Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker
Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting
This list is by no means comprehensive, although I attempted to make it as complete as possible. I combed through Maynard & Miles and Eric Shoaf’s Checklist marking down all the men’s magazines with William Burroughs fiction, essays, or interviews. I took adult men’s magazines to be glossy magazines with a mixture of nude pictorials, fiction, and lifestyle articles. Basically, they are skin or porno mags; be it girlie or gay.
The key element to this list is the glossy Time / Life magazine format mixed with the nude photos. As a result, the Mayfair Academy Rip-off of 1973 did not make the list although this publication would be a nice addition to a Beat / men’s magazine collection and is a simple way to get a hold of the many Mayfair articles in one place. I did not include Olympia Magazine or the later issues of Evergreen Review (especially the issues of the late 1960s) which flirt with the men’s magazine format but remain literary magazines at heart. I also listed gay magazines (a men’s magazine from a different bent if you will), most notably Playgirl, to show the changing ways Burroughs’ image and works could be utilized. In some cases, I just was not sure if the magazine was in fact a glossy men’s magazine at all. I listed Suck, National Screw, and Blueboy, for example. National Screw started as a newspaper tabloid format like an underground sex paper, but morphed into a glossy after a couple of issues. I know little about Suck and Blueboy but they clearly are sex-oriented magazines and they tell an interesting story about Burroughs so I included them. Any additions to this list would be greatly appreciated as well as a brief write up describing its contents both Burroughs related and otherwise.
William Burroughs in Wildcat Adventures
Excerpt from Junkie
Man’s Wildcat Adventures
(Front Cover)
Volume 1, No. 1, pp 23-25, 47, 55-72. New York: June 1959 (35 cents)
Excerpt from Junkie
Man’s Wildcat Adventures
(First Page of Burroughs Text)
Volume 1, No. 1, pp 23-25, 47, 55-72. New York: June 1959 (35 cents)
William Burroughs in Swank
“The Word”
Swank
(Introduction by John Fles)
Vol. 8, no. 3: 51-55. New York: July 1961 (50 cents).
“The Word”
Swank
(Burroughs text, page 1)
Vol. 8, no. 3: 51-55. New York: July 1961 (50 cents).
“The Word”
Swank
(Burroughs text, page 2)
Vol. 8, no. 3: 51-55. New York: July 1961 (50 cents).
William Burroughs in Mayfair
“Interview” and “The Future of Sex and Drugs”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 1)
Mayfair
Vol. 2, No. 10, pp 11-15. London: October 1967
“The Engram Theory”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 2)
Mayfair
Vol. 2, No. 11, pp 28-31. London: November 1967
“Where’s Our Killer Whistle?”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 3)
Mayfair
Vol. 2, No. 12, pp 54-56. London: December 1967
“Scientology Revisited”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 4)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 1, pp 29-31. London: January 1968
“The Last Broadcast”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 5)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 2, pp 28-29. London: February 1968
“By Far The Most Efficient and Precise Language We Possess is the Common Cold”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 6)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 3, 54-56. London: March 1968
“The Fire Breaks Out”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 7)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 4, pp 32-34. London: April 1968
“In That Year of 1969, Astonished Motorists Were Hustled at Random into the Death Cells for Parking Offenses”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 8)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 5, pp 54-55. London: May 1968
“Switch On and Be Your Own Hero”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 9)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 6, 52-54. London: June 1968
“The Academy’s Ultimate Offer — Immunity to Death”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 10)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 7, 52-54. London: July 1968
“Do You Remember Tomorrow?”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 11)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 8, pp. 28-29. London: August 1968
“Oh God, Get Me Out of This!”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 12)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 9, pp. 32-34. London: September 1968
“Wind Die You Die We Die”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 13)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 10, pp 52-53, 62. London: October 1968
“Man, You Voted for a Goddam Ape”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 14)
Mayfair
Vol. 3, No. 12, pp 52-54. London: December 1968
“Rally Around the Secrets, Boys”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 15)
Mayfair
Vol. 4, No. 1, pp 52-54. London: January 1969
“Infiltration”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 16)
Mayfair
Vol. 4, No. 2, pp 52-53. London: February 1969
“The Brain Grinders”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 17)
Mayfair
Vol. 4, No. 4, pp 32-34. London: April 1969
“I’m Scared, I’m Scared, I’m Not”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 18)
Mayfair
Vol. 4, No. 5, pp 52-54. London: May 1969
“The Final Crusade of the Veteran Warriors”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 19)
Mayfair
Vol. 4, No. 6, pp 52-54, 56, 58. London: June 1969
“The Voracious Aliens”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 20)
Mayfair
Vol. 4, No. 8, 32-34. London: August 1969
“Days of Great Luxury Are Coming Back”
(The Burroughs Academy Bulletin 21)
Mayfair
Vol. 4, No. 9, 54-56. London: September 1969
“And a Final Word From William Burroughs”
Mayfair
Vol. 5, No. 6, pp. 36. London: June 1970
Mayfair Academy (More or Less)
Urgency Press Rip Off, 1973
Contains ten of the Burroughs “Academy Bulletins” from Mayfair
William Burroughs and Malcolm Mc Neill in National Screw
“Los Niños Locos”
National Screw
June 1977
“Day Is Done”
National Screw
August 1977
William Burroughs in Various Men’s Mags
“Auf der Suche Nach Yage”
Privat Herrenmagazin
Zurich: November 1966
Not in M&M, Shoaf, or Schottlaender
“O Say Can You See If Bently’s Who He Appears to Be?”
Cavalier
Vol 18, No. 12, pp 43, 57. New York: October 1968 (60 cents)
“Discussion Playboy Panel: The Drug Revolution”
Playboy
17, No. 2, pp 53-74, 200-201. Chicago: February 1970 ($1.00)
“William Burroughs: Mind Engineer”
Penthouse
6, No. 6, pp 37-40, 60. London: June 1971 (30p). (Interview with Graham Masterson and Andrew Rossabi)
“The Penny Arcade Peep Show / The Wild Boys Smile”
Suck
5, pp 10, 15. Amsterdam: Summer 1971
“Blue Movie/Who Are These Boys?”
Suck
6, pp 15-16. Amsterdam: 1971
“William Burroughs Takes a Look at Sex Films”
Suck
6, p 15. Amsterdam: 1971
“William Burroughs ‘I’ve Noticed a Regrettable Vagueness in Accounts of Hallucinogenic Drugs. In Time I Think These Just Lead to a Sort of Dreamland State”
Penthouse
Vol. 3, No. 7, pp 44,46, 52. New York: March 1972. (reprint of June 1971 Interview)
“Face to Face with the Goat God”
Oui
2, No. 8, pp 68, 92, 94. Chicago: August 1973
“First Meetings: One Dozen Memories from the Files of William Burroughs”
National Screw
April 1977. Taken from discussions with Victor Bockris
“My Life in Orgone Boxes”
Oui
October 1977
“My Life in Orgone Boxes”
Oui
October 1977
Jack Kerouac in Escapade and Mayfair
Kerouac on our “bloody mad history”
Escapade
February 1960
Kerouac on the Berlin Question
Escapade
April 1960
Kerouac on Zen
Escapade
October 1960
Kerouac on Jazz
Escapade
December 1960
Kerouac on Cody and the Road
Escapade
April 1961
Kerouac “In the Ring”
Mayfair
November 1968
The Beats in Swank
William S. Burroughs in Men’s Magazines
- Burroughs and Beats in Men’s Magazines: Introduction
- Burroughs in Men’s Magazines
- William Burroughs Appearances in Adult Men’s Magazines
- William Burroughs’ Word in Swank
Some of these titles are unfamiliar to me. for example, “Face to Face with the Goat God” (“Pan God of Panic”? “Apocalypse”?) “Without Your Name, Who Are You?” “And a Final Word From William Burroughs” and a number of others. I can infer from a few of the titles that some may be work published in some of WSB’s books, but if anyone can provide a corerelation between these titles and work published in Burroughs “mainstream” books or in the various collections of interviews, I’d be most grateful.
The Face to Face essay was written on assignment about the Joujouka musicians in Morocco. I dont think it has been collected, at least not in The Adding Machine and The Burroughs File. Much of the Mayfair stuff deals with Scientology in some way like And A Final Word. These were written specifically for Mayfair. I dont own a copy of Ali’s Smile/Naked Scientology but I dont think the Mayfair Scientology essays are collected there. Some of the Mayfair stuff is in the Mayfair Acadamy bootleg (10 essays) which is now a $200 item.
I have taken a quick look through The Burroughs File and The Adding Machine and the Men’s Mag stuff does not look to be in there.
For the full bulletins see the transcripts here (from a bootleg print of ’73) as preserved by the Wayback Machine, archived from some 1999/2000 web page:
~ André
the comment engine or the moderator did swallow my URL ref (but why? without it the whole comment is useless).
so just goto the wayback machine and search for
members DOT tripod DOT co DOT uk SLASH samizdat SLASH academy DOT html
You find a copy of that URL from 1999 and there you find the transcripts of the Burroughs Academy Bulletins.
Enjoy.
~ André
This is the link.
it is a pleaser to read this web-site and re-visit the archive link.
now i know what bits of Acadamy Series were not put out in the archive link: eg the intro’s for each article.
I might do somethink about this, later…..
Jed – I bet you have found copies of the missing Mayfairs but you just like seeing (to come) in the middle of a spread of spreads ….
Jim,
To be honest I have not really pursued the men’s magazines I am missing which I should because I have a very good start. I should get on it.
Jim,
BTW
The “To Come” is a nice touch that I wish I could take credit for, but it is Supervert all the way as you would expect.
I have the ‘Mayfair Academy (More or Less)’ booklet, so I was particularly interested to see the missing articles – this is an amazing resource, which has been invaluable reference, so Thank You!
Readers might like to know that the missing piece ‘I, William Burroughs, Challenge You, L. Ron Hubbard’ from Mayfair Vol.5 No.1 of January 1970 can be seen and downloaded from here:
http://www.xenu-directory.net/news/images/197003-mayfair.pdf
The issue of ‘Oui’ from 1973 with ‘Face to Face with the Goat God’ is still fairly easy to get hold of – I have a scan of it somewhere that I’ll have to dig out (it also has an article on Alejandro Jodorowsky)
Best as Ever: MLS
This is a truly invaluable source, thanks so much for compiling it. New to commenting on here, though not to the site, which has been pretty much of a daily stop for some time now … so thanks for that too (I guess…)
I would absolutely love to see this, especially the Mayfair stuff, completed – any chance? Surely someone passing here must have some missing issue? Searching through the database Mr Stevens linked to above, I came upon a couple more things of interest: the LRHubbard reply with WSB’s ‘final word’ from Vol5No6 (http://www.xenu-directory.net/news/images/197003-mayfair.pdf) and a reply to WSB from mrs Hubbard from Vol5No4(http://www.xenu-directory.net/news/images/197006-mayfair.pdf) …
Also, in the Wayback link posted above, I noticed the piece entitled ‘Without Your Name, Who Are You’ to be Burroughs’ (Village Voice?) review of Gysin’s Process – is that correct, anyone owning the ‘More or Less’ booklet?
best,
d
… the Hubbard reply is the file “197008” instead of “197003”, sorry for that …
Theres a 1980’s bookleg ‘The Mayfair Academy Series More More or Less’ that has more of the articles (it may have even been complete) and some supporting material, images etc, and a bibliography explaining where most of the material ended up – chapters of exterminator, wild boys, and the Burroughs File if i remember. Unfortunately i lost my copy in a burglary and haven’t seen another. I’m guessing it was a UK piracy.
Hello, I am italian, I joined the B&Associated group on FB a few months ago and posted several
italian publications feat WSB missing from bibliographic references listed on Reality Studio.
For ex, missing from the men’s magazine list is italian PLAYMEN june 82, including an excerpt from Nova Express. Can send a PDF but you do not give a mail to send picture contributions
– also, I tried to send this message through the online contact form but does not work?
It tells me to try again or contact you in another way.
Best, Walter
great share but I hoped to see full magazines, not only some pages. also i have added a lot other magazines to my collection in pdf from (https://adultvintagexxx.com/?s=mayfair), mens magazine mayfair was the best in 80s