the Blind Country" by anthropologist and filmmaker Michael Oppitz. [ [http://www.musethno.unizh.ch/de/publikationen/michael_oppitz.html Ausgewählte Publikationen von Michael Oppitz] from the website of the Ethnographic Museum of theUniversity of Zürich ] The short film "Thanksgiving prayer" byGus Van Sant is a reading of the poem "Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986" from Tornado Alley. It features a collage of black and white images intercut with Burroughs reading the poem. The video was played on MTV Europe, mostly during the nighttime.Fact|date=January 2008As a fictional character
Burroughs was fictionalized in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novel "
On the Road " as "Old Bull Lee".In the 2004 novel "
Move Under Ground ", Burroughs,Neal Cassady , and Jack Kerouac team up to defeatCthulhu .Burroughs appears in the first part of
The Illuminatus! Trilogy byRobert Shea andRobert Anton Wilson during the 1968 Democratic Convention riots and is described as a person devoid of anger, passion, indignation or hope or any other humanly recognizable emotion. He is presented as a polar opposite ofAllen Ginsberg , as Ginsberg believed in everything and Burroughs believed in nothing. Robert Anton Wilson would recount in his his having interviewed both Burroughs and Ginsberg forPlayboy the day the riots began as well as his experiences with Robert Shea during the riots, providing some detail on the creation of the fictional sequence.Band names
Burroughs's work has inspired the name of several musical groups over the years. The most widely known of these is
Steely Dan , a group named after adildo in "Naked Lunch ". [ [http://www.steelydan.com/faq.html FAQ] from the OfficialSteely Dan website] Also from "Naked Lunch" came the nameThe Mugwumps . The bandSoft Machine took its name from the Burroughs novel of the same name, whilealt-country bandClem Snide is named for a Burroughs character. The bandThe Soft Boys took its name from Burroughs' novels "The Soft Machine " and "The Wild Boys ". Proto-punk band Dead Fingers Talk from Hull, England, took their name from the novel of the same name, and their only album was titled "Storm the Reality Studios ", after a quote from "Nova Express ".Bibliography
Further reading
* Charters, Ann (ed.). "The Portable Beat Reader". Penguin Books. New York. 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk)
* Miles, Barry. "William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible, A Portrait", New York: Hyperion, 1992.
* Gilmore, John. "Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip." Searching for Rimbaud. Amok Books, 1997.References
The following is cited repeatedly in the footnotes:
* Morgan, Ted. "Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S.Burroughs." New York: Avon, 1988. ISBN 0-805-00901-9Footnotes:External links
* [http://realitystudio.org/ RealityStudio] fan site with texts, community, scholarship, criticism
* [http://cstl-cla.semo.edu/gurnow/burroughs/main.htm William S. Burroughs Internet Database] from theSoutheast Missouri State University website
* [http://wiredforbooks.org/williamburroughs/ 1984, 1985 interviews with William Burroughs] byDon Swaim atWired for Books
*MusicBrainz artist|id=f150ed27-bee7-49d8-a226-31fef88c29b3|name=William S. Burroughs
*imdb name|id=0123221
* [http://kerouacalley.com/burroughs.html William Burroughs multimedia directory] from KerouacAlley.com
* [http://www.books.rack111.com/burroughs-books/index.html A gallery of William S. Burroughs book cover designs]
*worldcat id|id=lccn-n79-26862Multimedia:
* [http://www.archive.org/details/BurroughsPressConf Other Minds Archive: William Burroughs Press Conference at Berkeley Museum of Art on November 12, 1974] Streaming audio
* [http://www.archive.org/details/naropa_william_s_burroughs_lecture_on Naropa Audio Archives: William S. Burroughs lecture on public discourse. (August eleventh, 1980)] Streaming audio and 64 kbit/s MP3 ZIP file
* [http://www.ubu.com/film/burroughs.html UbuWeb] Video of "The Cut Ups" short film and other worksPersondata
NAME= Burroughs, William S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Burroughs, William Seward II; Lee, William (pseudonym)
SHORT DESCRIPTION= American novelist, essayist
DATE OF BIRTH=February 5 ,1914
PLACE OF BIRTH= St. Louis,Missouri
DATE OF DEATH=August 2 ,1997
PLACE OF DEATH= Lawrence,Kansas
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