Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker
Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting
The following powerpoint was presented on September 8, 2006 at the final Kerouac Fest in Windber, PA. For more on Kerouac Fest and the wonderful activities of host Blair Murphy see thecemetery.net.
The presentation covers many of the topics that I have been writing about in the last six months and I think underlines a direction for Burroughs and Beat scholarship in the future. Hopefully, this material can reach larger and larger audiences getting them acquainted with little known and scarcely seen Beat publications. I believe these documents still have a lot to say about the development of the Beats and Burroughs in the 1950s and 1960s as well as providing fodder for their critical reception today.
As RealityStudio shows, new technologies make possible self-publishing of academic and critical material outside of and supplementing the university press. Paul’s Nothing Press shows that the small press and little magazine labor on introducing new writers and new writing. More interestingly, I am beginning to see many similarities between the political, cultural, and literary scene of 1945-1960 with the post 9-11 world. Hopfully, this presentation and these publications can speak to readers out there like they speak to me.
Download Jed’s PowerPoint presentation for Kerouac Fest 2006.