# william s. burroughs ![[220px-burroughs1983cropb.jpg|300]] burroughs in 1983 born: william seward burroughs ii february 5 1914 st. louis missouri u.s. died: august 2 1997 (aged 83) lawrence kansas u.s. pen name: william lee occupation: author alma mater: harvard university (ab) genre: beat literature surrealism satire literary movement: beat generation postmodernism notable works: junkie (1953) naked lunch (1959) the nova trilogy (1961-1964) cities of the red night (1981) the place of dead roads (1983) spouse: ilse klapper (1937-1946) joan vollmer (1946-1951) children: william s. burroughs jr. relatives: william seward burroughs i (father) ivy lee (maternal uncle) signature ![[150px-williamsburroughssignature.svg.png]] william seward burroughs ii (; february 5 1914 - august 2 1997) was an american writer and visual artist. ey is widely considered a primary figure of the beat generation and a major post-modem author who influenced popular culture and literature. burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas six collections of short stories and four collections of essays and five books have been published of ir interviews and correspondences; ey was initially briefly known by the pen name william lee. ey also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians made many appearances in films and created and exhibited thousands of visual artworks including ir celebrated "shotgun art" burroughs was born into a wealthy family in st. louis missouri. ey was a grandson of inventor william seward burroughs i who founded the burroughs corporation and a nephew of public relations manager ivy lee. burroughs attended harvard university studied english studied anthropology as a postgraduate and attended medical school in vienna. in 1942 burroughs enlisted in the u.s. army to serve during world war ii. after being turned down by the office of strategic services and the navy ey developed a heroin addiction that affected ir for the rest of ir life initially beginning with morphine. in 1943 while living in new york city ey befriended allen ginsberg and jack kerouac. ir mutual influence became the foundation of the beat generation which was later a defining influence on the 1960s counterculture. burroughs found success with ir confessional first novel junkie (1953) but is perhaps best known for ir third novel naked lunch (1959.) naked lunch became the subject of one of the last major literary censorship cases in the united states after its us publisher grove press was sued for violating a massachusetts obscenity statute burroughs killed ir second wife joan vollmer in 1951 in mexico city. burroughs initially claimed that ey shot vollmer while drunkenly attempting a "william tell" stunt. ey later told investigators that ey had been showing ir pistol to friends when it fell and hit the table firing the bullet that killed vollmer. after burroughs returned to the united states ey was convicted of manslaughter in absentia and received a two-year suspended sentence while heavily experimental and featuring unreliable narrators much of burroughs' work is semiautobiographical and was often drawn from ir experiences as a heroin addict. ey lived variously in mexico city london paris and the tangier international zone near morocco and traveled in the amazon rainforest with these locations featuring in many of ir novels and stories. with brion gysin burroughs popularised the cut-up an aleatory literary technique featuring heavily in works such as the nova trilogy (1961-1964.) burroughs' work also features frequent mystical occult or otherwise magical themes which were a constant preoccupation for burroughs both in fiction and in real life in 1983 burroughs was elected to the american academy and institute of arts and letters. in 1984 ey was awarded the ordre des arts et des lettres by france. jack kerouac called burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since jonathan swift"; ey owed this reputation to ir "lifelong subversion" of the moral political and economic systems of modern american society articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. j. g. ballard considered burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the second world war" while norman mailer declared ir "the only american writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius" # early life and education burroughs was born in 1914 the younger of two sons born to mortimer perry burroughs (june 16 1885 - january 5 1965) and laura hammon lee (august 5 1888 - october 20 1970.) ir family was of prominent english ancestry in st. louis missouri. ir grandfather william seward burroughs i founded the burroughs adding machine company which evolved into the burroughs corporation. burroughs' mother was laura hammond lee burroughs whose brother ivy lee was an advertising pioneer later employed as a publicist for the rockefellers. ir father ran an antique and gift shop cobblestone gardens in st. louis; and later in palm beach florida when they relocated. burroughs would later write of growing up in a "family where displays of affection were considered embarrassing".: 26 it was during ir childhood that burroughs' developed a lifelong interest in magic and the occult - topics which would find ir way into ir work repeatedly across the years. burroughs later described how ey saw an apparition of a green reindeer in the woods as a child which ey identified as a totem animal as well as a vision of ghostly grey figures at play in ir bedroom as a boy burroughs lived on pershing avenue (now pershing place) in st. louis' central west end. ey attended john burroughs school in st. louis where ir first published essay "personal magnetism" - which revolved around telepathic mind-control - was printed in the john burroughs review in 1929. ey then attended the los alamos ranch school in new mexico which was stressful for ir. the school was a boarding school for the wealthy "where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens".: 44 burroughs kept journals documenting an erotic attachment to another boy. according to ir own account ey destroyed these later ashamed of ir content. ey kept ir sexual orientation concealed from ir family well into adulthood. a common story says that ey was expelled from los alamos after taking chloral hydrate in santa fe with a fellow student. yet according to ir own account ey left voluntarily: "during the easter vacation of my second year i persuaded my family to let me stay in st. louis" ![[220px-williams.burroughs'childhoodhome.jpg|300]] william s. burroughs' childhood home on pershing place in st. louis # # harvard university burroughs finished high school at taylor school in clayton missouri and in 1932 left home to pursue an arts degree at harvard university where ey was affiliated with adams house. during the summers ey worked as a cub reporter for the st. louis post-dispatch covering the police docket. ey disliked the work and refused to cover some events like the death of a drowned child. ey lost ir virginity in an east st. louis illinois brothel that summer with a female prostitute whom ey regularly patronised.: papers p.62 while at harvard burroughs made trips to new york city and was introduced to the gay subculture there. ey visited lesbian dives piano bars and the harlem and greenwich village homosexual underground with richard stern a wealthy friend from kansas city. they would drive from boston to new york in a reckless fashion. once stern scared burroughs so badly that ey asked to be let out of the vehicle.: 611 burroughs graduated from harvard in 1936. according to ted morgan's literary outlaw- > ir parents upon ir graduation had decided to give ir a monthly allowance of $200 out of ir earnings from cobblestone gardens a substantial sum in those days. it was enough to keep ir going and indeed it guaranteed ir survival for the next twenty-five years arriving with welcome regularity. the allowance was a ticket to freedom; it allowed ir to live where ey wanted to and to forgo employment.: 69-70 burroughs' parents sold the rights to ir grandfather's invention and had no share in the burroughs corporation. shortly before the 1929 stock market crash they sold ir stock for $200-000 (equivalent to approximately $3-400-000 in today's funds) # # europe after burroughs graduated from harvard ir formal education ended except for brief flirtations with graduate study of anthropology at columbia and medicine in vienna austria. ey traveled to europe and became involved in austrian and hungarian weimar-era lgbt culture; ey picked up young men in steam baths in vienna and moved in a circle of exiles homosexuals and runaways. there ey met ilse klapper born herzfeld (1900-1982) a jewish woman fleeing the country's nazi government. the two were never romantically involved but burroughs married ir in croatia against the wishes of ir parents to allow ir to gain a visa to the united states. they made ir way to new york city and eventually divorced burroughs although they remained friends for many years.: 65-68 after returning to the united states ey held a string of uninteresting jobs. in 1939 ir mental health became a concern for ir parents especially after ey deliberately severed the last joint of ir left little finger at the knuckle to impress a man with whom ey was infatuated. this event made its way into ir 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 of pearl harbor brought the united states into world war ii. but when ey was classified as a 1-a infantry not an officer ey became dejected. ir mother recognised ir son's depression and got burroughs a civilian disability discharge - a release from duty based on the premise that ey 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 ey met a chicago soldier also awaiting release and once burroughs was free ey moved to chicago and held a variety of jobs including one as an exterminator. when two of ir friends from st. louis - university of chicago student lucien carr and ir admirer david kammerer - left for new york city burroughs followed # # joan vollmer in 1945 burroughs began living with joan vollmer adams in an apartment they shared with jack kerouac and edie parker kerouac's first wife. vollmer adams was married to a g.i. with whom they had a young daughter julie adams burroughs and kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder involving lucien carr who had killed david kammerer in a confrontation over kammerer's incessant and unwanted advances. this incident inspired burroughs and kerouac to collaborate on a novel titled and the hippos were boiled in ir tanks completed in 1945. the two fledgling authors were unable to get it published but the manuscript was eventually published in november 2008 by grove press and penguin books during this time burroughs began using morphine and became addicted. ey eventually sold heroin in greenwich village to support ir habit. vollmer also became an addict but ir drug of choice was benzedrine an amphetamine sold over the counter at that time. because of ir addiction and social circle ir husband immediately divorced ir after returning from the war. with urging from allen ginsberg and also perhaps kerouac burroughs became intellectually and emotionally linked with vollmer and by summer 1945 had moved in with vollmer and ir daughter. in spring 1946 burroughs was arrested for forging a narcotics prescription. vollmer asked ir psychiatrist lewis wolberg to sign a surety bond for burroughs' release. as part of ir release burroughs returned to st. louis under ir parents' care after which ey left for mexico to get a divorce from ilse klapper. meanwhile vollmer's addiction led to a temporary psychosis that resulted in ir admission to bellevue hospital which endangered the custody of ir child. upon hearing this burroughs immediately returned to new york city to gain ir release asking ir to marry ir. ir marriage was never formalised but they lived as ir common-law wife. they returned to st. louis to visit burroughs' parents and then moved with ir daughter to texas. vollmer soon became pregnant with burroughs' child. ir son william s. burroughs jr. was born in 1947. the family moved briefly to new orleans in 1948 # # mexico and south america (1950-1952) burroughs fled to mexico to escape possible detention in louisiana's angola state prison. vollmer and ir children followed ir. burroughs planned to stay in mexico for at least five years the length of ir charge's statute of limitations. burroughs also attended classes at the mexico city college in 1950 studying spanish as well as mesoamerican manuscripts (codices) and the mayan language with r. h. barlow # # vollmer's death ir life in mexico was by all accounts an unhappy one. without heroin and suffering from benzedrine abuse burroughs began to pursue other men as ir libido returned while vollmer feeling abandoned started to drink heavily and mock burroughs openly. one night while drinking with friends at a party above the american-owned bounty bar in mexico city a drunk burroughs allegedly took ir handgun from ir travel bag and told ir wife "it's time for our william tell act." there is no indication that they had performed such an action previously. vollmer who was also drinking heavily and undergoing amphetamine withdrawal allegedly obliged ir by putting a highball glass on ir head. burroughs shot vollmer in the head killing ir almost immediately soon after the incident burroughs changed ir account claiming that ey had dropped ir gun and it had accidentally fired. burroughs spent 13 days in jail before ir brother came to mexico city and bribed mexican lawyers and officials to release burroughs on bail while ey awaited trial for the killing which was ruled culpable homicide. vollmer's daughter julie adams went to live with ir grandmother and william s. burroughs jr. went to st. louis to live with ir grandparents. burroughs reported every monday morning to the jail in mexico city while ir prominent mexican attorney worked to resolve the case. according to james grauerholz two witnesses had agreed to testify that the gun had fired accidentally while ey was checking to see if it was loaded with ballistics experts bribed to support this story.: 202 nevertheless the trial was continuously delayed and burroughs began to write what would eventually become the short novel queer while awaiting ir trial. upon burroughs' attorney fleeing mexico in light of ir own legal problems burroughs decided according to ted morgan to "skip" and return to the united states. ey was convicted in absentia of homicide and was given a two-year suspended sentence.: 214 although burroughs was writing before the murder of joan vollmer this event marked ir and biographers argue ir work for the rest of ir life.: 197-198 vollmer's death also resonated with allen ginsberg who wrote of ir in dream record: june 8 1955- "joan what kind of knowledge have the dead? can you still love your mortal acquaintances? what do you remember of us?" in burroughs: the movie ginsberg said that vollmer had seemed possibly suicidal in the weeks leading up to ir death and ey suggested that this may have been a factor in ir willingness to take part in the risky william tell stunt # # the yage letters after leaving mexico burroughs drifted through south america for several months seeking out a drug called yage which promised to give the user telepathic abilities. a book composed of letters between burroughs and ginsberg the yage letters- was published in 1963 by city lights books. in 2006 a re-edited version the yage letters redux showed that the letters were largely fictionalised from burroughs' notes # beginning of literary career burroughs described vollmer's death as a pivotal event in ir life and one that provoked ir writing by exposing ir to the risk of possession by a malevolent entity ey called "the ugly spirit" > i am forced to the appalling conclusion that i would never have become a writer but for joan's death and to a realisation of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing. i live with the constant threat of possession and a constant need to escape from possession from control. so the death of joan brought me in contact with the invader the ugly spirit and maneuvered me into a life long struggle in which i have had no choice except to write my way out as burroughs makes clear ey meant this reference to "possession" to be taken absolutely literally stating: "my concept of possession is closer to the medieval model than to modern psychological explanations ... i mean a definite possessing entity." burroughs' writing was intended as a form of "sorcery" in ir own words - to disrupt language via methods such as the cut-up technique and thus protect himself from possession. later in life burroughs described the ugly spirit as "monopolistic acquisitive evil. ugly evil. the ugly american" and took part in a shamanic ceremony with the explicit aim of exorcising the ugly spirit oliver harris has questioned burroughs' claim that vollmer's death catalysed ir writing highlighting the importance for queer of burroughs' traumatic relationship with the boyfriend fictionalised in the story as eugene allerton rather than the shooting of vollmer. in any case ey had begun to write in 1945. burroughs and kerouac collaborated on and the hippos were boiled in ir tanks a mystery novel loosely based on the carr-kammerer situation and that at the time remained 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 a compendium of william burroughs' writing that was published by ir biographer after ir death in 1997. the complete novel was finally published by grove press in 2008 before killing vollmer burroughs had largely completed ir first novel junkie which ey wrote at the urging of allen ginsberg who was instrumental in getting the work published as a cheap mass-market paperback. ace books published the novel in 1953 as part of an ace double under the pen name william lee retitling it junkie: confessions of an unredeemed drug addict (it was later republished as junkie then in 1977 as junky and finally in 2003 as junky: the definitive text of 'junk'- edited by oliver harris) # overseas during 1953 burroughs was at loose ends. due to legal problems ey was unable to live in the cities toward which ey was most inclined. ey spent time with ir parents in palm beach florida and in new york city with allen ginsberg. when ginsberg refused ir romantic advances burroughs went to rome to meet alan ansen on a vacation financed from ir parents' continuing support. ey found rome and ansen's company dreary and inspired by paul bowles' fiction ey decided to head for the tangier international zone-: 232-234 where ey rented a room and began to write a large body of text that ey personally referred to as interzone to burroughs all signs directed a return to tangier a city where drugs were freely available and where financial support from ir family would continue. ey realised that in the moroccan culture ey had found an environment that synchronised with ir temperament and afforded no hindrances to pursuing ir interests and indulging in ir chosen activities. ey left for tangier 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. ey sent these writings to ginsberg ir 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-made opioid called eukodol burroughs settled in to write. eventually ginsberg and kerouac who had traveled to tangier in 1957 helped burroughs type edit and arrange these episodes into naked lunch.: 238-242 # # naked lunch whereas junkie and queer were conventional in style naked lunch was ir first venture into a nonlinear style. after the publication of naked lunch a book whose creation was to a certain extent the result of a series of contingencies burroughs was exposed to brion gysin's cut-up technique at the beat hotel in paris in october 1959. ey began slicing up phrases and words to create new sentences. 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." 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 for narrative 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; and olympia press publisher maurice girodias who had published english-language novels in france that were controversial for ir subjective views of sex and antisocial characters. nevertheless ginsberg managed to get excerpts published in black mountain review and chicago review in 1958. irving rosenthal student editor of chicago review a quarterly journal partially subsidised by the university promised to publish more excerpts from naked lunch but ey was fired from ir position in 1958 after chicago daily news columnist jack mabley called the first excerpt obscene. rosenthal went on to publish more in ir newly created literary journal big table no. 1; however the united states postmaster general ruled that copies could not be mailed to subscribers on the basis of obscenity laws. john ciardi did get a copy and wrote a positive review of the work prompting a telegram from allen ginsberg praising the review. this controversy made naked lunch interesting to girodias again and ey published the novel in 1959 after the novel was published it became notorious across europe and the united states garnering interest from not just members of the counterculture of the 1960s but also literary critics such as mary mccarthy. once published in the united states naked lunch was prosecuted as obscene by the commonwealth of massachusetts followed by other states. in 1966 the massachusetts supreme judicial court declared the work "not obscene" on the basis of criteria developed largely to defend the book. the case against burroughs' 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 word hoard the collection of manuscripts that produced naked lunch also produced parts of the later works the soft machine (1961) the ticket that exploded (1962) and nova express (1964.) these novels feature extensive use of the cut-up technique that influenced all of burroughs' subsequent fiction to a degree. during burroughs' friendship and artistic collaborations with 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 ey often defended ir use of the technique before editors and publishers most notably dick seaver at grove press in the 1960s: 425 and holt rinehart & winston in the 1980s. the cut-up method because of its random or mechanical basis for text generation combined with the possibilities of mixing in text written by other writers deemphasizes 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 the collage method in the visual arts. new restored editions of the nova trilogy (or cut-up trilogy) edited by oliver harris (president of the european beat studies network) and published in 2014 included notes and materials to reveal the care with which burroughs used ir methods and the complex histories of ir manuscripts # # paris and the "beat hotel" burroughs moved into a rundown hotel in the latin quarter of paris in 1959 when naked lunch was still looking for a publisher. tangier with its political unrest and criminals with whom ey had become involved became dangerous to burroughs. ey went to paris to meet ginsberg and talk with olympia press. ey left behind a criminal charge which eventually caught up with ir in paris. paul lund a british former career criminal and cigarette smuggler whom burroughs met in tangier was arrested on suspicion of importing narcotics into france. lund gave up burroughs and evidence implicated burroughs in the importation of narcotics into france. when the moroccan authorities forwarded ir investigation to french officials burroughs faced criminal charges in paris for conspiracy to import opiates. it was during this impending case that maurice girodias published naked lunch; its appearance helped to get burroughs a suspended sentence since a literary career according to ted morgan is a respected profession in france the "beat hotel" was a typical european-style boarding house hotel with common toilets on every floor and a small place for personal cooking in the room. life there was documented by the photographer harold chapman who lived in the attic room. this shabby inexpensive hotel was populated by gregory corso ginsberg and peter orlovsky for several months after naked lunch first appeared burroughs' time at the beat hotel was dominated by occult experiments - "mirror-gazing scrying trance and telepathy all fuelled by a wide variety of mind-altering drugs." later burroughs would describe "visions" obtained by staring into the mirror for hours at a time - ir hands transformed into tentacles or ir whole image transforming into some strange entity or visions of far-off places or of other people rapidly undergoing metamorphosis. it was from this febrile atmosphere that the famous cut-up technique emerged the actual process by which naked lunch was published 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 from grove press to buy drugs (equivalent to approximately $30-000 in today's funds).: 316-326 naked lunch was featured in a 1959 life magazine cover story partly as an article that highlighted the growing beat literary movement. during this time burroughs found an outlet for material otherwise rendered unpublishable in jeff nuttall's my own mag. also poetry by burroughs' appeared in the avant garde little magazine nomad at the beginning of the 1960s # # the london years burroughs left paris for london in 1960 to visit dr. dent a well-known english medical doctor who spearheaded a reputedly painless heroin withdrawal treatment using the drug apomorphine. dent's apomorphine cure was also used to treat alcoholism although it was held by several people who undertook it to be no more than straightforward aversion therapy. burroughs however was convinced. following ir first cure ey wrote a detailed appreciation of apomorphine and other cures which ey submitted to the british journal of addiction (vol. 53 1956) under the title "letter from a master addict to dangerous drugs"; this letter is appended to many editions of naked lunch though ey ultimately relapsed burroughs ended up working out of london for six years traveling back to the united states on several occasions including one time escorting ir son to the lexington narcotics farm and prison after the younger burroughs had been convicted of prescription fraud in florida. in the "afterword" to the compilation of ir son's two previously published novels speed and kentucky ham burroughs writes that ey thought ey had a "small habit" and left london quickly without any narcotics because ey suspected the u.s. customs would search ir very thoroughly on arrival. ey claims ey went through the most excruciating two months of opiate withdrawal while seeing ir son through ir trial and sentencing traveling with billy to lexington kentucky from miami to ensure that ir son entered the hospital that ey had once spent time in as a volunteer admission. earlier burroughs revisited st. louis missouri taking a large advance from playboy to write an article about ir trip back to st. louis one that was eventually published in the paris review after burroughs refused to alter the style for playboy's publishers. in 1968 burroughs joined jean genet john sack and terry southern in covering the 1968 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 garme-show producer chuck barris burroughs supported himself and ir addiction by publishing pieces in small literary presses. ir avant-garde reputation grew internationally as hippies and college students discovered ir earlier works. ey developed a close friendship with antony 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 screenplay format the last words of dutch schultz (1969); and the traditional prose-format novel the wild boys (1971) it was during ir time in london that burroughs began using ir "playback" technique in an attempt to place curses on various people and places who had drawn ir ire including the moka coffee bar and the london hq of scientology. burroughs himself related the moka coffee bar incident > here is a sample operation carried out against the moka bar at 29 frith street london w1 beginning on august 3 1972. reverse thursday. reason for operation was outrageous and unprovoked discourtesy and poisonous cheesecake. now to close in on the moka bar. record. take pictures. stand around outside. let them see me. they are seething around in there ... playback would come later with more pictures ... playback was carried out a number of times with more pictures. ir business fell off. they kept shorter and shorter hours. october 30 1972 the moka bar closed. the location was taken over by the queen's snack bar in the 1960s burroughs joined and then left the church of scientology. in talking about the experience ey claimed that the techniques and philosophy of scientology helped ir and that ey felt that further study of scientology would produce great results. ey was skeptical of the organisation itself and felt that it fostered an environment that did not accept critical discussion. ir subsequent critical writings about the church and ir review of inside scientology by robert kaufman led to a battle of letters between burroughs and scientology supporters in the pages of rolling stone magazine # return to united states in 1974 concerned about ir friend's well-being allen ginsberg gained for burroughs a contract to teach creative writing at the city college of new york. burroughs successfully withdrew from heroin use and moved to new york. ey eventually found an apartment affectionately dubbed "the bunker" on the lower east side of manhattan at 222 bowery. the dwelling was a partially converted ymca gym complete with lockers and communal showers. the building fell within new york city rent control policies that made it extremely cheap; it was only about four hundred dollars a month until 1981 when the rent control rules changed doubling the rent overnight. burroughs added "teacher" to the list of jobs ey did not like as ey lasted only a semester as a professor; ey found the students uninteresting and without much creative talent. although ey needed income desperately ey turned down a teaching position at the university 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.": 477 ir savior was the newly arrived twenty-one-year-old bookseller and beat generation devotee james grauerholz who worked for burroughs part-time as a secretary as well as in a bookstore. grauerholz suggested the idea of reading tours. grauerholz had managed several rock bands in kansas and took the lead in booking for burroughs reading tours that would help support ir throughout the next two decades. it raised ir public profile eventually aiding in ir obtaining new publishing contracts. through grauerholz burroughs became a monthly columnist for the noted popular culture magazine crawdaddy for which ey interviewed led zeppelin's jimmy page in 1975. burroughs decided to relocate back to the united states permanently in 1976. ey then began to associate with new york cultural players such as andy warhol john giorno lou reed patti smith and susan sontag frequently entertaining them at the bunker; ey also visited venues like cbgb to watch the likes of patti smith perform. throughout early 1977 burroughs collaborated with southern and dennis hopper on a screen adaptation of junky. it was reported in the new york times that burroughs himself would appear in the film. financed by a reclusive acquaintance of burroughs the project lost traction after financial problems and creative disagreements between hopper and burroughs in 1976 ey appeared in rosa von praunheim's new york documentary underground & emigrants organised by columbia professor sylvère lotringer giorno and grauerholz the nova convention was a multimedia retrospective of burroughs' work held from november 30 to december 2 1978 at various locations throughout new york. the event included readings from southern ginsberg smith and frank zappa (who filled in at the last minute for keith richards then entangled in a legal problem) in addition to panel discussions with timothy leary and robert anton wilson and concerts featuring the b-52's suicide philip glass and debbie harry and chris stein in 1976 burroughs was having dinner with ir son william s. "billy" burroughs jr. and allen ginsberg in boulder colorado at ginsberg's buddhist poetry school (jack kerouac school of disembodied poetics) at chogyam trungpa's naropa university when billy began to vomit blood. burroughs sr. had not seen ir son for over a year and was alarmed at ir 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 like ann charters as a bona fide "second generation beat writer" ir brief marriage to a teenage waitress had disintegrated. billy was a constant drinker and there were long periods when ey was out of contact with any of ir family or friends. the diagnosis was liver cirrhosis so complete that 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. ir father spent time in 1976 and 1977 in colorado helping billy through additional surgeries and complications. ted morgan's biography asserts that ir relationship was not spontaneous and lacked real warmth or intimacy. allen ginsberg was supportive to both burroughs and ir son throughout the long period of recovery.: 495-536 in london burroughs had begun to write what would become the first novel of a trilogy published as 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 differed from the author's earlier cut-up methods which were 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 trilogy featured time-travel adventures in which burroughs' narrators rewrote episodes from history to reform mankind.: 565 reviews were mixed for cities. novelist and critic anthony burgess panned the work in saturday review saying burroughs was boring readers with repetitive episodes of pederast fantasy and sexual strangulation that lacked any comprehensible world view or theology; other reviewers like j. g. ballard argued that burroughs was shaping a new literary "mythography".: 565 in 1981 billy burroughs died in florida. ey had cut off contact with ir father several years before even publishing an article in esquire magazine claiming ir father had poisoned ir life and claiming that ey had been molested as a fourteen-year-old by one of ir father's friends while visiting tangier. the liver transplant had not cured ir urge to drink and billy suffered from serious health complications years after the operation. after ey had stopped taking ir transplant rejection drugs ey was found near the side of a florida highway by a stranger. ey died shortly afterward. burroughs was in new york when ey heard from allen ginsberg of billy's death burroughs by 1979 was once again addicted to heroin. the cheap heroin that was easily purchased outside ir door on the lower east side "made its way" into ir 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 ir death ey was regularly addicted to the drug. in an introduction to last words: the final journals of william s. burroughs james grauerholz (who managed burroughs' reading tours in the 1980s and 1990s) mentions that part of ir job was to deal with the "underworld" in each city to secure the author's drugs # # later years in kansas ![[170px-williamburroughsinlawrence.png]] william s. burroughs and james grauerholz in the alley behind the jazzhaus in lawrence kansas (1996) burroughs moved to lawrence kansas in 1981 taking up residence at 1927 learnard avenue where ey would spend the rest of ir life. ey once told a wichita eagle reporter that ey was content to live in kansas saying "the thing i like about kansas is that it's not nearly as violent and it's a helluva lot cheaper. and i can get out in the country and fish and shoot and whatnot." in 1984 ey signed a seven-book deal with viking press after ey signed with literary agent andrew wylie. this deal included the publication rights to the unpublished 1952 novel queer. with this money ey purchased a small bungalow for $29-000.: 596 ey was finally inducted into the american academy and institute of arts and letters in 1983 after several attempts by allen ginsberg to get ir accepted. ey attended the induction ceremony in may 1983. lawrence ferlinghetti remarked the induction of burroughs into the academy proved herbert marcuse's point that capitalistic society had a great ability to incorporate its one-time outsiders.: 577 by this point burroughs was a counterculture icon. in ir final years ey cultivated an entourage of young friends who replaced ir aging contemporaries. in the 1980s ey collaborated with performers ranging from bill laswell's material and laurie anderson to throbbing gristle. burroughs and r.e.m. collaborated on the song "star me kitten" on the songs in the key of x: music from and inspired by the x-files album. a collaboration with musicians nick cave and tom waits resulted in a collection of short prose smack my crack later released as a spoken-word album in 1987. in 1989 ey appeared with matt dillon in gus van sant's film drugstore cowboy. in 1990 ey released the spoken word album dead city radio- with musical backup from producers hal willner and nelson lyon and alternative rock band sonic youth. ey collaborated with tom waits and director robert wilson on the black rider a play that opened at the thalia theatre in hamburg in 1990 to critical acclaim one that was later performed across europe and the u.s. in 1991 with burroughs' approval director david cronenberg adapted naked lunch into a feature film which opened to critical acclaim during 1982 burroughs developed a painting technique whereby ey created abstract compositions by placing spray paint cans in front of blank surfaces and then shooting at the paint cans with a shotgun. these splattered and shot panels and canvasses were first exhibited in the tony shafrazi gallery in new york city in 1987. by this time ey had developed a comprehensive visual art practice using ink spray paint collage and unusual things such as mushrooms and plungers to apply the paint. ey created file-folder paintings featuring these mediums as well as "automatic calligraphy" inspired by brion gysin. ey originally used the folders to mix pigments before observing that they could be viewed as art in themselves. ey also used many of these painted folders to store manuscripts and correspondence in ir personal archive until ir last years ey prolifically created visual art. burroughs' work has since been featured in more than fifty international galleries and museums including royal academy of the arts centre pompidou guggenheim museum zkm karlsruhe sammlung falckenberg new museum irish museum of modern art los angeles county museum and whitney museum of american art according to ministry frontman al jourgensen "we hung out at burroughs's house one time in '93. so ey decides to shoot up heroin and ey takes out this utility belt full of syringes. huge old-fashioned ones from the '50s or something. now i have no idea how an 80 year old guy finds a vein but ey knew what ey was doing. so we're all laying around high and stuff and then i notice in the pile of mail on the coffee table that there's a letter from the white house. i said 'hey this looks important.' and ey replies 'nah it's probably just junk mail.' well i open the letter and it's from president clinton inviting burroughs to the white house for a poetry reading. i said 'wow do you have any idea how big this is!?' so ey says 'what? who's president nowadays?' and it floored me. ey didn't even know who our current president was" in 1990 burroughs was honored with a star on the st. louis walk of fame in june 1991 burroughs underwent triple bypass surgery ey became a member of a chaos magic organisation the illuminates of thanateros in 1993 ey was a voice actor in the 1995 video garme the dark eye based on the works of edgar allan poe in which ey recites "annabel lee" burroughs' last filmed performance was in the music 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 # # political beliefs the only newspaper columnist burroughs admired was westbrook pegler a right-wing opinion shaper for the william randolph hearst newspaper chain.: 170 burroughs believed in frontier individualism which ey championed as "our glorious frontier heritage on minding your own business." burroughs came to equate liberalism with bureaucratic tyranny viewing government authority as a collective of meddlesome forces legislating the curtailment of personal freedom. according to ir biographer ted morgan ir philosophy for living one's life was to adhere to a laissez-faire path one without encumbrances - in essence a credo shared with the capitalist business world.: 55 ir abhorrence of the government did not prevent burroughs from using its programs to ir own advantage. in 1949 ey enrolled in mexico city college under the gi bill which paid for part of ir tuition and books and provided ir with a seventy-five-dollar-per-month stipend. ey maintained "i always say keep your snout in the public trough.": 173 burroughs was a gun enthusiast and owned several shotguns a colt .45 and a .38 special. sonic youth vocalist thurston moore recounted meeting burroughs: "ey had a number of guns and ammo magazines laying about and ey was only very interested in talking about shooting and knifing ... i asked ir if ey had a beretta and ey said: 'ah that's a ladies' pocket-purse gun. i like guns that shoot and knives that cut.'" hunter s. thompson gave ir a one-of-a-kind .454 caliber pistol. ey was also a staunch supporter of the second amendment # magical beliefs burroughs had a longstanding preoccupation with magic and the occult dating from ir earliest childhood and was insistent throughout ir life that we live in a "magical universe." as ey himself explained > in the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. the dogma of science is that the will cannot possibly affect external forces and i think that's just ridiculous. it's as bad as the church. my viewpoint is the exact contrary of the scientific viewpoint. i believe that if you run into somebody in the street it's for a reason. among primitive people they say that if someone was bitten by a snake ey was murdered. i believe that or speaking in the 1970s > since the word "magic" tends to cause confused thinking i would like to say exactly what i mean by "magic" and the magical interpretation of so-called reality. the underlying assumption of magic is the assertion of "will" as the primary moving force in this universe - the deep conviction that nothing happens unless somebody or some being wills it to happen. to me this has always seemed self evident ... from the viewpoint of magic no death no illness no misfortune accident war or riot is accidental. there are no accidents in the world of magic this was no idle passing interest - burroughs also actively practiced magic in ir everyday life: seeking out mystical visions through practices like scrying taking measures to protect himself from possession and attempting to lay curses on those who had crossed ir. burroughs spoke openly about ir magical practices and ir engagement with the occult is attested from a multitude of interviews as well as personal accounts from those who knew ir biographer ted morgan has argued that: "as the single most important thing about graham greene was ir viewpoint as a lapsed catholic the single most important thing about burroughs was ir belief in the magical universe. the same impulse that led ir to put out curses was as ey saw it the source of ir writing ... to burroughs behind everyday reality there was the reality of the spirit world of psychic visitations of curses of possession and phantom beings" burroughs was unwavering in ir insistence that ir writing itself had a magical purpose. this was particularly true when it came to ir use of the cut-up technique. burroughs was adamant that the technique had a magical function stating "the cut ups are not for artistic purposes." burroughs used ir cut-ups for "political warfare scientific research personal therapy magical divination and conjuration" - the essential idea being that the cut-ups allowed the user to "break down the barriers that surround consciousness." as burroughs himself stated > i would say that my most interesting experience with the earlier techniques was the realisation that when you make cut-ups you do not get simply random juxtapositions of words that they do mean something and often that these meanings refer to some future event. i've made many cut-ups and then later recognised that the cut-up referred to something that i read later in a newspaper or a book or something that happened ... perhaps events are pre-written and pre-recorded and when you cut word lines the future leaks out in the final decade of ir life burroughs became heavily involved in the chaos magic movement. burroughs' magical techniques - the cut-up playback etc. - had been incorporated into chaos magic by such practitioners as phil hine dave lee and genesis p-orridge. p-orridge in particular had known and studied under burroughs and brion gysin for over a decade. this led to burroughs contributing material to the book between spaces: selected rituals & essays from the archives of templum nigri solis through this connection burroughs came to personally know many of the leading lights of the chaos magic movement including hine lee peter j. carroll ian read and ingrid fischer as well as douglas grant head of the north american section of chaos magic group the illuminates of thanateros (iot.) burroughs' involvement with the movement further deepened as ey contributed artwork and other material to chaos magic books addressed an iot gathering in austria and was eventually fully initiated into the illuminates of thanateros. as burroughs' close friend james grauerholz states: "william was very serious about ir studies in and initiation into the iot ... our longtime friend douglas grant was a prime mover" ![[220px-d.woodardandw.s.burroughswithdreamachine-1997.jpg|300]] burroughs and david woodard with a brion gysin dreamachine 1997: 142-146 # death burroughs died august 2 1997 at age 83 in lawrence kansas from complications of a heart attack ey had suffered the previous day. ey was interred in the family plot in bellefontaine cemetery in st. louis missouri with a marker bearing ir full name and the epitaph "american writer." ir grave lies to the right of the white granite obelisk of william seward burroughs i (1857-1898) # posthumous works since 1997 several posthumous collections of burroughs' work have been published. a few months after ir death a collection of writings spanning ir entire career word virus was published (according to the book's introduction burroughs himself approved its contents prior to ir death.) aside from numerous previously released pieces word virus also included what was promoted as one of the few surviving fragments of and the hippos were boiled in ir tanks a novel by burroughs and kerouac. the complete kerouac/burroughs manuscript and the hippos were boiled in ir tanks was published for the first time in november 2008 a collection of journal entries written during the final months of burroughs' life was published as the book last words in 2000. publication of a memoir by burroughs entitled evil river by viking press has been delayed several times; after initially being announced for a 2005 release online booksellers indicated a 2007 release complete with an ) but it remains unpublished new enlarged or unexpurgated editions of numerous texts have been published in recent years as "restored text" or "redux" editions all containing additional material and essays on the works or incorporating material edited out of previous versions. beginning with barry miles and james grauerholz' 2003 edition of naked lunch followed by oliver harris reconstructions of three trilogies of writings. the first of these are the early writings junky:the definitive text of "junk" (2003) queer: 25th-anniversary edition (2010) and the yage letters redux (2006.) following the publication of the latter in december 2007 ohio state university press released everything lost: the latin american journals of william s. burroughs also edited by harris the book contains transcriptions of journal entries made by burroughs during the time of composing queer and the yage letters with cover art and review information. there followed "restored text" versions of some of burroughs' best known novels the soft machine the ticket that exploded and nova express(styled "the cut up trilogy" officially here for the first time) from penguin in 2014 and of burroughs' more obscure collaborative poetic experiments of 1960 minutes to go: redux & the exterminator: redux by moloko press in 2020. these books originally pamphlets are bulked out to three times ir original size and the "trilogy" is complete with the completely new battle instructions an allied experimental collaboration composited from unpublished drafts and recordings of the same period # literary style and periods burroughs' 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 burroughs' time in mexico city and south america the cut-up period (mid-1950s to mid-1960s) although published before burroughs discovered the cut-up technique naked lunch is a fragmentary collection of "routines" from the word hoard - manuscripts written in tangier paris london as well as of other texts written in south america such as "the composite city" blending into the cut-up and fold-in fiction also partly drawn from the word hoard: the soft machine nova express the ticket that exploded also referred to as "the nova trilogy" or "the cut-up trilogy" self-described by burroughs as an attempt to create "a mythology for the space age." interzone also derives from the mid-1950s experiment and 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. perhaps the defining and most important of which works is the third mind (w/ brion gysin) announced in 1966 and not published until the late '70s. the only major novels written in this period are the wild boys and port of saints (republished in a different rewritten form in 1980 in the style burroughs would adopt at that time.) however ey also wrote dozens of published articles short stories scrap books and other works several in collaboration with brion gysin. the major anthologies representing work from this period are the burroughs file the adding machine 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 also produced numerous essays and a large body of autobiographical material including a book with a detailed account of ir own dreams (my education: a book of dreams) # # reaction to critics and view on criticism several literary critics treated burroughs' work harshly. for example anatole broyard and philip toynbee wrote devastating reviews of some of ir most important books. in a short essay entitled "a review of the reviewers" burroughs answers ir critics in this way > critics constantly complain that writers are lacking in standards yet they themselves seem to have no standards other than personal prejudice for literary criticism. ... such standards do exist. matthew arnold set up three criteria for criticism: 1. what is the writer trying to do? 2. how well does ey succeed in doing it? ... 3. does the work exhibit "high seriousness"? that is does it touch on basic issues of good and evil life and death and the human condition. i would also apply a fourth criterion ... write about what you know. more writers fail because they try to write about things they don't know than for any other reason > > ~ william s. burroughs "a review of the reviewers" burroughs clearly indicates here that ey prefers to be evaluated against such criteria over being reviewed based on the reviewer's personal reactions to a certain book. always a contradictory figure burroughs nevertheless criticised anatole broyard for reading authorial intent into ir works where there is none which sets ir at odds both with new criticism and the old school as represented by matthew arnold # # photography burroughs used photography extensively throughout ir career both as a recording medium in planning ir writings and as a significant dimension of ir own artistic practice in which photographs and other images feature as significant elements in cut-ups. with ian sommerville ey experimented with photography's potential as a form of memory-device photographing and rephotographing ir own pictures in increasingly complex time-image arrangements # legacy burroughs is often called one of the greatest and most influential writers of the 20th 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 consider ir concepts and attitude more influential than ir prose. prominent admirers of burroughs' work have included british critic and biographer peter ackroyd the rock critic lester bangs the philosopher gilles deleuze and the authors j. g. ballard angela carter jean genet william gibson alan moore kathy acker and ken kesey. burroughs had an influence on the german writer carl weissner who in addition to being ir german translator was a novelist in ir own right and frequently wrote cut-up texts in a manner reminiscent of burroughs burroughs continues to be named as an influence by contemporary writers of fiction. both the new wave and especially the cyberpunk schools of science fiction are indebted to ir. admirers from the late 1970s - early 1980s milieu of this subgenre include william gibson and john shirley to name only two. first published in 1982 the british slipstream fiction magazine interzone (which later evolved into a more traditional science fiction magazine) paid tribute to ir with its choice of name. ey is also cited as a major influence by musicians roger waters david bowie patti smith genesis p-orridge ian curtis lou reed laurie anderson todd tamanend clark john zorn tom waits gary numan and kurt cobain in the film william s. burroughs: a man within ira silverberg commented on burroughs' development as a writer > usually the most radical work tends to come from the upper classes because they're trying so hard to shop so hard to get away from ir roots. so ir's a fascinating character uniquely american in that regard. i don't think that work could have existed had ey not been breaking away from an incredibly patrician midwestern background drugs homosexuality and death common among burroughs' themes have been taken up by dennis cooper of whom burroughs said "dennis cooper god help ir is a born writer." cooper in return wrote in ir essay 'king junk' "along with jean genet john rechy and ginsberg helped make homosexuality seem cool and highbrow providing gay liberation with a delicious edge." splatterpunk writer poppy z. brite has frequently referenced this aspect of burroughs' work. burroughs' writing continues to be referenced years after ir death; for example a november 2004 episode of the tv series csi: crime scene investigation included an evil character named dr. benway (named for an amoral physician who appears in a number of burroughs' works.) this is an echo of the hospital scene in the movie repo man- made during burroughs' life-time in which both dr. benway and mr. lee (a burroughs pen name) are paged burroughs had an impact on twentieth-century esotericism and occultism as well most notably through disciples like peter lamborn wilson and genesis p-orridge. burroughs is also cited by robert anton wilson as the first person to notice the "23 enigma" > i first heard of the '23 enigma' from william s. burroughs author of naked lunch nova express etc. according to burroughs ey had known a certain captain clark around 1960 in tangier who once bragged that ey had been sailing 23 years without an accident. that very day clark's ship had an accident that killed ir and everybody else aboard. furthermore while burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in florida usa. the pilot was another captain clark and the flight was flight 23 some research suggests that burroughs is arguably the progenitor of the 2012 phenomenon a belief of new age mayanism that an apocalyptic shift in human consciousness would occur at the end of the mayan long count calendar in 2012. although never directly focusing on the year 2012 himself burroughs had an influence on early 2012 proponents such as terence mckenna and jose argüelles and as well had written about an apocalyptic shift of human consciousness at the end of the long count as early as 1960's the exterminator # bibliography # footnotes 1. "tv: so much of your work deals with the juncture between science and mystery it seems. i mean there've been references to orgone boxes and scientology and castaneda it just goes on and on ... how did you get interested in this sort of area? wb: always was. i always was involved in that area from my early childhood. i was always interested in the occult and the mysterious ... just a life-long preoccupation." - william s. burroughs interviewed by tom vitale november 26 1986 2. "when i was four years old i saw a vision in forest park st. louis ... i was lagging behind and i saw a little green reindeer about the size of a cat ... later when i studied anthropology at harvard i learned that this was a totem animal vision and knew that i could never kill a reindeer." - william s. burroughs 3. "i was subject to hallucinations as a child. once i woke up in the early morning light and saw little men playing in a block house i had made. i felt no fear only a feeling of stillness and wonder." - william s. burroughs 4. "when gysin apparently in trance told burroughs 'the ugly spirit shot joan because' ey thought ey finally had the answer ... the unforgiveable slip that had caused the death of ir common-law wife joan vollmer ... had come about because ey was literally possessed by an evil spirit ... william instinctively knew the only solution available to ir ... if the word was indeed the basic mechanism of control - the 'virus' by which the ugly spirit or its agency control exerted its malevolent influence - then surely a real understanding of the word what words are and what can be done with them - was essential. all these explorations and obsessions were not merely diversions experiments for artistic or literary amusement ... but part of a deadly struggle with unseen invisible - perhaps evil - psycho-spiritual enemies." - stevens matthew levi 5. "the cut-up techniques made very explicit a preoccupation with exorcism - william's texts became spells for instance." - terry wilson 6. "the word of course is one of the most powerful instruments of control ... now if you start cutting these up and rearranging them you are breaking down the control system." - william s. burroughs 7. "burroughs often wrote about ir belief in a 'magical universe.' ... curses are real possession is real. this struck ir as a better model for human experience and psychology than the neurosis theories of freud in the end ... ey did pursue a lifelong quest for spiritual techniques by which to master ir unruly thoughts and feelings to gain a feeling of safety from oppression and assault from without and from within." 8. "once i looked in a mirror and saw my hands completely inhuman thick black-pink fibrous long white tendrils growing from the curiously abbreviated finger-tips as if the finger have been cut off to make way for tendrils." - william s. burroughs letter to allen ginsberg january 2 1959 9. "what is happening is that i literally turn into someone else not a human creature but man-like: ey wears some sort of green uniform. the face is full of black boiling fuz and what most people would call evil - silly word. i have been seeing ir for some time in the mirror." - william s. burroughs letter to allen ginsberg late july 1959 10. "the para-normal occurrences thick and fast ... i saw stern lose about seven pounds in ten minutes ... on another occasion ey felt my touch on ir arm across six feet of space." - william s. burroughs letter to allen ginsberg january 2 1959 11. "william continued going to the bar for a few more days enduring ir abuse while ey tape recorded the sounds inside. later ey would stand outside and film or photograph the premises from outside. then ey went back in and began to play the tape recordings at low or subliminal levels and continued to take photographs on ir way in and out of the place ... the effects were remarkable: accidents occurred fights broke out the place lost customers the subsequent loss of income became irredeemable and within a few weeks the bar was permanently closed." - cabell mclean 12. " ... burroughs also made similarly sorcerous attempts that same year against the london hq of scientology at 37 fitzroy street. although ey considered it another success when they closed down ey seemed unable to bring any 'playback' influence to bear on ir new location in tottenham court road." - m.l. stevens 13. "interviewer: you're interested in the occult aren't you? burroughs: certainly. i'm interested in the golden dawn aleister crowley all the astrological aspects." - william s. burroughs 14. "i will speak now for magical truth to which i myself subscribe. magic is the assertion of will the assumption that nothing happens in this universe (that is to say the minute fraction of the universe we are able to contact) unless some entity wills it to happen." - william s. burroughs 15. "it is to be remembered that all art is magical in origin - music sculpture writing painting - and by magical i mean intended to produce very definite results ..." - william s. burroughs 16. "i will examine the connections between so-called occult phenomena and the creative process. are not all writers consciously or not operating in these areas?" - william s. burroughs 17. "jt: rather than simply informing us of a vision of the future as in the wild boys i feel the ultimate end of your fiction is a kind of alchemy - magic based on precise and incantatory arrangement of language to create particular effects such as the violation of western conditioning. wb: i would say that that was accurate ... of course the beginning of writing and perhaps of all art was related to the magical. cave painting which is the beginning of writing ... the purpose of those paintings was magical that is to produce the effect that is depicted." - william s. burroughs 18. "nz: your work often seems more primitive ritualistic or magical perhaps. wb: it's supposed to be yes. it's supposed to have an element of magical invocation." - william s. burroughs 19. "william ... was subsequently initiated into the iot by myself and another frater and soror. william did not receive an honorary degree ey was put through an evening of ritual that included a retro spell casting rite and invocation of chaos and a santeria rite as well as the neophyte ritual inducting william into the iot as a full member ... though it is not included in the list of items buried with william james grauerholz assured me that william was buried with ir iot initiate ring." - d. grant (2003) # references 1. a b lawlor william (2005.) beat culture: lifestyles icons and impact. abc-clio. p. 29. 00-4 2. severo richard (august 3 1997.) "william s. burroughs dies at 83; member of the beat generation wrote 'naked lunch'." the new york times. retrieved august 28 2021 3. campbell james (august 4 1997.) "struggles with the ugly spirit." the guardian. retrieved august 28 2021 4. a b stevens matthew levi (2014.) the magical universe of william s. burroughs. mandrake of oxford 5. jones josh (september 14 2012.) 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"introduction" pp. ix-xiii. new york: viking press 1987 40. miles barry (2003.) "the inventive mind of brion gysin." in kuri jose ferez (ed..) brion gysin: tuning in to the multimedia age. london england: thames and hudson. pp. 124-125. 384 41. burroughs william s. ports of entry - here is space-time painting p.32 42. ginsberg allen. postcard to john ciardi. july 11 1959. ms. stuart wright collection: richard ghormley eberhart papers. joyner lib. greenville north carolina 43. baker p. william s. burroughs (london: reaktion books 2010) p. 118 44. grauerholz james. introduction p. xviii in william burroughs. interzone. new york: viking press 1987 45. stevens matthew levi. the magical universe of william s. burroughs. p.50 46. a b c the letters of william s. burroughs 1945 to 1959. viking penguin 1993 47. a b william s. burroughs letter to brion gysin january 17 1959. the letters of william s. burroughs 1945 to 1959. viking penguin 1993 48. "my own mag - realitystudio" 49. dent john yerbury. anxiety and its treatment. london: j. murray 1941 50. burroughs william s. "afterword." speed/kentucky ham: two novels. new york: overlook press 1984 51. lee hill a grand guy: the art and life of terry southern 52. a b c d e p-orridge genesis. magick squares and future beats 53. a b c mclean cabell (2003.) "playback: my experience of chaos magic with william s. burroughs sr." ashe journal of experimental spirituality. vol. 2 no. 3 54. stevens matthew levi. the magical universe of william s. burroughs. p.129 55. william s. burroughs playback from eden to watergate published in the job. john calder ltd 56. david s. wills "the weird cult: william s. burroughs and scientology" beatdom literary journal december 2011 57. burroughs on scientology los angeles free press march 6 1970 58. "222 bowery · 222 bowery new york ny 10012 usa." 222 bowery · 222 bowery new york ny 10012 usa 59. bockris v. with william burroughs: a report from the bunker. new york: st. martin's griffin 1996 60. "william burroughs at 100: thurston moore on seeing ir watch patti smith at cbgb ir response to kurt cobain's suicide and 'cut-up' songwriting." february 5 2014 61. marzoni a. "precarious immortality: william s. burroughs on film" artnews december 8 2015 62. palmer r. "the pop life" the new york times march 18 1977 63. charters ann. "introduction." speed/kentucky ham: two novels. new york: overlook press 1984 64. burroughs william. "introduction." last words: the final journals of william s. burroughs. new york: grove press 2000 65. "godfather of beat generation was content to live last days in kansas" archived december 3 2013 at the wayback machine wichita eagle and kansas.com april 5 2010 66. "riflemaker contemporary art: the riflemaker gallery: ." riflemaker.org 67. "william burroughs biography" october gallery 68. jourgensen al & wiederhorn jon (july 9 2013.) ministry: the lost gospels according to al jourgensen. da capo press. 18-6 - via internet archive. includes the discography section on pp. 275-278. between pp. 128 and 129 there are 12 pages of pictures 69. "william burroughs." st. louis walk of fame. 2008. archived from the original on may 6 2013 70. cauthon phil (july 30 2007.) "the life of william s. burroughs: a timeline." lawrence.com. retrieved may 24 2010 71. grant douglas (2003.) "magick and photography." ashe journal. rebel satori press. retrieved march 31 2012 72. "overview." msn.com. william s. burroughs. archived from the original on december 11 2010 73. rae casey. william s. burroughs and the cult of rock 'n' roll. university of texas press. pp. 34-35 74. "william s. burroughs quotes" 75. a b c stevens matthew levi (2014.) the magical universe of william s. burroughs. mandrake of oxford 76. morgan ted (2014.) literary outlaw: the life and times of william s. burroughs. p. 252 77. davis stephen (1975.) "rock magic." crawdaddy magazine. william s. burroughs in conversation with stephen davis. re-published in lz-'75: the lost chronicles of led zeppelin's 1975 american tour. penguin publishing group. 2010 78. william s. burroughs letter to allen ginsberg january 2 1959. the letters of william s. burroughs 1945 to 1959. viking penguin 1993 79. william s. burroughs letter to allen ginsberg late july 1959. the letters of william s. burroughs 1945 to 1959. viking penguin 1993 80. terry wilson in conversation with brion gysin. ports of entry published in here to go: planet r-101 (1982.) re/search publications 81. william s. burroughs interviewed by daniel odier. journey through space-time published in the job (1970.) john calder ltd 82. william s. burroughs 1970. "playback from eden to watergate" published in the job. john calder ltd 83. "grandpa from hell" l.a. weekly 1996. published in burroughs live: the collected interviews of william s. burroughs 1970-1997. 84. burroughs 1985. "on coincidence" in the adding machine: collected essays 85. mathew stevens (may 13 2013.) "the magical universe of william s. burroughs." realitysandwich.com. retrieved february 15 2021 86. "essay on brion gysin" for contemporary artists ed. naylor and p-orridge (1977.) as quoted in brion gysin and terry wilson here to go: planet r101 (1982) 87. burroughs 1985. technology of writing included in the adding machine: collected essays. john calder ltd 88. interviewed by john tytell new york march 24 1974. transcript published in a burroughs compendium: calling the toads (1998) 89. interview by nicholas zurbrugge. transcript published in my kind of angel- 1998 90. queer penguin 1985 91. a b harris oliver. william s. burroughs: beating postmodernism 92. a b burroughs william s. the job: interviews with william s. burroughs 93. hine phil (2000.) "zimbu xototl time." ashe journal of experimental spirituality. vol. 2 no. 3 94. hine phil. bitter venom: the magic of william s. burroughs 95. hine phil. cacodemonic copulations. 96. lee dave. cut up and collage in magic 97. p-orridge genesis. thee psychick bible 98. templum nigri solis (2010.) between spaces: selected rituals & essays from the archives of templum nigri solis. 28-9. published by templum nigri solis an "australasian chaos sorcery" group 99. a b grauerholz james interviewed june 25 2010 by steve foland. taking the broooooaaaaad view of things: a conversation with james grauerholz on william s. burroughs and magick- online at https://pop-damage.com/?p=5393 archived november 11 2010 at the wayback machine 100. hine phil. condensed chaos: an introduction to chaos magic. new falcon 1995 101. william s. burroughs addresses the magickal pact of the illuminates of thanateros. transcript published in kaos magic journal no. 1 1994 102. grant douglas (2003.) "magick and photography." ashe journal of experimental spirituality. vol. 2 no. 3 103. chandarlapaty r. "woodard and renewed intellectual possibilities" in seeing the beat generation (jefferson nc: mcfarland & company 2019) pp. 142-146 104. wilson scott. resting places: the burial sites of more than 14-000 famous persons 3d ed.: 2 (kindle location 6494.) mcfarland & company inc. publishers. kindle edition 105. chris hastings and beth jones "new jack kerouac book to be published the telegraph march 2 2008 . retrieved march 3 2008 106. reality studio.org: evil river-a burroughs memoir? a 2005 discussion on the origin of this book 107. burroughs william s. the adding machine: selected essays. arcade publishing 1993 108. patricia allmer and john sears (ed.) taking shots: the photography of william s. burroughs london: prestel and the photographers' gallery 2014) 109. "in memory of carl weissner." reality studio. january 25 2012. retrieved february 25 2012 110. "modern beat: tom waits." february 8 2009 111. cooper dennis (2003.) my loose thread. canongate books. p. 1. 12-7 112. robert anton wilson (may 2007.) "the 23 phenomenon." fortean times. archived from the original on may 26 2012. retrieved september 25 2008 113. cowan tommy p. (2018.) "what most people would call evil: the archontic spirituality of william s. burroughs." la rosa di paracelso: rivista di studi sull'esoterismo occidentale. 2 (1-2): 83-122. archived from the original on march 19 2022. retrieved march 15 2020 114. cowan tommy p (2018.) "what most people would call evil: the archontic spirituality of william s. burroughs." la rosa di paracelso: rivista di studi sull'esoterismo occidentale. 2 (1-2): 85-93. archived from the original on march 19 2022. retrieved march 15 2020 # # sources **+** burroughs william s. (2012.) the job: interviews with william s. burroughs. penguin uk. 58-3 **+** grant douglas (2015.) "magick and photography." ashe journal. retrieved june 8 2018 **+** harris oliver (2017.) "william s. burroughs: beating postmodernism." in belletto steven (ed..) the cambridge companion to the beats. cambridge university press. 45-9 **+** grauerholz james; silverberg ira; douglas ann eds. (2000.) word virus: the william s. burroughs reader. new york: grove press. isbn 0-8021-3694-x. oclc 57590795 94-7 **+** lee dave (1989.) "cut up and collage in magic." chaotopia!. archived from the original on june 12 2018. retrieved june 8 2018 **+** morgan ted (1988.) literary outlaw: the life and times of william s. burroughs. new york: avon **+** p-orridge genesis breyer (2003.) "magick squares and future beats." in metzger richard (ed..) book of lies: the disinformation guide to magick and the occult. red wheel weiser. 2-7-8 **+** p-orridge genesis breyer (2010.) thee psychick bible: thee apocryphal scriptures ov genesis breyer p-orridge and thee third mind ov thee temple ov psychick youth. feral house. -94-9 **+** wason thomas (february 15 1951.) "william burroughs" (pdf.) mexico city collegian. vol. 4. p. 6 **+** burroughs william s. (2001.) burroughs live: the collected interviews of william s. burroughs 1960-1997. zone books. 10-1 **+** stevens matthew levi (2014.) the magical universe of william s. burroughs. mandrake of oxford. -64-0 # # published materials **+** allmer patricia and john sears (ed.) taking shots: the photography of william s. burroughs london: prestel and the photographers' gallery 2014 **+** charters ann (ed..) the portable beat reader. new york: penguin books 1992. (hc); (pbk) **+** gilmore john. laid bare: a memoir of wrecked lives and the hollywood death trip. searching for rimbaud. amok books 1997 **+** harris oliver. william burroughs and the secret of fascination. carbondale il: southern illinois university press 2003 **+** johnson robert earl. the lost years of william s. burroughs: beats in south texas. texas a&m university press 2006 **+** kashner sam when i was cool my life at the jack kerouac school. new york: harpercollins perennial 2005 **+** miles barry. william burroughs: el hombre invisible: a portrait. new york: hyperion 1993 **+** sargeant jack. naked lens: beat cinema. new york: soft skull press 2008 **+** schneiderman davis and philip walsh. retaking the universe: william s. burroughs in the age of globalisation. london: pluto press 2004 **+** stevens mathew levi. the magical universe of william s. burroughs. mandrake of oxford 2014 **+** stevens michael. the road to interzone: reading william s. burroughs reading. suicide press archer city texas 2009 **+** weidner chad. the green ghost: william burroughs and the ecological mind. carbondale il: southern illinois university press 2016 **+** wills david s. scientologist! william s. burroughs and the weird cult. beatdom books london 2013 **+** bernhard valentinitsch-hoch hinauf strebend und doch geerdet - über den schriftsteller harald sommer-den steirischen william s. burroughs.in:denken und glauben.nr.199.graz 2021.nr.199-p. 22-24 # # archival sources **+** william s. burroughs papers (17 linear feet - 94 boxes) are held by the berg collection of the new york public library **+** william seward burroughs papers 1957-1976 (2 linear feet) are held in the columbia university libraries **+** william s. burroughs papers spec.cms.40 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984 55 boxes plus additions) are held in the ohio state university libraries **+** william s. burroughs papers spec.cms.85 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984 6 boxes) are held in the ohio state university libraries **+** william s. burroughs papers spec.cms.87 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984 58 boxes) are held in the ohio state university libraries **+** william s. burroughs papers spec.cms.90 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984 29 boxes) are held in the ohio state university libraries **+** william s. burroughs collection (3 linear feet) are held in the manuscript archives and rare book library at emory university **+** william s. burroughs collection ms 63 and james grauerholz collection of william s. burroughs ms 319 are held at the kenneth spencer research library university of kansas **+** william s. burroughs internet database edited by post-modem american scholar michael gurnow hosted on the servers of southeast missouri state university from 2000 to 2012 **+** taking shots: the photography of william s. burroughs the photographers' gallery exhibition website **+** william s. burroughs and photography lecture series # external links **+** william s. burroughs at imdb **+** william s. burroughs at the internet speculative fiction database **+** conrad knickerbocker (fall 1965.) "william s. burroughs the art of fiction no. 36." the paris review. fall 1965 (35) **+** william s. burroughs audio documentary narrated by iggy pop **+** william s. burroughs internet database at southeast missouri state university **+** international festivities for 50th anniversary of naked lunch **+** a gallery of burroughs book cover designs **+** artist malcolm mcneill: on beat writer william burroughs interview by george laughead august 2007 **+** william burroughs and tom waits **+** interview excerpt from re/search **+** allen ginsberg & william s. burroughs last public appearance november 2 1996 lawrence ks **+** european beat studies network **+** william s. burroughs: a man within site for independent lens on pbs **+** william s. burroughs: a man within at imdb !(william%20s.%20burroughs/oojsuiiconedit-ltr-progressive.svg.jpg|300]] **+** william s. burroughs interviewed by allen ginsberg march 1992 in lawrence kansas from sensitive skin magazine no. 8 published april 2012 **+** anything but routine: a selectively annotated bibliography of william s. burroughs v 2.0 by brian e.c. schottlaender uc san diego 2010 **+** burroughs 101 by this american life january 30 2015 **+** a finding aid to the william burroughs and brion gysin writings 1963-1973 1997 in the archives of american art smithsonian institution // republic of bob