The Letters of William S. Burroughs: Volume I: 1945-1959

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Overview

Guru of the Beat generation, controversial eminence grise of the international avant-garde, dark prophet and blackest of black-humor satirists, William S. Burroughs has had a range of influence rivalled by few living writers. This meticulously assembled volume of his correspondence vividly documents the personal and cultural history through which Burroughs developed, revealing clues to illuminate his life and keys to open up his texts. More than that, they also show how in the period 1945-1959, letter-writing was...
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Overview

Guru of the Beat generation, controversial eminence grise of the international avant-garde, dark prophet and blackest of black-humor satirists, William S. Burroughs has had a range of influence rivalled by few living writers. This meticulously assembled volume of his correspondence vividly documents the personal and cultural history through which Burroughs developed, revealing clues to illuminate his life and keys to open up his texts. More than that, they also show how in the period 1945-1959, letter-writing was itself integral to his life and to his fiction-making. These letters reveal the extraordinary route that took Burroughs from narrative to anti-narrative, from Junky to Naked Lunch and the discovery of cut-ups, a turbulent journey crossing two decades and three continents. The letters track the great shifts in Burroughs' crucial relationship with Allen Ginsberg, from lecturing wise man ("Watch your semantics young man") to total dependence ("Your absence causes me, at times, acute pain.") to near-estrangement ("I sometimes feel you have mixed me up with someone else doesn't live here anymore."). They show Burroughs' initial despair at the obscenity of his own letters, some of which became parts of Naked Lunch, and his gradual recognition of the work's true nature ("It's beginning to look like a modern Inferno.") They reveal the harrowing lows and ecstatic highs of his emotions, and lay bare the pain of coming to terms with a childhood trauma ("Such horror in bringing it out I was afraid my heart would stop."). It is a story as revealing of his fellow Beats as it is of Burroughs: he writes of Kerouac and Cassady in the midst of the journey immortalized as On the Road ("Neal is, of course, the very soul of this voyage into pure, abstract, meaningless motion."), and to Ginsberg as he was writing Howl ("I sympathize with your feelings of depression, beatness: 'We have seen the best of our time.'"). And throughout runs the unmistakable Burroughs voice, the u

This volume of correspondence vividly documents the personal and cultural history through which Burroughs developed, revealing clues to illuminate his life and keys to open up his text. "Sheds light on both the personal demons and lacerating misanthropy that inspired Burroughs' brilliant literary highjinks."-- Entertainment Weekly.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Between July 1945 and October 1959, Burroughs, the future author of Naked Lunch , kept up a voluminous correspondence with beat compatriots Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and, to a lesser extent, with Neal Cassady, Paul Bowles and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The 180 letters presented here in chronological order tell of his drug and sex habits, day-to-day existence and developing writing technique. In the correspondence, Harris, a British university lecturer on American literature, finds ``mandarin intellect and hipster humor'' emerging from ``a life that was often deluged by disaster.'' Several times, for example, police intercepted letters and used them to bring drug charges against Burroughs. Mailed from self-imposed isolation in outposts such as New Orleans, East Texas, Mexico City and Tangier, Burroughs's letters are full of despair and myopic worldviews. Still, this correspondence yields valuable insights into Burroughs's literary development. (July)
Library Journal
The first of a projected two volumes, these letters cover the activities of Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac in the years that gave birth to the Beat Generation. Written mostly to Ginsberg or Kerouac, the letters provide a rare glimpse into Burroughs's psyche, revealing his struggle with drug addiction, his confusion over his sexual identity, and his search for a form fluid enough to mirror his mind and art. Although much of this correspondence first appeared in Letters to Allen Ginsberg 1953-1957 (1982) and in The Yage Letters (1963), this new collection is highly recommended both for the additional letters it contains and for its detailed explanatory notes.-- William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780140094527
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Publication date: 6/28/1994
  • Pages: 512
  • Sales rank: 992,167
  • Product dimensions: 5.46 (w) x 8.40 (h) x 1.14 (d)

Meet the Author

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)—guru of the Beat Generation, controversial éminence grise of the international avant-garde, dark prophet, and blackest of black humor satirists—had a range of influence rivaled by few post-World War II writers. His many books include Naked Lunch, Queer, Exterminator!, The Cat Inside, The Western Lands, and Interzone.

Oliver Harris edited The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959. He is currently a lecturer in American Literature at the University of Keele.

Biography

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) -- guru of the Beat Generation, controversial éminence grise of the international avant-garde, dark prophet, and blackest of black humor satirists -- had a range of influence rivaled by few post-World War II writers. His many books include Naked Lunch, Queer, Exterminator!, The Cat Inside, The Western Lands, and Interzone.

Author biography courtesy of Penguin Group (USA).

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Table of Contents

The Letters of William S. Burroughs Introduction by Oliver Harris

1945
July 24—Allen Ginsberg

1946
September 1—Allen Ginsberg October 10—Allen Ginsberg

1947
February 19—Allen Ginsberg March 11—Allen Ginsberg August 8—Allen Ginsberg

1948
February 20—Allen Ginsberg June 5—Allen Ginsberg And Jack Kerouac October 14— Allen Ginsberg November 9—Allen Ginsberg November 30—Allen Ginsberg November 30—Jack Kerouac December 2—Allen Ginsberg

1949
January 10—Allen Ginsberg January 16—Allen Ginsberg January 30—Allen Ginsberg February 7—Allen Ginsberg March 15—Jack Kerouac March 18—Allen Ginsberg April 16—Allen Ginsberg May 27—Jack Kerouac June 24—Jack Kerouac September 26—Jack Kerouac October 13—Allen Ginsberg November 2—Jack Kerouac December 24—Allen Ginsberg

1950
January 1—Jack Kerouac January 22—Jack Kerouac March 10—Jack Kerouac May 1—Allen Ginsberg September 18—Jack Kerouac

1951
January 1—Allen Ginsberg January 11—Allen Ginsberg January 28—Jack Kerouac March 5—Lucien Carr April 24—Jack Kerouac May 5—Allen Ginsberg May—Allen Ginsberg May—Jack Kerouac June 20—Jack Kerouac November 5—Allen Ginsberg December 20—Allen Ginsberg

1952
January 19—Allen Ginsberg March 5—Allen Ginsberg March 20—Allen Ginsberg March 26—Jack Kerouac April 3—Jack Kerouac April 5—Allen Ginsberg April—Jack Kerouac April 14—Allen Ginsberg April 22—Allen Ginsberg April 26—Allen Ginsberg May 15—Allen Ginsberg May 23—Allen Ginsberg June 4—Allen Ginsberg June 23—Allen Ginsberg Early July—Allen Ginsberg July 13—Allen Ginsberg September 18—Allen Ginsberg October 6 & 14—Allen Ginsberg November 5—Allen Ginsberg December 15—Allen Ginsberg December 23—Allen Ginsberg December 24—Allen Ginsberg

1953
January 10—Allen Ginsberg March 1 & 3—Allen Ginsberg March 5—Allen Ginsberg April 12—Allen Ginsberg April 22—Allen Ginsberg May 5—Allen Ginsberg May 12—Allen Ginsberg May 23 & 24—Allen Ginsberg May 30—Allen Ginsberg June 5—Allen Ginsberg June 6—Allen Ginsberg June 18—Allen Ginsberg Early July—Allen Ginsberg July 8—Allen Ginsberg July 10—Allen Ginsberg August 3—Allen Ginsberg August 17—Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac December 14—Jack Kerouac December 24—Allen Ginsberg

1954
January 2—Allen Ginsberg January 26—Allen Ginsberg February 9—Allen Ginsberg March 1—Allen Ginsberg March 12—Neal Cassady April 7—Allen Ginsberg April 22—Jack Kerouac May 2—Neal Cassady May 4—Jack Kerouac May 11—Allen Ginsberg May 24—Jack Kerouac June 16—Allen Ginsberg June 24—Allen Ginsberg July 3 & 4—Allen Ginsberg July 15, 16, & 22—Allen Ginsberg August 18—Jack Kerouac August 26—Allen Ginsberg September 3—Jack Kerouac Early October—Allen Ginsberg October 13—Allen Ginsberg November 12 & 13—Allen Ginsberg December 7—Jack Kerouac December 13—Allen Ginsberg December 30—Allen Ginsberg

1955
January 6—Allen Ginsberg January 9—Allen Ginsberg January 12—Allen Ginsberg January 21—Allen Ginsberg February 7—Allen Ginsberg February 12—Jack Kerouac February 19—Allen Ginsberg April 20—Allen Ginsberg June 9—Jack Kerouac July 5—Allen Ginsberg August 10—Allen Ginsberg September 21—Allen Ginsberg October 6 & 7—Allen Ginsberg October 10 & 11—Allen Ginsberg October 21—Allen Ginsberg October 23—Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac November 1—Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg November 2—Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg

1956
February 17—Allen Ginsberg February 26 & 27—Allen Ginsberg March 14—Allen Ginsberg April 16—Allen Ginsberg May 8—Allen Ginsberg May 15—Allen Ginsberg June 18—Allen Ginsberg July 26—Bill Gilmore September 16—Allen Ginsberg October 13—Allen Ginsberg October 29—Allen Ginsberg December 20—Allen Ginsberg

1957
January 23—Allen Ginsberg January 28—Allen Ginsberg January 31/February 1—Allen Ginsberg February 14—Allen Ginsberg March 25—Bill Gilmore June 15—Allen Ginsberg July 18—Alan Ansen July 30—Alan Ansen August 20—Allen Ginsberg August 28—Allen Ginsberg September 20—Allen Ginsberg October 8—Allen Ginsberg October 19—Allen Ginsberg October 28—Allen Ginsberg November 10—Allen Ginsberg November 26—Allen Ginsberg December 4—Jack Kerouac December 8—Allen Ginsberg

1958
January 9—Allen Ginsberg February 16—Allen Ginsberg April 18—Lawrence Ferlinghetti July 20—Paul Bowles July—Allen Ginsberg July 24—Allen Ginsberg August 25—Allen Ginsberg September 28—Allen Ginsberg October 10—Allen Ginsberg October 19—Paul Bowles

1959
January 2—Allen Ginsberg January 17—Brion Gysin January 17—Paul Bowles February 20—Paul Bowles April 2—Allen Ginsberg April 21—Allen Ginsberg May 18—Allen Ginsberg June 8—Allen Ginsberg Late July—Allen Ginsberg August 24—Allen Ginsberg September 5—Allen Ginsberg September 11—Allen Ginsberg September 25—Allen Ginsberg October 7—Allen Ginsberg October 27—Allen Ginsberg October 29—Allen Ginsberg

Notes Index

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