Brion Gysin: Dream Machine at the Institut D’Art Contemporain Villeurbanne / Rhone-Alpes. 16 October — 28 November 2010. by Ian MacFadyen Gysin Homage One | Burroughs-Gysin Excursus | Gysin Homage Two Burroughs-Gysin Excursus: Magic Amulet / Silence to Say Goodbye, Brion Gysin / Hassan I Sabbah / Skywriting, I Give You — You Give Me…
Search Results for: Cat Inside Gysin
A Trip from Here to There (Gysin Homage Two)
Brion Gysin: Dream Machine at the Institut D’Art Contemporain Villeurbanne / Rhone-Alpes. 16 October — 28 November 2010. by Ian MacFadyen Gysin Homage One | Burroughs-Gysin Excursus | Gysin Homage Two Gysin Homage Two: The Great Transducer, Uher / Iki Ga Nagai — Iki Ga Mijikai / Kireji / Chod, 23 Code, The Biologic Film /…
Timothy Leary on William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Bou Saada
Timothy Leary interview, Pataphysics, October 17, 1989 From INTO-GAL, 2006, Editors: Leo Edelstein, Judith Elliston We heard this tape of you with William Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Robert Anton Wilson. Oh yeah, that was a recording from the Nova Convention. I’m a great admirer of William Burroughs, who’s one of my real heroes. When did…
The Cat Inside
New York: Grenfell Press 1986, issued in an edition of 18 copies bound in full limp vellum with a drawing by Brion Gysin stamped in gold on the front cover. Text by Burroughs with drawings by Gysin and printed in two colors using the duotone process on a hand letterpress. All copies signed by Burroughs…
Your Education
Dreams about William S. Burroughs Burroughs spoke frequently about the importance of dreams to the creative process. “There couldn’t be a society of people who didn’t dream,” he told Victor Bockris. “They’d be dead in two weeks.” He collaborated with Brion Gysin on the “dream machine,” and he frequently used dreams in his fiction as…
Interview with Chris Stein on William S. Burroughs
Photographer and Blondie Cofounder on the Man He Considered a Mentor Chris Stein, William S. Burroughs Shooting in Lawrence, KS Though best known as the cofounder and guitarist of Blondie, Chris Stein is also a photographer. While cowriting tracks such as “Rip Her to Shreds” and “Heart of Glass,” Stein was busy pointing his lens…
Davis Schneiderman Interview on The Third Mind
By Dave Teeuwen Though William Burroughs died in 1997, a steady stream of work taken from his archives has been published on what seems like an almost yearly basis. This is due to various scholars around the world digging into the available work to “look beneath the hood” on many of Burroughs’ texts to see…
Writing Beyond the Grave: William Burroughs and Denton Welch
By Thom Robinson Introduction On publication in 1983, The Place of Dead Roads was received as William Burroughs’ long-awaited Western, a project originally announced two decades before.1 Forming the second instalment of an emerging trilogy, the novel continued the use of genre fiction found in Cities of the Red Night (1981), with much of its…
Secrets of the Olympia Press Naked Lunch
I bought my first copy of the Olympia Press edition of William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch from eBay. I had no idea what I was doing. I had never seen a copy in person. I knew little about the principles of collecting. But I had the money and the itch so I overpaid for a copy…
Don’t Hide the Madness
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Don’t Hide the Madness: William S. Burroughs in Conversation with Allen Ginsberg, edited by Steven Taylor There is no single, right way to tell the story of William Burroughs. Here was a guy who distrusted and refused to believe in the tyranny of…
Dancing with Mr. B.: William Burroughs, The Rolling Stones, and 1972 American Tour
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I do not know about you but I am a names and dates guy. If you are here in the Studio, I suspect you are too. Just give us the factoids. Drown us with proper nouns. Shower us with historical dates. So maybe…
#7: St. Valentine’s Day Reading Program
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #7: St. Valentine’s Day Reading Program (1965). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. Hey, did you see the Granary Books archive of poetry flyers from the Mimeo Revolution? Around 400 flyers and handbills announcing…
The Lost Boys
William S. Burroughs, Ian Sommerville & Michael Portman by Matthew Levi Stevens A chapter from The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs, by Matthew Levi Stevens (forthcoming from Mandrake of Oxford, Autumn 2014.) The magical theory of history: the magical universe presupposes that nothing happens unless someone or some power, some living entity wills it…
Burroughs in London
by Heathcote Williams I first met William Burroughs in 1963. I was working for the now-defunct literary magazine Transatlantic Review and we were planning to publish a piece of his called “The Beginning is also the End.” I’d proposed doing a drawing of Burroughs for the cover and the editor of TR had agreed, and…
Index to the Contents of C: A Journal of Poetry
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting C: A Journal of Poetry No. 1 (May 1963) Cover Page: A title page and table of contents [i] Endless Resoundings Fill the RCMM — Dick Gallup [1] Ember Grease — Dick Gallup [2] It’s Everywhere, Like So Much Glue — Dick Gallup…
Riding the Nova Express
William Burroughs and the (Post) Modern Experiment by William Weiss … Consider an animal cell over which is running a river of cellular fluid, perhaps lymph or plasma. A virus particle appears in the flux and is carried over the cell surface. Both the cell surface and the virus particle are thick with spikes that…
1984 Interview with William S. Burroughs
On the Occasion of the Publication of The Place of Dead Roads by William Weiss Abe Frajndlich, William Burroughs Close-Up, 1984 (© Abe Frajndlich 1984/2013) William Burroughs smokes Players and manipulates them with a hand that is thin and pale and missing the last terrible joint of the fifth digit. We’re drinking coffee and talking…
This Beautiful Corrosion — William S. Burroughs at the ZKM
A Review of The Name Is Burroughs: expanded media at the ZKM, Karlsruhe Curated by Axel Heil, Udo Breger and Peter Weibel March 24 — August 8, 2012 Text: Ian MacFadyen Photographs: Eric Andersen .” . .the city moved in swirls and eddies and tornadoes of image. . .” Off the Map This is a…
William Burroughs’ Cyborg Manifesto
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Malcolm Mc Neill, Observed While Falling and The Lost Art of Ah Pook Is Here For too long I considered the 1970s a period of stagnation for William Burroughs. This is wrong on several levels. First of all, Burroughs was in motion geographically,…
William Burroughs Art Exhibitions
Solo and Group Shows Featuring William S. Burroughs Compiled by Barry Miles (Italics indicate name of show and catalogue) 1964 Galerie Stadler, Paris, group show, catalog, [Peinture, Poésie, Musique: David Budd Recontre William Burroughs et Earl Brown Chez Rodolphe Stadler.] (View catalogue) 1982 B2 Gallery, London, group show supporting the Final Academy festival of readings…
William S. Burroughs and the Arts: A Bibliography
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting William Burroughs in Artists’ Magazines 1959 Semina, No. 4 (1959). {M&M C11} “Excerpt from “[Have You Seen] Pantapon [sic] Rose[?].” Excerpt from Naked Lunch. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Larkspur, California, 1955-1964 (1-9). Wallace Berman. See “Semina Culture” 1960 Kulchur, [No. 1] (Spring 1960)….
Scientology in the Novels of William S. Burroughs
by David S. Wills William S. Burroughs at the Saint Hill Scientology Bookstore, 1968 In Ted Morgan’s biography, Literary Outlaw, he says that in 1968, Scientology was a “new obsession” for William S. Burroughs, and Barry Miles’ El Hombre Invisible claims that Burroughs’ interest came about in 1967 — the year Miles mistakenly has Burroughs…
The Anti-Environment of the Cut-Up Authors
by Carl Weissner Environments are not passive wrappings, but are, rather, active processes which are invisible. The ground rules, pervasive structure, and overall patterns of environments elude easy perception. Anti-environments, or countersituations made by artists [“and artists” added by Weissner], provide means of direct attention and enable us to see and understand more clearly. Marshall…
Terry Wilson: Cutting Up for Real
The Writing of Perilous Passage Terry Wilson in Conversation with Ian MacFadyen As his book Perilous Passage is published by Synergetic Press, Terry Wilson talks with Ian MacFadyen about the 15 years he spent creating this unique work which embodies and develops the radical Third Mind techniques of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Wilson was…
In Memory of Carl Weissner
William Burroughs and Carl Weissner (Photographer Unknown) Carl Weissner began corresponding with William Burroughs in 1965. Seeing that Carl was quick to pick up on his experiments with the cut-up, Burroughs decided to visit Carl in Heidelberg. “I am off to Germany next week,” Burroughs wrote to Brion Gysin on May 27, 1966. “Looks like…
My Burroughs
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting William Burroughs’ typewriter at the Beat Hotel in Paris Burroughs means different things to different people. Nobody obsessed with Burroughs fixates on the same writer, artist, or man. In fact some of us, the truly delusional and hopeless cases, are fascinated by what…
William and Joan
A Reminiscence of William Burroughs and a Poem for Joan Vollmer by Oliver Ray It was the early 1990s, NYC, and I was about 21 when I first met old William. There was a friend of mine who knew Ginsberg and brought me down to his apartment on East 12th St, across from the old…
William S. Burroughs, Jacques Stern, and The Fluke
An Archive of Materials by and about Jacques Stern Including the Complete Text of The Fluke William S. Burroughs had known Jacques Loup Stern for little more than a year when he declared the man a “great writer.” Writing from the Beat Hotel in Paris on June 8, 1959, Burroughs reported to Allen Ginsberg that…
A Trip from Here to There
Brion Gysin: Dream Machine at the Institut D’Art Contemporain Villeurbanne / Rhone-Alpes. 16 October — 28 November 2010. by Ian MacFadyen “Everybody here comes from somewhere.” — Michael Stipe “Everything was alive like me on this earth, everything was breathing.” — Brion Gysin Gysin Homage One | Burroughs-Gysin Excursus | Gysin Homage Two Gysin Homage…
William S. Burroughs, Charles Gatewood, and Sidetripping
by Charles Gatewood Adapted from Dirty Old Man, a Memoir In January 1972, Rolling Stone magazine sent Robert Palmer (writer) and yours truly (photographer) from New York to London to do a feature story on William S. Burroughs. The iconic Beat writer greeted us warmly, and showed us into his modest two-room flat on Duke…
Interview with Victor Bockris on William Burroughs
By Dave Teeuwen Why did you write a book about Burroughs? He’s not nearly as glamorous or popular as most of your other subjects, or was he? At the time I started to write the book, January 1979, William Burroughs was one of the most glamorous and hip people in New York. We were deep…
William S Burroughs: A Man Within
Documentary Directed by Yony Leyser, 2010 Review by Graham Rae “He was the first person who was famous for things you were supposed to hide — he was gay, he was a junkie, he didn’t look handsome, he shot his wife, he wrote poetry about assholes and heroin. He was not easy to like.” —…
C Items
Burroughs Contributes to Magazines and Journals by Eric C. Shoaf 1974 1. The Expatriate Review No. 4 (Winter/Spring 1974), Burroughs contributes “Cold Lost Marbles” bound in wraps. 2. National Lampoon February 1974, Burroughs contributes “Strange Sex We Have Known” with co-author Terry Southern, bound in wraps. 3. Rolling Stone Magazine February 28, 1974, Burroughs interviews…
B Items
Burroughs Contributes to Books and Anthologies by Eric C. Shoaf 1974 1. Jean Genet in Tangier by Mohamed Choukri, New York: Ecco 1974, translated by Paul Bowles, first edition, Introduction by Burroughs, hardbound in dust jacket. 2. The Wanderers by Richard Price, New York: Houghton Mifflin 1974, Burroughs contributes a blurb to the front inner…
About Burroughs
Articles and Books About William S. Burroughs by Eric C. Shoaf Items listed here are comprised of interviews with Burroughs, criticism of his writings, stories about him, interactions people had with him, and a catch-all as such for printed material related to Burroughs in some way. The majority of items here are serial titles —…
Beat Critics
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting The Beat Studies Association webpage has made available many of the papers from the Beat Generation Symposium (October 10-11, 2008) at Columbia College in Chicago. Kudos to The Beat Studies Association for putting the papers online. The Association was formed in 2004 to…
Richard Seaver and William S. Burroughs
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting When I started collecting William Burroughs in 1993, I had little idea of what I was getting into and absolutely no clue as to the shape that my collection would take fifteen years later. As it turned out, the first collectible I bought,…
C Items
Part Two of “Not in Maynard & Miles” by Eric C. Shoaf In many ways, the magazines and serials are much more difficult to document than books because they were so prevalent at the time. Small press publishing took off in the 1960s, and Burroughs would send something from his “word horde” to nearly any…
B Items
Part One of “Not in Maynard & Miles” by Eric C. Shoaf Man Alone: Alienation in Modern Society ed. by Eric and Mary Josephson, (New York: Dell Publishing Inc., 1962), Burroughs contributes “Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness” bound in wraps. Reliefs / Machines: An Exhibition Catalog of Works by Mark Brusse (Arnheim, Holland: Gallery 20,…
William S. Burroughs and Joy Division
Recently the writer Jon Savage published a thoughtful essay about the literary influences of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the seminal post-punk band Joy Division. Having followed the band from its inception, Savage is in a unique position to offer insights. He notes that “Ian Curtis was an avid reader who became a driven writer,”…
Washington DC Book Fair 2008
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Signs, signs, everywhere there are signs. On Friday March 7th, I saw a robin on the way to the train. The Orioles had a game against the Red Sox in Fort Lauderdale later that day. I can feel it coming in the air…
Interview with Artist Jim Dine
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Since the inception of the Bibliographic Bunker, I have been writing about artists’ books and the book as an object. The interview with Malcolm Mac Neill and his memoir Observed While Falling were revelations. Both reinforced my belief that the concept of the…
The Baltimore Antique Show
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Labor Day Weekend in Baltimore. For those who decide to stay in town, and there are not many, this weekend is a time for sitting on a rooftop deck (the yuppie version of the good old stoop) and cracking Natty Bohs while deciding…
Interview with Malcolm Mc Neill
Artist Speaks about Collaborating with Burroughs on Ah Pook Is Here In 1970 Malcolm Mc Neill received a phone call from a man who asked to meet “the guy who knows how to draw me.” The caller was William S. Burroughs. Mc Neill had recently illustrated a Burroughs text called “The Unspeakable Mr. Hart” for the underground…
Henry Miller and William Burroughs: A Letter
by Ian MacFadyen RealityStudio sent the text of Henry Miller and William Burroughs: An Overview to a few friends and scholars for input. While everyone made helpful comments, Ian MacFadyen — currently working on the introduction to the volume of essays that will comemmorate the 50th anniversary of Naked Lunch — replied with a spirited,…
Semina Culture
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting You know how today we store up, shoring up, fragments of better days, against these our so fragmentary lives. Stephen Jonas, “A Poem for Tony Sherrod” Floating Bear 35 The weekend before St. Pat’s, I rode the Chinatown bus up to New York…
Books and Broadside Prints By William S. Burroughs
A Bibliography by Eric C. Shoaf Junky [1953] Naked Lunch [1959] Minutes to Go [1960] The Exterminator [1960] The Soft Machine [1961] The Ticket That Exploded [1962] Dead Fingers Talk [1963] The Yage Letters [1963] Roosevelt After Inauguration [1964] Nova Express [1964] Time [1965] APO-33: A Metabolic Regulator [1965] So Who Owns Death TV? [1967]…
Printing Techniques: Letterpress
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I have said it before, but I must once again recommend Steven Clay and Rodney Phillips’ A Secret Location on the Lower East Side. I reread it and it is as informative and fascinating as ever. This book, more than any other, shaped…
Jan Herman and William S. Burroughs
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting It was in 2006 that Jed Birmingham wrote the following text about the relationship between William S. Burroughs and Jan Herman, publisher, writer, artist, and connoisseur of the cut-up. It is with tremendous pleasure that RealityStudio now uses that text as the introduction…
Burroughs Blurbs
A Compilation of Book-Jacket Blurbs by William S. Burroughs It’s always hard to know exactly what to make of the blurbs that authors contribute to the jackets of books written by other authors. Are they sincere endorsements of the quality of a book? Are they fragments of sham praise extorted from friends? Are they recommendations…
Notes on Burroughs (1964)
By Marshall McLuhan 1. Today men’s nerves surround us; they have gone outside as electrical environment. The human nervous system itself can be reprogrammed biologically as readily as any radio network can alter its fare. Burroughs has dedicated Naked Lunch to the first proposition, and Nova Express (both Grove Press) to the second. Naked Lunch…