Comments on: Burroughs and Scotland

By: Eleanor Bell

Eleanor Bell — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 15:05:39 +0000

My colleague, Angela Bartie and I have published a book on the 1962 Writers Conference. You can find out more about this here:

http://www.bookdepository.com/International-Writers-Conference-Revisited-William-Burroughs/9781908885159

The book contains photographs of Burroughs (and many other writers, including Henry Miller) in Scotland at time, as well as an interview which Angela and I conducted with John Calder and Jim Haynes in Paris.

By: david black

david black — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 20:49:13 +0000

I truly hope someone is talking to and recording both John Calder (Paris/London/Edinburgh) and Jim Haynes (Paris) while they are still with us – also asking Richard Demarco about his archive, and tracking down master of Whimsy Alan Jackson. These people rescued Edinburgh from dire bourgeois sclerosis – their legacy has been forgotten here, and the city sinks in a mire of commodified opportunism and crass commercial tackiness. Jabberwock was a great little mag – I still have its copper print block of MacDiarmad used in a 1958 imprint.

By: raymond anderson

raymond anderson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:31:37 +0000

A late response to this article inspired by my forum post.
After digesting much in meetings and readings it appears that Jim Haynes had a bookshop in the University area of Edinburgh which focussed on a lot of the censored literature of the counterculture paradigm shift, let’s say. Opened in 1959 with help from Richard Demarco and others, they were in the centre of a divided city and culture with The Fringe and Festival visitations from Horovitz and Yevtushenko and the like catalysing a growing hunger. Robin Williamson in his CD Mirrorman’s Sequences portrays in poetry and song disguised tales of the early 60s beat movement in Edinburgh.
Finally, Burroughs was in Edinburgh at some point visiting the Scientology Centre. Maybe that was late 60s during his London time.

By: Graham Rae

Graham Rae — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:09:37 +0000

Also remember Hugh MacDiarmid calling Trocchi “cosmopolitan scum” at the Writer’s Conference – nothing like using the word ‘cosmopolitan’ as an insult to prove your parochialism! Trocchi came away with the best fest quote (dunno if it was in reply): “I am only interested in lesbianism and sodomy.” Stuff like this must have turned the hair on MacDiarmid’s sporran white!

By: Graham Rae

Graham Rae — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:18:07 +0000

Forgot to say. Trocchi hanging out with The Beats is the obvious Scottish link to the literary movement.

By: Graham Rae

Graham Rae — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:15:44 +0000

Scotland had the world’s first literate society – the church taught the populace to read so they could read the Bible. The country has always had a respect for the written word – witness the celebrations this year for the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns’s birth. Scotland also has a strong oral tradition stemming from fire-and-brimstone preaching, and, once again, this reinforces the value of words to the populace even to this day.

By: jed

jed — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:59:46 +0000

Jabberwock was the name of the literary review at the University of Edinburgh. The situation in Scotland/England mirrors that of the United States. University reviews or little mags created by students published Burroughs first and were instrumental in getting Naked Lunch into book form and into the hands of readers. Young readers especially, as Naked Lunch would be a bible for the youth culture of the 1960’s.