by William S. Burroughs “Old Arch” first appeared in The Beatest State In The Union: An Anthology of Beat Texas Writings, edited by Christopher Carmona, Rob Johnson, and Chuck Taylor (Lamar University Press, 2015). It appears here on RealityStudio courtesy of James Grauerholz and the William S. Burroughs Estate. [Editor’s note: Arch Ellisor was a…
Tag: William Burroughs
The William Mix
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting MC Bill “Panic” by The Smiths fades into Richard Hell and the Voidoids’ “Love Comes in Spurts.” And we are off deep into the soundtrack of Interzone at the Meet Café somewhere off the beaten path in the City Market. It takes a…
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…
The Revised Boy Scout Manual
A Review of “The Revised Boy Scout Manual”: An Electronic Revolution, edited by Geoffrey D. Smith and John M. Bennett, forthcoming from the Ohio State University Press. “Lost Masterpiece Rediscovered” claims the blurb on the cover of William S. Burroughs’ “The Revised Boy Scout Manual”: An Electronic Revolution. Without criticizing the marketing team too much,…
Crawdaddy Archive
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting CrawdaddyJune 1975 William S. Burroughs’ “Rock Magic“ CrawdaddyAugust 1975 William S. Burroughs’ “Beauty & the Bestseller” Collected in The Adding Machine CrawdaddySeptember 1975 William S. Burroughs’ “Ten Years and a Billion Dollars” Collected in The Adding Machine CrawdaddyOctober 1975 William S. Burroughs’ “‘I…
CUT-UPS@60
London / Paris, September 2020 Registration now open for Paris and London 2020 will be the 60th anniversary of the first publications using the cut-up methods developed by William Burroughs and Brion Gysin at the Beat Hotel in Paris. To mark this landmark in cultural history, we are organising CUT-UPS@60, an international Cut-Up Conference in…
Scientology Revisited
Scientology Pamphlet by William S. Burroughs Scientology Revisited is a rare Scientology pamphlet reproducing one of William Burroughs’ texts from Mayfair magazine. Download Scientology Revisited (pdf) Posted by RealityStudio on 14 April 2018. Thanks to Jeff Ball for the scan.
Giorno Poetry Project & the AIDS Treatment Project
John Giorno, COIL, William Burroughs, and the AIDS Crisis This small archive of correspondence between Giorno Poetry Systems and the band Coil — Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson and John Balance aka Geff Rushton aka Geoffrey Burton — begins with Giorno soliciting a contribution for the album A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth of a Corpse. Soon,…
L’Internationale Hallucinex
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting L’Internationale Hallucinex (Maynard & Miles B 56) was published in 1970 by Soleil Noir in Paris. A box containing eight pamphlets, a French translation of William Burroughs “Invisible Generation” in the section titled “Manifestes de la Génération Grise et Invisible.” The pamphlet also…
Fue internado en la Peni el yanqui borrachin que asesino a su mujer
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. This clipping comes from an unknown newspaper, probably published on 11 or 12 September 1951. Drunk Yankee who murdered his wife put in jail The drunken American who shot his wife the…
1951.09.11 El Nacional
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. [ photo caption ] The scandal caused by the murder of Mrs. John Vollmer Burroughs [sic] by her husband William Seward Burroughs has shaken our neighbor country to the north, where the…
Sewar Quiere Burlar a las Autoridades
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. This clipping comes from an unknown newspaper, probably published on 10 September 1951. Sewar [sic] Wants to Mock the Authorities He intends to uphold the alibi that his Defender has prepared for…
Un Americano, Mal Tirador, Mato A Su Mujer
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. This clipping comes from an unknown newspaper, probably published on 9 or 10 September 1951. An American, A Poor Shot, Kills His Wife Bullet In The Forehead Feeling like a “William Tell”…
1951.09.11 Schenectady Gazette
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. Grandson of Inventor Burroughs Held in Shooting of Wife in Mexico Mexico City, Sept 10 (AP) — William S. Burroughs, of a prominent St Louis, Mo, family, was held today for trial…
1951.09.11 Niagara Falls Gazette
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. Seeking Release of Burroughs Mexico City, Sept 11 — A lawyer for William S. Burroughs planned today an injunction move to get the former St Louis resident freed from a charge of…
1951.09.11 Albany Times
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. Burroughs Is Held for Trial Mexico City (AP) — William S. Burroughs, of a prominent St Louis, Mo, family, was held yesterday for trial on a charge of fatally shooting his wife….
1951.09.09 Albany Times Union
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. Burroughs, Held Without Bail, Tells New Death Story Now Says He Shot Wife While Checking Gun to See If It Was Loaded William Seward Burroughs, formerly of St Louis, Mo, held in…
1951.09.08 Knickerbocker News
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. Mexican Police Press Quiz of Ex-Albany Girl’s Death [photo caption] HE TELLS HIS STORY — William Seward Burroughs, 37, left, tells Mexico City police how his gun happened to kill his 27-year-old…
1951.09.08 Jamestown Post Journal
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. William Tell Shot Denied in Killing Mexico City. (U.P.) — A grandson of the inventor of the adding machine said today he accidentally killed his wife at a drinking party but denied…
1951.09.08 Albany Times Union
This is a document from RealityStudio’s collection of primary source documents relating to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. Ex-Loudonville Girl Shot to Death at Mexico City Party; Husband Accused Rensselaer Chemist’s Daughter Was Wife of Burroughs Scion Mrs Joan Vollmer Burroughs, 27, formerly of Loudonville, was shot and killed by…
Documents on the Death of Joan Vollmer Burroughs
Primary Source Documents Relating to the Death of William S. Burroughs’ Wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs This is a collection of primary source documents related to the death of William S. Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs. On 6 September 1951 Burroughs shot her in the forehead during a small party in Mexico City. Though Burroughs changed…
“I Always Have Three Weapons on Me”: 1981 Interview with William Burroughs by Alain Pacadis
Uncollected 1981 Interview with William Burroughs from Le Palace Magazine This interview by Alain Pacadis appeared in French in Le Palace Magazine 5 (1981). An eBay seller very kindly provided a scan of it and RealityStudio translated it into English. It is not to be found in Burroughs Live: The Collected Interview of Wiliam S….
Andrew Lees Does It Again
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting The good doctor has done it again. As a follow-up to Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment, Dr. Andrew J. Lees recently submitted an article entitled “William Burroughs: Sailor of the Soul” to the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. The brief abstract…
Cleft
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting For more on Cleft, see Jed Birmingham’s essay on Burroughs and Scotland. Cleft 11963 Contains William S. Burroughs’ “Martin’s Folly” Download entire issue Cleft 21964 Contains William S. Burroughs’ “Distant Hand Lifted” Download entire issue Scanned by Jed Birmingham and published by RealityStudio…
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…
John Updike and William S. Burroughs
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting So who is your anti-Burroughs? What writer’s books are positioned as far away on your bookshelf as possible from your pristine copy of Naked Lunch? What writer’s books do you refuse entry into your library for fear of infecting your prized Burroughs items…
Rush Magazine
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I got my mitts on a run of a magazine dedicated to the good shit that once again reminded me how full of it I truly am. Paging through Malcolm Mc Neill‘s Lost Art of Ah Pook, I came across a reference to…
Junkie Culture (1963)
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Ann Beat, “Junkie Culture ,” excerpted from Books and Bookmen, November 1963. Norman Mailer describes Burroughs as ‘the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed of genius.’ An odd offshoot of the adding machine family, he lives in a squalid…
The Burroughs Affair (1963)
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting John Pearson, “The Burroughs Affair,” excepted from The Sunday Times Colour Section, 3 February 1963. Photograph by Bob Willoughby. William Burroughs justifies living in this seedy room in an old hotel on the Ile de la Cité, saying “I know them here and…
Barely Afloat in New York: Burroughs, di Prima and Floating Bear 31
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg at Grove Press book launch party, 22 December 1964 (photograph by Fred McDarrah) When William Burroughs arrived in New York Harbor on the Independence on December 8, 1964, with seven suitcases full of books and manuscripts, customs officials…
William S. Burroughs and John Wieners’ Measure
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I’m that type of guy that gets lost in the footnotes. So ridiculous, but more often than not there is a ton of cool information to be found in there. Read beneath the lines because many times the real story lies buried at…
Mentored by a Madman
Interview with Dr Andrew Lees, Author of Mentored by a Madman: The William S. Burroughs Experiment By Jed Birmingham Dr. Andrew Lees is the anti-Benway but he learned quite a bit from the practices of the old croaker. And from William Burroughs too. In Mentored by a Madman: The William S. Burroughs Experiment, Dr. Lees…
Bob Dylan and William Burroughs — A (Mostly) 1965 Timeline
by James Adams Adapted from “William Burroughs in New York City 1964-1965” by Jed Birmingham 1964 August 28 — Dylan meets the Beatles and introduces them to marijuana while visiting their Delmonico Hotel room in New York City. October — Burroughs publishes Nova Express, a work Dylan would later cite as an important influence. December…
Brother Bill: How William S. Burroughs Influenced Bob Dylan
by James Adams With special thanks to Jed Birmingham. See also “Bob Dylan and William Burroughs — A (Mostly) 1965 Timeline.” Bob Dylan’s classic album Highway 61 Revisited was released in August 1965. The first song on the album, “Like A Rolling Stone,” reached number two on the Billboard charts. It was kept from the…
#3: The Fuck You Press APO-33
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #3: The Fuck You Press APO-33 (1965). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. Several years ago I drove up to Brooklyn to Jon Beacham‘s studio in order to pick up a mimeograph machine. Jon…
#4: The Urgency Press Ripoff Edition of Time
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #4: The Urgency Press Ripoff Edition of Time — Roy Pennington (1972). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. The Urgency Press Rip-Off bootleg of Time speaks for itself. Preach it, Roy! This edition…
#5: The Moving Times Poster, Project Sigma
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #5: The Moving Times Poster, Project Sigma (1965). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. I have a dream. It is a sunny afternoon, June, in London. For whatever reason, the sun has been popping…
#6: Call Me Burroughs LP
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #6 – Call Me Burroughs LP – The English Bookshop (1965). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. Your finger runs along a series of spines searching for a hot track. Ah, there is one….
#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…
#8: Time
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #8: Time. C Press (1965). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. Book collectors are consumed with envy. Covet not thy neighbor’s books. Try as we might, even the most saintly of collectors amongst us…
#9: The Soft Machine (Olympia Press Edition)
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #9: The Soft Machine. Olympia Press (1961). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. Desert island books versus deathbed books. Which do you think of in moments of reverie? One book is for reading when…
#10: The Digit Junkie
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting # 10 – The Digit Junkie (1957). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. It was the spring of 2003. My first marriage had just fallen apart. I was living in a one bedroom apartment…
#11: The Hardiment/Crowder Archive
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #11: The Hardiment/Crowder Archive — Jim Pennington aloes books. An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. For my birthday last year, my in-laws bought me 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music by Andrew Grant…
#12: Roosevelt after Inauguration
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #12 Roosevelt After Inauguration (Fuck You Press 1964). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. As a Burroughs collector, I am envious of those who collect Bukowski. Back when I was working at Second Story…
#13: The Olympia Naked Lunch
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #13: The Olympia Press The Naked Lunch (1959). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. I call my mom several times a week, not so much because I am dying to talk to her, but…
#14: “The Invisible Generation” Poster
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #14: “The Invisible Generation” poster. International Times 5.5. First edition in silver ink. An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. (NB: Can anyone provide a better image of the poster?) William Burroughs, notoriously known as…
#15: Suck
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #15: Suck 5 & 6 (1971). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. “[C]omplete breakdown of censorship. There are shops all over town now where you can buy pictures of naked boys with hard ons…
#16: Klacto 23 International
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #16 Klacto 23 International September 17, 1899. An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. The iconic photo of Carl Weissner, which also happens to be my favorite and the most revealing, is the shot of…
#17: Aspen 5+6
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #17: Aspen 5+6: The Minimalism Issue (1967). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. “Now kid what are you doing over there with the Beat Generation? Why don’t you straighten out and act like a…
#18: Semina 4
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #18 – Semina 4 . An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. In the Spring of 2003, my wife and I had recently separated and the ink had dried on the sale of our house….
#19: Cyclops
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #19 – Cyclops 1-4 (1970). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. Nobody has browsed the stacks of the Library of Interzone for decades; its location flickers like light through a Dream Machine. A few…
#20: The Exterminator
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #20 – The Exterminator by Auerhahn Press (1960). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. In 1958 on the cover of the Spring issue of Chicago Review, William Burroughs headlined a list of “Ten San…
#22: Am Here Books Catalogue 5
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #22: Am Here Books Catalogue 5: In the Beginning Was the Word (1981-1982). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. In 1922 when James Joyce’s Ulysses sailed the ocean blue through U.S. customs, independent bookshops…
#23: The Dead Star
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting #23: The Dead Star. Nova Broadcast #5 published by Jan Herman (1969). An Installment in Jed Birmingham’s series of the The Top 23 Most Interesting Burroughs Collectibles. Sometimes you have to start at the very beginning in order for anything to make sense….
William S. Burroughs and Mother
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Davee Mac, Regarding your post to the forum about whether Burroughs fans preferred experiencing cut-ups in the novels or in the little magazines, it is an interesting debate. Please permit me to beat a Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. In the past year, I…
William Burroughs and Bikini Girl
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I was digging through some boxes of magazines recently and time and again I was reminded of the primary rule of book collecting: You cannot collect everything. Given the depth and breadth of William Burroughs’ output, even the goal of collecting William Burroughs…
William Burroughs, My Own Mag, and Tangier
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Over the years, the history of William Burroughs’ rendezvous with Tangier has taken on elements of the folk tale. Like the 1001 Arabian Nights, there is an initial framing story, i.e. the exiled Burroughs fleeing his past arrives in Tangier to find an…
Tijuana Bibles
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting A friend of mine who is a purveyor of gourmet vinyl slipped me under the counter some primo examples of an even more moribund and obscure medium: the Tijuana Bible. For those who do not know, these holy relics of the Western world’s…
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…
Enter Mister Maurice
A Memoir of Maurice Girodias by William Levy “Numberless are the world’s wonders, but none more wonderful than man.” — Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus For over half-a-century whenever authors met talk would eventually come around to the maverick Maurice Girodias and his Olympia Press. Did you or didn’t you? Did you or didn’t you hit…
Memories of Burroughs
By Aram Saroyan I met William Burroughs in 1965 when I went down to Centre Street to get some work from him for the little magazine, Lines, that I was editing at the time in New York. He’d told me on the phone that when I reached his address I should yell his name and…
Lines Archive
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Lines Press Aram SaroyanAram Saroyan Aram SaroyanWorks Gertrude Stein Richard KomarGames John PerreaultCamouflage Lines Lines 1September 1964 Lines 2December 1964 Lines 3February 1965 William Burroughs and Tom Veitch“Naked Express“Lines 3 William Burroughs and Tom Veitch“Naked Express“Lines 3 Lines 4March 1965 Lines 5May 1965…
Untitled Mayfair Interview
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting We spent an evening this month in a quiet top-floor apartment in St. James’s, chewing the fat with some of the world’s top writers. William Burroughs, the soft-spoken author of that incredible novel “The Naked LuncH’ was there. Sitting bearded and beaded on…
Retaking the Universe
William S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization Edited by Davis Schneiderman and Philip Walsh RealityStudio is proud to present a digital edition of one of the seminal works of Burroughs criticism, Retaking the Universe: William S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization, edited by Davis Schneiderman and Philip Walsh. Though one essay has been…
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…
Towers Open Fire Screenplay
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting FilmAutumn 1963cover FilmAutumn 1963Towers Open Fire Screenplay FilmAutumn 1963Towers Open Fire Screenplay Scanned by Jed Birmingham and published by RealityStudio on 17 October 2013.
“Blaming the Victim”: The Posthumous Editing of Burroughs and Bukowski and the Swan Song of the Black Sparrow Collectible
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I. Editing Bukowski and Burroughs Side-by-side comparison of Bukowski manuscript and published poem by Michael Philips. For complete comparison see “The Senseless, Tragic Rape of Charles Bukowski’s Ghost by John Martin’s Black Sparrow Press. I heard whispers that something was rotten in the…
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…
Nothing Here Now But The Recordings
William S. Burroughs & the Wreckers of Civilization by Matthew Levi Stevens Genesis P Orridge and William S. Burroughs, circa 1981 (xerox from NME) Sometime in 1973 William S. Burroughs received in the mail to Duke Street an apparently irate letter, complaining: “Dear William S. Burroughs, I’m so tired of you and Allen Ginsberg exploiting…
My Legs Señor
A Poem by William S. Burroughs attic room and window my ice skates on the wall the Priest could see the bathroom pale yellow wood panels toilet young legs shiny black leg hairs “It is my legs señor.” lustre of stumps rinses his lavender horizen feeling the boy groan and what it meant face of…
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…
Reviews of Burroughs Art Exhibits
Scans of Reviews of William Burroughs Art Exhibits Burroughs at Shafrazi GalleryFlash ArtDecember 1987 Barbara MacAdamA Blast from the PastArt NewsMarch 1988 William Burroughs“It’s a matter of semantics”Art NewsOctober 1989 Burroughs at Galerie Specht (ad)Flash Art1989 Sophie SchwarzWalter Dahn & William S. Burroughs: A Successful Double FeatureFlash Art1989 Scans of reviews provided by BigCrux. Published…
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,…
Review of Malcolm Mc Neill’s Memoir of William S. Burroughs
by Jan Herman Malcolm Mc Neill, Observed While Falling and The Lost Art of Ah Pook Is Here Malcolm Mc Neill‘s spellbinding memoir Observed While Falling chronicles his seven-year collaboration with William S. Burroughs on an unfinished graphic novel that centered on the Mayan death god Ah Pook. It is so lucid, the insights so penetrating, that…
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…
Untitled Text on Guy Harloff
by William S. Burroughs William Burroughs, Untitled text on Guy Harloff, Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, December 1961. (Note: This same text was published in Bizarre magazine in 1963.) Painting is a silent language of juxtaposition, is a form of writing — In the painting of Harloff isolated words used as objects remind the observer: words are…
Untitled Cut-Up from Takis Catalogue
by William S. Burroughs William Burroughs, “Paris 1960” (Untitled Text from Takis Catalogue), Howard Wise Gallery, New York, 1967 Song cut along typographical magnetic lines from Anibasis St. John Perse Illuminations Rimbaud “say only this should have been obvious from her fourth grade junk class”: song for her your heart the red night jargon muffles….
David Budd rencontre William Burroughs et Earle Brown chez Rodolphe Stadler
1964 Gallery Catalogue William S. Burroughs, Untitled Cut-Up in David Budd rencontre William Burroughs et Earle Brown chez Rodolphe Stadler exhibition catalogue. A SILENT SUNDAY TO THE POST OUR FLAT AT HALF MAST AGAINST TALL BLACK WINDOWS OF THE DORMITORY. / ‘I WILL SING FOR YOU AND I HAVE MAYBE UNDRESSED THERE AND I AM…
Untitled Text on Guy Harloff (Bizarre Magazine)
by William S. Burroughs William Burroughs, Untitled text on Guy Harloff, Bizarre 28, 1963. (Note: This text was first printed in the 1961 Guy Harloff exhibition catalogue.) Painting is a silent language of juxtaposition, is a form of writing. In the painting of Harloff isolated words occur used as objects remind the observer: words are…
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)….
Collecting William S. Burroughs and the Arts
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting There are a lot of “what ifs” in book collecting. What if I had bought this and not that? What if I had more money? Or more time? What if I collected this and not that? “What if I did not collect William…
William Burroughs in Lithuanian
by Lukas Devita To my knowledge, no article on William S. Burroughs was published in Lithuanian language prior to 1998. I happened to learn about William Burroughs around 1995 from the fabulous book on Jack Kerouac Memory Babe, a critical biography by Gerald Nicosia. Afterward I discovered a transcription of his interview with David Bowie…
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…
Mise en Scene: Downtown Theater Ephemera as Backdrop for William Burroughs’ St. Valentine’s Day Reading and other Lower East Side Adventures of the 1960s
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I have never understood the impulse of some Burroughsians to quarantine the life and work of their idol. Why this desire to make Burroughs unique, to focus on his solitary nature, to deny his influences and origins? Me, I want the virus to…
Rhinozeros — Subscribe Now
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Subscribe now. Written by Jed Birmingham and published by RealityStudio on 8 July 2012.
Gilbert Sorrentino on William S. Burroughs
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Issue 30 of Floating Bear (November 1964) contains a text by Gilbert Sorrentino which gives his impressions of the prose writers of the day. Here are a transcription of his comments on William Burroughs and a scan of his entire article. Sorrentino on…
William S. Burroughs and J.G. Ballard
An In-Depth Account Drawing on Interviews, Correspondence, and Unpublished Documents “I got a Christmas card from Burroughs,” J.G. Ballard told an interviewer in 1986.1 It should not have been much of a surprise: he had known William S. Burroughs for about twenty years; he had recently published an enthusiastic review of Burroughs’ essay collection, The…
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…
Bibliography of Carl Weissner Translations
by Matthias Penzel Burroughs in German (flyer from Kosmik Blues) 1969 Translation work started proper after Carl’s return to Germany. More or less in the function of Editor for Joseph Melzer Verlag in Darmstadt (between Frankfurt and Heidelberg / Mannheim further south), Carl edited and translated: Cut up. Der sezierte Bildschirm der Worte (Joseph Melzer…
William Burroughs City Lights Flyer
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting It feels good to be back on RealityStudio. Is this mike on? I can always tell I am feeling under the weather when I take out my copy of the Fuck You Press Despair and I feel no joy. If I become disinterested…
Burroughs 23 by Charles Gatewood
A Deluxe Artist’s Book by Charles Gatewood BURROUGHS 23 is a deluxe artist’s book By Charles Gatewood published in 2011, in San Francisco, California by Dana Dana Dana in a special small edition of 23 Each 11″x14″ hand crafted book features high-quality digitally printed reproductions of photographs of american author William S. Burroughs (b. 1914…
Minutes to Go and Mad Men
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I turn forty this year. It has always struck me as odd which birthdays are most meaningful to me. Sixteen, twenty-one, and thirty weren’t real milestones. Thirteen was my first pivotal birthday, a time for realizing who I was. That birthday party at…
In Cold Blood: William Burroughs’ Curse on Truman Capote
by Thom Robinson Andy Warhol, Polaroid photographs of Truman Capote and William Burroughs Largely absent from his home country in the immediate aftermath of Naked Lunch, William Burroughs evaded the mass publicity that America lavished on other writers during the 1960s. This was a time when post-war novelists were afforded considerable public attention, with the…
A Word Is a Word Is a Collage (1965)
A Profile of William S. Burroughs (1965) By Bill Butler Bill Butler was an American poet who served as one of the influential managers of London’s independent bookstore Better Books. In 1967 he moved to Brighton and founded Unicorn Books, which was subject the following year to a nasty obscenity trial involving its edition of…
Nothing Here Now But the Lost Recordings
The Lost Tapes of Carl Weissner, Claude Pélieu and Mary Beach, 1967-1969 by Edward S. Robinson For academics and fans alike, the archives of the pivotal beat triumvir of William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac have long been a source of fascination and a continued wealth of lost texts. Despite the excavation of a…
Introduction to The Fluke
Published and Draft Introductions to Jacques Stern’s The Fluke by William S. Burroughs Jacques Stern is a writer.. That is he is writing actual events and conditions.. He says he is far away and this is literally true.. He says he is in ice and this is literally true, far away.. He far now is…..
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…
Fuck You, A Magazine of the Arts, Number 5, Volume 8
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Quite a while back, a heartbroken bookseller offered me a copy of the Mad Motherfucker issue of Fuck You, a magazine of the Arts with the Couch cover for $35. Now realize the bookseller was distraught not crazy. When I received the mag…
Burroughs-Gysin Excursus
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…
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…
Archive of Charles Plymell’s The Last Times
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting The Last Times was an underground newspaper published in San Francisco in 1967 by poet and printer Charles Plymell. It contained works by William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bukowski, Robert Crumb, Carl Weissner, Claude Pélieu, Mary Beach, Antonin Artaud, and others. Issue…
Rhinozeros 5
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Rhinozeros #5 Front cover Rhinozeros #5 “Song” by David Meltzer Rhinozeros #5 “Song of the Tusk” by Anselm Hollo Rhinozeros #5 “Attention!” by Gregory Corso Rhinozeros #5 Poem by Michael McClure Rhinozeros #5 “An Africa Ode” by Edward Dorn Rhinozeros #5 “Spel 1”…
Arcade 1
Reports from the Bibliographic BunkerJed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Arcade #1 Front Arcade #1 Title Page Arcade #1 The Border City by William Burroughs Arcade #1 Text by Martin Leman Arcade #1 Text by Martin Leman Arcade #1 Illustration by Ron Sandford Arcade #1 Illustrations by Mike Foreman Arcade #1 Illustrations by Mike…
Kulchur 1
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Kulchur 1 Front Kulchur 1 Title Page Kulchur 1 Table of Contents Kulchur 1 William Burroughs“The Conspiracy” Kulchur 1 Kulchur 1 Erick Hawkins“Here and Now” Kulchur 1 Donald Phelps“The Muck School” Kulchur 1 Kulchur 1 Kulchur 1 Kulchur 1 Diane Di Prima“Whims” Charles…
William Burroughs in Anthologies
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Gene Feldman and Max Gartenberg (editors)Protest: The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men Citadel, 1958 William Burroughs contributes (as “William Lee”) “My First Days on Junk” (Maynard & Miles B1) Gene Feldman and Max Gartenberg (editors)Protest: The Beat Generation and the Angry…
The Great Mimeograph Revolution
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting A library is a living organism. I consider my book collection a beneficial and benevolent version of the Burroughsian virus. The books on my shelves are fluid, mutating, multiplying. After close to twenty years of intense collecting, it has become obvious as I…
Oliver Harris Interviewed on Queer
A Few Questions and Answers with the Editor of the New Edition of William S. Burroughs’ Queer Though the first published edition of Queer was assembled from a mix of manuscript sources, it was done with the collaboration and blessing of the author. In crafting this new edition, which is a sort of remix of…
Confusion’s Masterpiece
Re-Editing William S. Burroughs’ First Trilogy By Oliver Harris This is the written version of a talk given by Professor Harris at Columbia University on 16 September 2010. See also Oliver Harris Interviewed on Queer. In 1943, when Allen Ginsberg was a 17-year-old Columbia freshman and first met William Burroughs, he was impressed by Burroughs’…
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…
Review of Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg at the National Gallery
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I have lived and worked in the Washington DC area for over 15 years and have yet to take full advantage of all the opportunities DC’s museums offer. Hell, they’re free and air-conditioned; what more could you want on a stifling day in…
Cold Lost Marbles
A Poem by William S. Burroughs my ice skates on a wall lustre of stumps washes his lavander horizon he’s got a handsome face of a lousy kid rooming-houses dirty fingers whistled in the shadow “Wait for me at the detour.” river… snow… some one vague faded in a mirror filigree of trade winds clouds…
“Burroughs Is a Poet Too, Really”: The Poetics of Minutes to Go
by Oliver Harris Dismissed as Unreadable The long and intimate association of William Burroughs with poets is well known: Ginsberg, most obviously, as well as Corso, Creeley, Ferlinghetti, Leroi Jones, John Giorno, and so on. But to talk of Burroughs’ own material engagement with poetic form and poetics in relation to historical and contemporary practices…
Pistol Poem No. 3
by William S. Burroughs Power Is Often Very Quiet Power Is Often Quiet Very Power Is Very Quiet Often Power Is Very Often Quiet Power Is Quiet Often Very Power Is Quiet Very Often Power Often Very Quiet Is Power Often Very Is Quiet Power Often Quiet Is Very Power Often Quiet Very Is Power…
Pistol Poem No. 2
by William S. Burroughs Who Controls The Control Men Who Controls The Men Control Who Controls Control Men The Who Controls Control The Men Who Controls Men The Control Who Controls Men Control The Who The Control Men Controls Who The Control Controls Men Who The Men Controls Control Who The Men Control Controls Who…
Fear and the Monkey
A Poem by William S. Burroughs August 1978 This text arranged in my New York loft, which is the converted locker room of an old YMCA. Guests have reported the presence of a ghost boy. So this is a Oui-Ja board poem taken from Dumb Instrument, a book of poems by Denton Welch, and spells…
Where Flesh Circulates
A Poem by William S. Burroughs Its so hard to remember in the world – – Weren’t you there? Dead so you think of ports – – Couldn’t reach flesh – – Might have to reach flesh from anybody – – And i will depart under the Red Masters for strange dawn words of color exalting their falling on my face impending attack satellite in a Gold and perfumes of light city red stone shadows brick terminal time wet dream flesh creakily the the last feeble faces fountains play stale spit from crumpled cloth Weimar youths on my face bodies where flesh circulates Masters of color exalting their dogs impending attack of light unaware of the vagrant shadows on the Glass and Metal Streets silver flying scanning patterns electric dogs dark street life “Here he is now” staring out from the dawn he strode toward the flesh jissom webs drifting where identity scarred metal faces masturbating “Who him?” spitting blood laugh on the iron afternoons ejaculates wet dream flesh in red brick Terminal Time red nitrous fumes under the orange gas flares grey metal fall out on terminal cities to the shrinking sky fading color sewage delta caught in this dead whistle stop post card sky dead rainbow flesh and copper pagodas flickered on the in a city of red stone black skin work fish smell and dead eyes in doorways red water words spitting blood laugh sharp as water reeds fish syllables stirring this Moroccan sunlight vagrant noon station spent in the mirror dawn jissom webs drifting rainbow speeded up from afternoon’s slow ferris wheel flesh. Originally published in Floating Bear 24 in September-October 1962. Republished by RealityStudio in August 2010.
Spain & 42 St.
A Poem by William S. Burroughs Language like muttering pant smells running silver scanning Passed down the Arab Street in the gutter patterns Translucent medium from its like i talky you of a place the vacuum of silent panic …
Dead Whistle Stop Already End
A Poem by William S. Burroughs Ahab to his companion falling over there in any out from the dawn skin staring stirring unbelief he strode towards a long…
Cut-Up Poems from Minutes to Go
Cut-Up Poetry by William S. Burroughs CANCER MEN. . . THESE INDIVIDUALS ARE MARKED FOE. . . at land coccus germs by a bacilmouth Jersy phenicol bitoics the um vast and varied that specific target was the vast popul – – – – the vast cancers that surgery and Xrays C In the United States…
The Poetry of William S. Burroughs
An Ongoing Attempt to Collect the Poetry of William S. Burroughs William S. Burroughs is generally considered a novelist. To make the case that he was also a poet is neither revisionist nor perverse but absurd. After all, Burroughs paid about as much obeisance to genre or medium as he did to the law. His…
The Lager Letters (A Satirical Review of The Yage Letters)
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting In Burroughs’ first appearance in Chicago Review in 1958, he is presented as a San Francisco poet. As Linda Richman would say, Burroughs was neither in San Francisco nor a poet, discuss. Well, to say the least, many poets in San Francisco were…
Correspondence
Letter from William Burroughs to Carl Weissner 30 April 1965 Correspondence with Charles Bukowski Letter from Charles Bukowski to Carl Weissner 16 October 1976 This letter appeared at auction on ebay in August 2009. Letter from Charles Bukowski to Carl Weissner 15 Jan 1979 This letter appeared at auction on ebay. Letter from Charles Bukowski…
Weissneriana
“Demolition Plan 23” Text by Carl Weissner, International Times 60 (July 18-31, 1969) Fruit Cup: No. Zero Includes cut-up by Carl Weissner, “Historia de Chiquita D.,” published by Beach Books, New York, 1969 Download Complete Fruit Cup Fruit Cup: No. Zero Includes cut-up by Carl Weissner, “Historia de Chiquita D.,” published by Beach Books, New…
UFO
UFO was a little mag put out by Udo Breger and Expanded Media Editions. Edited by Breger, Carl Weissner, Jürgen Ploog, and Jörg Fauser, it published their work alongside other writers such as William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Claude Pélieu, Mary Beach, Timothy Leary, et al. UFO 1 June 1971 UFO 2 October 1971 UFO 3…
Gasolin 23
In 1971 Carl Weissner, working with Jürgen Ploog and Jörg Fauser, produced the first issue of a new zine called Gasolin. It contained a loose collection of manuscripts, letters, and cut-ups. Subsequent issues would appear intermittently until 1986. As with Klacto, Gasolin 23 was notable for its experimentalism and its quality roster of contributors, which…
Klactoveedsedsteen
Klactoveedsedsteen — the title came from a 1947 Charlie Parker album — was a little mag begun by Weissner in 1965 and distributed through his own PANic Press. Five issues, each in a different format, appeared in two years. The zine was notable for its experimentalism and the quality of its contributors, which included William…
Carl Weissner in Books and Pamphlets
Braille Film Published by Nova Broadcast Press, San Francisco, 1970, with a “counterscript” by William S. Burroughs. BUKOWSKI: I read it from all angles. More action than a cowboy movie. All these people driven by something they don’t understand. Obeying orders from hell. PELIEU: Prose infra-rouge, électronique…Livre magnifique, à la porte du Night Club de…
William Burroughs, Willie Morris, and Harper’s Magazine
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting The new in New Journalism refers not only to the freshness of its techniques but also to the age of its practitioners. One of the youngest of the Young Turks was Willie Morris. In July 1967, at thirty-two, Morris became the youngest editor-in-chief…
45th Anniversary of the International Poetry Incarnation at Royal Albert Hall
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting The 1960s began in Britain exactly forty-five years ago on 11 June 1965. The International Poetry Incarnation at Royal Albert Hall featured Alexander Trocchi, Harry Fainlight, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Anselm Hollo, Simon Vinkenoog and host of others. The disembodied voice…
Tangier Cut-Up (from Esquire)
by William S. Burroughs The September 1964 issue of Esquire features a photo-essay titled “Tangier.” Alongside pictures by photographer Robert Freson, William Burroughs provided captions and the following text. See also Jed Birmingham’s essay, “William S. Burroughs, Esquire, and New Journalism.” In these foreign suburbs here, a map of Tangier on a flaking plaster wall….
The Death of Bill Cannastra
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Each day of the work week I spend roughly four hours commuting. By and large, I sit in the same seat, on the same car, at the same time, with the same people. Monday through Friday. Month after month. For three years now….
Flesh Film
A Cut-Up Novella by Jürgen PloogWith an Introduction by Edward S Robinson Introduction I first encountered the name Jürgen Ploog when I obtained a copy of Claus Maeck’s film, Commissioner of Sewers. The film features an interview with Burroughs, conducted by Ploog, and as a fan and student of William Burroughs of many years, I…
A Visit to William S. Burroughs at the Beat Hotel in Summer, 1958
Extracts from a Journal, 1958 by Gael Turnbull Vacationing in Paris in the summer of 1958, the Scottish poet Gael Turnbull kept a journal documenting his visits to William Burroughs and Gregory Corso at the Beat Hotel. Excerpts from the journal were published in 1962 in Mica #5, a poetry magazine featuring Charles Bukowski, Ian…
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…
An Encounter with William Burroughs at Alexander Trocchi’s Bookshop
by Robin Marchesi I met William Burroughs on two occasions. The first time was in the 70s in Chelsea London. In those days the Kings Road Chelsea was at the forefront of the new “Antique Markets” springing up in London. It was a fashionable novelty to have a “stall” displaying your particular speciality. The most…
Black Mountain Review
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting First impressions. Some people take their cue from a handshake, the eyes, a bank statement, or the shine of one’s shoes. I make a beeline for the bookshelves. Forget reading palms. One’s library is a window into one’s soul. Go through my books…
Jan Herman and the Fold
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting At the DC Book Fair I was pleasantly surprised to see a small collection of books about the Beats huddled together at a book dealer’s stall. Interesting Beat books are few and far between in the nation’s capital. So what if they were…
Jan Herman as Writer
In Answer to Questions from Jean-Jacques Lebel Jan HermanIn Answer to Questions from Jean-Jacques LebelThe San Francisco Earthquake 31968 Jan HermanIn Answer to Questions from Jean-Jacques LebelThe San Francisco Earthquake 31968 Jan HermanIn Answer to Questions from Jean-Jacques LebelThe San Francisco Earthquake 31968 Jan HermanIn Answer to Questions from Jean-Jacques LebelThe San Francisco Earthquake 31968…
Jan Herman as Publisher of Nova Broadcast Press
Nova Broadcasts Ray BremserDrive Suite Nova Broadcast 11969 Download Complete Broadcast Wolf VostellMiss Vietnam Nova Broadcast 21969 Download Complete Broadcast Dick HigginsA Book about Love & War & Death Nova Broadcast 31969 Download Complete Broadcast Liam O’GallagherPlanet Noise Nova Broadcast 41969 Download Complete Broadcast William BurroughsThe Dead Star Nova Broadcast 51969 Download Complete Broadcast Norman…
Jan Herman as Journalist
Jan HermanGinsberg’s Poetics: From Illusion to EnlightenmentInterview with Allen Ginsberg in Boulder, ColoradoLos Angeles Times24 Feb 1980 Jan HermanBurroughs at 70, His Surrealistic Vision Still CookingReview of Place of Dead Roads Chicago Sun-Times25 Feb 1984 Jan HermanLiterary Saint and SinnerPhone Interview with William S. Burroughs Chicago Sun-Times25 March 1984 Jan Herman“Buried” Novel Comes to LightReview…
Who Was Sinclair Beiles?
by Gary Cummiskey The following is an excerpt from Gary Cummiskey and Eva Kowalska, Who Was Sinclair Beiles?, published in 2009 by Dye Hard Press. The book contains interviews and essays that create a portrait of Sinclair Beiles, the South African poet who worked for Olympia Press, helped to edit Naked Lunch, and collaborated with…
Collaborating on the Computer with William S. Burroughs
A Follow-Up to “Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, and the Computer” by Roger Holden I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jed Birmingham for his courteous offer to submit this correction to his essay “Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, and the Computer.” The premise of his essay was that, to his knowledge, Burroughs seems to…
The Blade Runner and The Shootist
by Michael Stevens Two Deleted Entries from The Road To Interzone and the Origin of an Investigation into the Influence, Use, and Appropriation of Other Authors’ Works in the writing of William S. Burroughs I I was in Oklahoma for what was the hot, dry and dusty summer of 1990. It was the summer I read Dostoevsky,…
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 —…
Letters from William S. Burroughs to Antony Balch
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting William Burroughs met filmmaker Antony Balch in 1962 at the Beat Hotel. Balch made the very Grade-B movies that Burroughs felt create a space between, which provided a modicum of Lebensraum in a Puritan society. Today, Balch is best known for his film…
Valentine’s Day Reading
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting The Date: February 14, 1965 The first thing I think about when I consider William Burroughs’ St. Valentine’s Day Reading is the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929. On that date, five members of the Bugs Moran Gang and two others were shot…
Return to Peyton Place
From Package magazine, Spring 1969 Tim Head interviewed by Joe Gilbert, 2 a.m. December 5th 1968 Introduced by Ian MacFadyen The 1969 issue of Package magazine consisted of several A3 stiff paper sheets folded and encased in a white paper bag featuring an ink drawing of a sailor from Battleship Potemkin by Brian O’Toole. It…
William Burroughs and David Solomon
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I have a theory that if you dig deep enough, take the time to ask the right questions, and do diligent research, everybody is interesting. It is my spin on Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes. I guess I see the silver lining in the…
The Mouth Inside: The Voices of Naked Lunch
By Ian MacFadyen Paintings by Phil Wood Merging The live reading of Naked Lunch at St Mark’s Poetry Project in New York this October (2009) focused attention on the book as profoundly oral both in its origins and effects. Readers have long been inspired to spontaneously read the text aloud, and Naked Lunch contains a…
William Burroughs and the William Tell Legend
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Last week I had an email conversation with my friend Charles Talkoff about my Burroughs and Heroin piece. As a result of our discussion, he felt compelled to look more deeply into the shooting of Joan Vollmer. Charles posed me a Zen koan…
The Frisco Kid He Never Returns: Naked Lunch and San Francisco
Presentation by Oliver Harris during Naked Lunch @ 50 San Francisco Art Institute, 20 November 2009 Professor Harris did not give this talk in person but sent a PowerPoint and mp3 audio file. You can listen to the talk by downloading the mp3 (13.8 MB). I’d like to begin by thanking Peter Maravelis and Jonah…
The Soft Machines
By Dave Teeuwen William Burroughs had the unusual habit of rewriting and rereleasing his novels during the 1960s and 1970s. He is not the only author to have undertaken a revision of a previously published work. Henry James famously revised and added to his novels in the early years of the 20th century for the…
Interview with Graham Masterton on William S. Burroughs
By Dave Teeuwen Graham Masterton is the amazingly prolific author of over a hundred horror and thriller novels, as well as self-help / how-to guides about sex. He has been publishing steadily since the mid-1970s. Earlier in his career, however, he was the editor for Mayfair magazine and later the editor of Penthouse and Penthouse…
William Burroughs and the History of Heroin
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I have had to learn the simplest things last. Which made for difficulties. — Charles Olson I stood estranged from that which was Most familiar — Charles Olson Olson’s Maximus, To Himself could very well be my favorite poem. I find myself returning…
From Dr Mabuse to Doc Benway: The Myths and Manuscripts of Naked Lunch
Keynote Address given by Oliver Harris during Naked Lunch @ 50 Columbia University, 9 October 2009 Ladies and gentlemen, boys, girls, and fence-straddlers…. I’d like to start with a series of thanks: to Gerald Cloud, Librarian for Reference and Research, for organising today’s talks here at Columbia, and for curating, together with colleagues at the…
William Burroughs and Norman Mailer
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius. — Norman Mailer (1962) Norman Mailer’s assessment lingers around Burroughs like a stale fart. You just cannot get away from it. From the back cover of the Grove…
William S. Burroughs’ “Abstracts”
The “Abstracts” As an Attempt to Write the Immediate Image By Dave Teeuwen The “Abstracts” of 1969 are a series of seven writing experiments which William Burroughs developed in the writing of his novel The Wild Boys. He published these “Abstracts” that year in small-press journals and underground newspapers, his usual testing ground in the…
Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, and the Computer
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting 16-bit Intel 8088 chip with an Apple Macintosh you can’t run Radio Shack programs in its disc drive. nor can a Commodore 64 drive read a file you have created on an IBM Personal Computer. both Kaypro and Osborne computers use the CP/M…
Review of Ed Buhr’s The Japanese Sandman
The Japanese Sandman (directed by Ed Buhr, 2008, Frameline Distribution) Reviewed by Graham Rae “Tears are worthless unless genuine, tears from the soul and the guts, tears that ache and wrench and hurt and tear.” — William S Burroughs, Last Words Let’s face it, the familiar picture of William S Burroughs now pretty much fixed…
Bulletin from Nothing (Issue 2)
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Bulletin from Nothing 2Front cover Bulletin from Nothing 2Front Endpaper Bulletin from Nothing 2Front Endpaper Bulletin from Nothing 2William Burroughs Bulletin from Nothing 2William Burroughs Bulletin from Nothing 2William Burroughs Bulletin from Nothing 2William Burroughs Bulletin from Nothing 2Roxie Powell and Claude Pélieu…
Bulletin from Nothing (Issue 1)
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Bulletin from Nothing 1Front cover Bulletin from Nothing 1Endpaper Bulletin from Nothing 1Claude Pelieu Bulletin from Nothing 1Claude Pelieu Bulletin from Nothing 1Claude Pelieu Bulletin from Nothing 1Mary Beach Bulletin from Nothing 1Claude Pelieu Bulletin from Nothing 1Claude Pelieu Bulletin from Nothing 1Jeff…
Bulletin from Nothing
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting None of us obsessed with William Burroughs are fascinated by the same writer. Like the agent / addict’s face in Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, our impressions of Burroughs are constantly in flux. When I first fell under Burroughs’ spell, I wanted…
Some Disparate Mentionables
by Roy Pennington This text was first published as an appendix to William S. Burroughs, Mayfair Academy Series More or Less, published by Roy Pennington’s Urgency Press in 1973. See also Roy Pennington on Mayfair Academy Series More or Less. Burroughs cites scientific experiments and philosophical argument with gay abandon thru out his work. It…
Roy Pennington on Mayfair Academy Series More or Less
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting One of the great things about the Naked Lunch celebration in Paris was wondering whom you might bump into on any given day. At the Beat Hotel ceremony, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Roy Pennington and his brother Jim. Roy and…
Death in Paris
A New Book-Length Text by Carl Weissner And an Archive Celebrating Weissner’s Publications in the Avant-Garde Introduction After going to see the Villa Seurat, where Henry Miller lived when he wrote Tropic of Cancer, we stopped at the Café Zeyer for drinks. The Zeyer, which he described as “a gaudy place with red plush and…
i.m. Simon Vinkenoog
Dutch Poet and Burroughs Associate, RIP 12 July 2009 by Ian MacFadyen Singer and writer Eric Andersen, artist Alison Harper and myself visited Simon and Edith Vinkenoog in Amsterdam in 2008. Simon and Edith were most gracious in their welcome and hospitality and showed us some wonderful books and artworks from their collection. It was…
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…
Evergreen Review, Issues 32-99
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Evergreen Review #32 Evergreen Review #33 Evergreen Review #34 Evergreen Review #35 Evergreen Review #36 Evergreen Review #37 Evergreen Review #38 Evergreen Review #39 Evergreen Review #40 Evergreen Review #41 Evergreen Review #42 Evergreen Review #43 Evergreen Review #44 Evergreen Review #45 Evergreen…
Evergreen Review, Issues 1-31
Reports from the Bibliographic BunkerJed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Evergreen Review #1 Evergreen Review #2 Evergreen Review #3 Evergreen Review #4 Evergreen Review #5 Evergreen Review #6 Evergreen Review #7 Evergreen Review #8 Evergreen Review #9 Evergreen Review #10 Evergreen Review #11 Evergreen Review #12 Evergreen Review #13 Evergreen Review #14 Evergreen Review…
Bibliography of Burroughs Texts in Evergreen Review
Reports from the Bibliographic BunkerJed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting C14. Evergreen Review, Vol. 4, No. 11 (January / February 1960). {M&M C12 & C14} Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness. A Newspeak Précis of the Article Made in Its Image with Its Materials C21. Evergreen Review, Vol. 5, No. 16 (January / February 1961)….
Evergreen Review Archive
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I have to be honest it is tough for me to get excited about the Evergreen Review. Sure, Evergreen Review 2, the San Francisco Scene issue, is one of the most important little mags of the post-WWII era, but does it really pack…
We Saw the Light
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting A while back I reviewed Daniel Kane’s Don’t Ever Get Famous, a book of essays he edited on the New York School of poets. Kane’s decision to stray from the beaten path was one of the selling points of that book. No heavy…
Abstract (Lip 1969)
A Text by William S. Burroughs With an Introduction by Dave Teeuwen In 1969 William Burroughs published seven short pieces titled “Abstract” and sent them out to various small-press literary magazines and underground newspapers. Throughout the 1960s Burroughs was extremely active with the alternative press. Bibliographies of his work show that he was published hundreds…
Philip Whalen and the Beats
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting In July 1976, Gordon Ball took a photograph of William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Philip Whalen sitting in a sauna or sweat lodge. It has become an iconic image for me. Even more so after having just read Whalen’s Collected Poems edited by…
Interview with Alex Neish, Editor of Jabberwock and Sidewalk
Jabberwock Talk: The Scottish Drug (Literature) Connection by Graham Rae Well, the internet certainly can lead you to some interesting and unexpected places. After seeing him mentioned on RealityStudio and on Nakedlunch.org, I recently became intrigued by Alex Neish, a Scotsman who put out an issue of the Edinburgh University Review entitled Jabberwock in 1959…
Interview with Tom Veitch on William S. Burroughs
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Let’s start with Literary Days. Can you describe that book? Literary Days is a 25-page 8.5×11 pamphlet edited by Ted Berrigan from two longer works — a novel called WHATS that I wrote in 1963 and a novel called Malgmo’s End that Ted…
Intersections Shifts and Scanning from Literary Days by Tom Veitch
by William S. Burroughs Let me tell you about a score of years on the window one Summer The Speaking Clock his past history..I remember as I write it September 17, 1899..Remember pale reflection trembling in the park..fragrant blossoms drifted from time gone by to kiss us on the cheek..clothes in a heap..the Milk Bar..the…
Hikuta!
Tom Peschio on Burroughs and His Guns “Hikuta!” There were three bullet holes inside William Burroughs’ house that I know of. And possibly a few I don’t know about. In all fairness to William, two of them were accidental discharges by other people. One came about when after cocktails William’s friend Udo [Breger] accidentally shot…
The Letters of Allen Ginsberg
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting When I was briefly in graduate school in 1995, I was fascinated by the fate of the letter in the digital age. While studying abroad at King’s College in 1992, I wrote letters weekly and eagerly checked my mailbox daily. Just three years…
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…
William Burroughs and Andy Warhol
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I just finished reading a catalogue raisonné of Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests. For those who do not know, Warhol shot a series of portrait films from 1964 to 1966, one of the most long-term and ambitious projects in his career as a filmmaker….
Review of Dope Menace by Stephen J. Gertz
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting For those of you interested in exploring the history of men’s magazines further, let me recommend (if I have not already), Dian Hanson’s six volume set The History of Men’s Magazines published by Taschen. On the related topic of Men’s Adventure Magazines, check…
William Burroughs in Mademoiselle
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting On the flipside of the men’s magazine is the fashion magazine. The porno industry represents the seedy underbelly of the seemingly glamorous fashion industry. Both worlds expressed an interest in the Beats in the 1950s and 1960s. In her landmark memoir, Minor Characters,…
William Burroughs in January 1960 Mademoiselle
W.S. Burroughs is an American in Paris whom the Saturday Review describes as “a writer of great power and artistic integrity.” Cable: “What do you want in the next decade for world, not self” Reply: Chere Mademoiselle: I am placed by you in the otherworldly, selfless and detached position of a losing better [sic] before…
William Burroughs’ Word in Swank
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Q: What is with all the men’s magazines? A: Oh, I read them for the articles. Really? In part. Take exhibit A: the July 1961 issue of Swank. For anybody interested in the textual history of Naked Lunch, this issue proves to be…
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,…
Rhinozeros Archive
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Several months ago I received an email from an editor at Black Dog Publishing which operates out of London. Black Dog prints books on a variety of topics such as photography, architecture, film and design. They did a book on Independent record shops…
The Holy Shit of Burroughs and Kerouac
Plenary Address given by Oliver Harris to the Conference “Kerouac’s On the Road: The Beats and the Post-Beats” Birmingham University, 13th December 2008 I took it for granted that I was invited here to cause trouble … not that I have a reputation for being difficult or dangerous, but William Burroughs certainly does, and in a…
Dead Fingers Talk and Burroughs Proofs
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting A couple weeks ago the Wizard behind the curtain at RealityStudio sent me an email alerting me to a proof copy of Dead Fingers Talk offered by Ken Lopez. As Lopez’s catalog description makes clear, this is a highly desirable book. Try finding…
The Cosmic Satirist
by Michael Moorcock A Review, Written under the Pseudonym “James Colvin,” of The Naked Lunch Mary McCarthy has said of Burroughs and The Naked Lunch “This must be the first space novel, the first serious piece of science fiction — the others are entertainment… In him, as in Swift, there is a kind of soured…
A New Literature for the Space Age
by Michael Moorcock An Editorial for the First Moorcock-Edited Issue of New Worlds (1964) In a recent BBC broadcast, William Burroughs, controversial American author of Dead Fingers Talk, said something like this: “If writers are to describe the advanced techniques of the Space Age, they must invent writing techniques equally as advanced in order properly…
Michael Moorcock on William S. Burroughs
“To Write For the Space Age” Interview with Michael Moorcock by Mark P. Williams Michael Moorcock (1939-) has always been a politically and culturally engaged writer who has been generous in his support of authors from several generations, from diverse backgrounds and with quite different interests including close associations with J.G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Iain…
Buyer Beware
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Desperate times call for desperate measures. Of course, the troubled times refer to the current economy. Its effects are rippling throughout the rare book trade. Booksellers are putting on a brave face, but sometimes the mask slips. Joe McCann in the latest issue…
Mother Burroughs
Selected References to Laura Lee Burroughs in the work of William S. Burroughs I guess I will have to change the name Dennison in my current book. You see my mother read your book, and, of course, spotted me. In short Dennison is become a little transparent. But it is hard to get away from…
Like Mother, Like Son
William Burroughs, Laura Lee Burroughs, and Coke By Graham Rae Writing talent can run in families. There are many documented cases of male scribes with writer mothers: Oscar Wilde’s, Lady Jane Francesca Wilde, put pen to paper. More recently pseudonymous horror author Joe Hill was revealed to actually be Joe King, whose mother Tabitha is…
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting For the obsessed, the pursuit of the subject of fascination inevitably ends in minutiae. If that subject is an author, it means that the entire bibliography has been analyzed and devoured. The secondary sources have been exhausted. The pursuit has bled over into…
Yay!: A Moving Times Supplement (An In-Depth Examination of My Own Mag)
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting In 1963, the Times Literary Supplement announced the arrival of Dead Fingers Talk with a cry of Ugh! Later that year, Burroughs received the first issue of My Own Mag and responded with a resounding, Yes! In Jeff Nuttall, Burroughs found a fellow…
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…
Apomorphine and Naked Lunch
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting I found this vaccine at the end of the junk line. I lived in one room in the Native Quarter of Tangier. I had not taken a bath in a year nor changed my clothes except to stick a needle every hour in…
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,…
Not in Maynard & Miles
The Early Published Burroughs by Eric C. Shoaf The Burroughs bibliography by Maynard & Miles (William S. Burroughs: A Bibliography, 1953-73 by Joe Maynard & Barry Miles, [Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1978], hereinafter referred to as M&M) is subtitled “Unlocking Inspector Lee’s Word Hoard.” And it does just that, gathering the fullness of Burroughs’…
FLiCKeR DVD Review
Review by Graham Rae FLicKeR, Written and Directed by Nik Sheehan (2008, 75 Minutes, Not Rated), Alive Mind Media “We must storm the citadels of enlightenment. The means are at hand.” — William S. Burroughs in a letter to Brion Gysin. Dreams. Let’s face it, nobody truly fully knows what they really are. We spend…
Speed, Apomorphine, Mimeo, and the Cut-Up
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting There are times in your reading life when you dabble in a book, dip into it periodically, put it down, and come back to it. Your experience with the book is leisurely, casual. You are chipping. The book does not have a strong…
The Naked Express: William Burroughs and Tom Veitch
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting It is amazing how a single sheet of paper can capture a special moment in history. My first issue of NOW provides a snapshot into the literary history of San Francisco in the summer of 1963. Similarly my offprint of Tom Veitch’s The…
The Burroughs Market in a Down Economy
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting A handwritten Burroughs letter turned up on eBay a few weeks ago. If I remember correctly the letter was from the mid-1990s and in it, Burroughs expresses his thanks for a $5000 loan. I traded a few emails with Burroughs fans who were…
Charles Plymell and Now
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting When I began collecting William Burroughs in 1993, the junk that fed my book habit was the signed titles derived from and relating to the Naked Lunch Word Horde. The Olympia Press Naked Lunch was the ideal fix, and I would have crawled…
John Ciardi: From Doodle Soup to Naked Lunch and Back Again
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Read a lot of William Burroughs and soon enough you’ll find evidence of him everywhere. A sense of paranoia develops where everything becomes touched with the Burroughsian. Couple this fascination with a case of bibliomania and it can seem that Burroughs lurks on…
1979 Interview with William S. Burroughs (Translation)
Michel Duval En Attendant, November 1979 This interview with William S. Burroughs, which has never been reproduced since appearing in the November 1979 issue of En Attendant, was conducted on the occasion of the Plan K gig on 16 October 1979. It appears here in conjunction with RealityStudio’s dossier on William S. Burroughs and Joy…
1979 Interview with William S. Burroughs
Michel Duval En Attendant, November 1979 This interview with William S. Burroughs, which has never been reproduced since appearing in the November 1979 issue of En Attendant, was conducted on the occasion of the Plan K gig on 16 October 1979. It appears here in conjunction with RealityStudio’s dossier on William S. Burroughs and Joy…
1979 Interview with Joy Division (Translation)
Pascal Stevens, Michel Duval, Bert Bertrand En Attendant, November 1979 This interview with Joy Division, which has never been reproduced since appearing in the November 1979 issue of En Attendant, was conducted on the occasion of the Plan K gig on 16 October 1979. It appears here in conjunction with RealityStudio’s dossier on William S….
1979 Interview with Joy Division
Pascal Stevens, Michel Duval, Bert Bertrand En Attendant, November 1979 This interview with Joy Division, which has never been reproduced since appearing in the November 1979 issue of En Attendant, was conducted on the occasion of the Plan K gig on 16 October 1979. It appears here in conjunction with RealityStudio’s dossier on William S….
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,”…
Brian Cassidy on Early Photos and Collages by Burroughs
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting To be blunt, the New York Antiquarian Book Fair is the shit. Prior to the fair, I went to the Morgan Library to see their Gutenberg Bible and soak in the atmosphere of J.P. Morgan’s study. The display at the New York show…
Jonathan Williams, William Burroughs, and England
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting One of my mantras in book collecting is focus, focus, focus. The problem with living by this credo is that it leaves so many great books out of your collection. There are two books that have obsessed me like the white whale haunted…
The Exterminator
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Published by Auerhahn Press in 1960, The Exterminator is one of the forgotten texts of Burroughs’ bibliography. Roughly 1000 copies were printed in the first edition, and I would gather that few of even the most dedicated Burroughs fans have ever read it….
David Britton and Michael Butterworth on William S. Burroughs
David Britton and Michael Butterworth are the founders of Savoy Books. To call Savoy a publishing house is rather like calling Charles Manson a criminal — it’s correct but it fails to account for so much more. A frequent contributor to New Worlds magazine, Butterworth established himself at a young age as an important figure…
Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac On the Road
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting On entering the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue, the first thing you see is Jack Kerouac’s name lit up in neon. Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, the headlining exhibit at the library, is clearly a big…
Burroughs’ Statements at the 1962 International Writers’ Conference
William S. Burroughs In 1962 William S. Burroughs appeared at the International Writers’ Conference in Edinburgh. He read statements at the panels on Censorship and on The Future of the Novel. RealityStudio has not yet been able to obtain a transcript of the conference (can anyone help?), but later that year the Transatlantic Review published…
1962 International Writers’ Conference
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting The Third Mind images from Paris are not the only goodies we have received from our readers. Chris Hughes, a reader from Scotland, forwarded me some scans from a program for the Edinburgh Festival of 1962. 2007 marked the 45th anniversary of the…
The Third Mind Exhibit
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting RealityStudio bills itself as a digital community, a gathering place for fans, friends, collectors, and scholars of William Burroughs. In recent weeks, we have received some emails that testify to the international nature of that community as well as to the potential of…
Everything Lost, the Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs: The Inside Story
By Volume Editor, Oliver Harris Background: The Crying of Lot 22 Where it had been since 1953 and how it got into the hands of a private collector remain a mystery, but it surfaced in October 1999 as Lot 22 of Sotheby’s “Allen Ginsberg and Friends” sale in New York. The small, black notebook with…
C Press Archive
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting For more information about C Press, see Jed Birmingham’s articles on Time, Ted Berrigan, and Don’t Ever Get Famous. Also see the C Press Index. Andy Warhol provided the cover for issue four of C: A Journal of the Arts. Edwin Denby and…
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…
Interview with Brown Paper’s Daniel Lauffer
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting The one-shot little magazine has always been an interest of mine. The average run of a mag is as short as the career of an NFL running back. Lack of time, lack of interest, lack of material but most of all lack of…
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,…
Henry Miller and William Burroughs: An Overview
Also see Ian MacFadyen’s insightful response to RealityStudio’s overview: Henry Miller and William Burroughs: A Letter. After finishing with the summer job his father had negotiated for him at the St. Louis Post Dispatch, William S. Burroughs returned to Harvard in September 1935. It was his senior year. An English major, Burroughs had studied with…
Simon Finch and a High-Priced Naked Lunch
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting A few weeks ago, I wrote about Brian Cassidy, a bookseller just beginning his journey in the book world, and about his offering of a high-end Burroughs letter. At the other end of the spectrum is British bookseller Simon Finch who stands at…
D.A. Levy and William S. Burroughs
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting A Secret Location on the Lower East Side is one of my bibles, but the failure to document the Cleveland mimeo scene in any detail seems a major hole. Granted Clay and Phillips’ book could not cover everything, and Cleveland was briefly mentioned…
Cutting up the Archive: William Burroughs and the Composite Text
by Oliver Harris This is an edited version of a paper delivered to the 4th Annual Symposium on Textual Studies at the Centre for Textual Scholarship, De Montfort University, Leicester, 25 May 2007. I’d like to start by saying how delighted I am to have been invited here today by Peter Shillingsburg and how honoured…
The Groff Auction of Bukowski and the Ronan Sale of Beat Literature
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting This piece may be old news as the Groff Auction of Bukowski and the Ronan Sale of Beat Literature took place roughly a month ago, but a look at the financial pages highlights that auctions and collectibles are very much a breaking story….
Brian Cassidy Bookseller and a Rare Burroughs Letter
You know it is a good day when you get your mail and there are no bills or letters from the IRS, but there is a rare book catalog to leaf through that night. Brian Cassidy, a rare bookseller based in Monterey, issued his first catalog this month. Monterey and the Big Sur area have…
Anthony Linick on Nomad
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting For background, be sure to read Jed Birmingham’s overview of Nomad. What was the literary landscape at the time Nomad 1 came out in the Winter of 1959? Poetry was emerging from a period in which formal and academic values dominated the literary…
Burroughs and Bookstores
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting As Bill Reed’s memoir makes clear, independent bookstores are key locales in a creative community. Part employment office, soup kitchen, flophouse, café, and publishing house, the bookstore functions as a communal center like the American Express office in Paris, the barber shop in…
New York Book Fair (2007)
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting The April / May issue of Rare Book Review features an article assessing the role of the internet in rare book dealing. Rare Book Review along with Fine Books and Collections is a fantastic resource for bibliophiles and a fun read. Five years…
Burroughs Readings
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting RealityStudio bills itself as a virtual community and for the past year, I have been chronicling Burroughs’ place in the international post-WWII avant-garde. In the forum, RealityStudio members have been discussing the current climate for the arts and speculating pm its direction in…
Eric Mottram and The Algebra of Need
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting In 1992, I attended King’s College in London for two terms as part of a study abroad program. I knew next to nothing about the school, and if I remember correctly, I chose it, because it was located on the Strand and seemed…
Islwyn Watkins Interviewed by David Moore
Recollections of Jeff Nuttall, Bob Cobbing, My Own Mag, Writers’ Forum, Group H & STigma in early 1960s London by David Moore DM: Please would you tell us a little about yourself and how you came to meet Jeff Nuttall? IW: I was born and educated in south Wales and, in September 1959, moved to…
Recollections of Jeff Nuttall and the Production of My Own Mag
by Michael Bartholomew I met Jeff Nuttall round about 1960, when I was 18 years old. I lived in north London and was a member of the Barnet branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Jeff was also a member. He was maybe 10 years older than I was. He had a wife and family,…
The My Own Mag Community
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Little magazines are expressions of and monuments to a thriving creative community. Looking through the pages of My Own Mag brings this fact home. The magazine expanded in size and scope from its first four-page issue into a newsletter for an international avant-garde….
Remembering Jack Kerouac
Louisville: White Fields Press 1994, a broadside with Burroughs’ reflections on his friend Kerouac, along with a photo taken by Allen Ginsberg. Issued in an edition of 26 lettered copies signed by Burroughs. _____ an edition of 49 numbered copies signed by Burroughs. _____ a trade edition of 500 numbered copies. There were also some…
From the Western Lands
Santa Fe: Casa Sin Nombre 1987, broadside print with a photo by Allen Ginsberg, measures 12 x 24 inches. Text is from The Western Lands. Printed in an edition of 750 copies as noted on obverse. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in…
Words of Advice for Young People
Encinitas CA: FreeThought Publications 2001, a small pamphlet printing this text which was previously only available in audio. Issued as FreeThought Flyer #16, there are two photos of Burroughs by Michael Montfort and a drawing by Drew Larson. An edition of 26 lettered copies signed by Montfort. Text on blue paper, bound in lavender wraps,…
The Heroin Drug Cure
County Clair, Ireland: High Five Press [n.d. 2004?], small undated pamphlet prints an excerpt from Naked Lunch, bound in wraps. None had ever appeared before this date, thus conjecture. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist and is published online…
Last Words
New York: Grove Press 2000, first printing, hardbound in dust jacket. Front cover with photograph of a funeral card distributed at Burroughs’ Lawrence, Kansas funeral service. Art on the back jacket, endpapers and frontispiece taken from Burroughs’ handwritten notebook journals. Dust jacket blurb reads: “Last Words is unlike anything else in the oeuvre of William…
A Spiritual Exercise
Naropa, CO: Kavyayantra Press 1998, Broadside measuring 12×8 inches reproduces text written on July 21, 1997, just two weeks before Burroughs’ death. Printed in an edition of 200 copies in December 1998. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist and…
Word Virus: The William Burroughs Reader
New York: Grove Press 1998, first printing, hardbound in dust jacket with spoken-word CD bound in the rear. Edited by James Grauerholz and Ira Silverberg, this collection skims the best of Burroughs’ works and includes unpublished pieces such as his collaborative novel with Kerouac entitled “And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks.” CD collects…
Concrete and Buckshot
Los Angeles: Smart Art Press 1996, exhibition catalog of Burroughs’ art with text by Burroughs, bound in illustrated wraps. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist and is published online courtesy of the author, who retains all rights. Published by…
Pantopon Rose
Charleston WV: Parchment Gallery Graphics 1995, holograph broadside with separate colophon page, issued in folding wrapper in printed envelope, limited to 60 copies signed and numbered by Burroughs. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist and is published online courtesy…
My Education
New York: Viking 1995, first printing, hardbound in dust jacket. Part journal, part dream diary, the book explores Burroughs’ provocative ideas on writing, painting, consciousness and creativity. There were at least five printings. _____ Uncorrected Galley Proof in glossy pictorial wraps. London: Picador 1995, first British printing, hardbound in dust jacket. Scary Charles Burn’s color…
Junky, Queer, Naked Lunch
New York: Quality Paperbook Book Club 1995, three novels in one volume available only to book club members, bound in pictorial wraps. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist and is published online courtesy of the author, who retains all…
Photos and Remembering Jack Kerouac
Louisville: White Fields Press 1994, stapled pictorial wraps, issued in an edition of 26 lettered copies signed by Burroughs. Photos of Burroughs by Allen Ginsberg, text about Kerouac by Burroughs. _____ an edition of 49 numbered copies signed by Burroughs. _____ 250 copies comprising the trade edition, neither signed nor numbered. This bibliography of A-List…
Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945-1959
New York: Viking 1993, first printing, hardbound in dust jacket. A selection from Burroughs’ early letter archive. Edited and with an Introduction written by Oliver Harris. _____ Uncorrected Galley Proof in yellow wraps. London: Picador 1993, first British edition, small first printing of only 1,000 copies, hardbound in dust jacket. _____ 1994, first British printing…
Painting and Guns
New York: Hanuman Books 1992, first printing in wraps with pictorial dust jacket. A miniature-size book and an unusually cute production for a Burroughs publication. Popular enough for a second print run. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist and…
Paper Cloud Thick Pages
Kyoto: Kyoto Shoin Int’l 1992, issued in pictorial boards without dust jacket, color illustrations of paintings and collage art by Burroughs with little text. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist and is published online courtesy of the author, who…
X-Ray Man
New York: Water Row/Lococo Mulder 1991, untitled three-color broadside (red, blue & purple on white background). Generally referred to as “X-Ray Man,” it is a figure that repeats in a number of Burroughs art pieces. 9.5 x 13 inches silkscreen print with small embossed lizard figure in lower right corner, edition limited to 178 numbered…
Ghost of Chance
New York: Whitney Museum of Art 1991, first issue of this work in conjunction with the Whitney museum, illustrated with three black and white etchings, one black and white drawing and 10 colored lithographs by George Condo tipped in. An edition of 160 copies signed by Burroughs and Condo. An adventure story set in the…
Seven Deadly Sins
New York: Lococo/Mulder 1991, a signed and numbered limited edition of 150 copies bound in full leather and signed by Burroughs. Cover features an original piece of wood “shotgun art” by Burroughs. Features reproductions of Burroughs’ paintings illustrating the “seven deadly sins,” with text by him. All copies of the book have the printed page…
The Valley
New York: George Mulder Fine Arts 1990, portfolio of etchings by Keith Haring with text by Burroughs, 31 sheets total including 16 signed etchings by Keith Haring, last sheet of text with image by Haring is signed by Burroughs, measures 14 x 12 1/2 inches on Twinrocker handmade paper, hardbound in a red cloth portfolio,…
Clause 27 Is Proposition 6 Is the Whole Tamale
[n.p.]: The Horse Press [n.d. 1989?], small pamphlet is 8 pages and consists of a one-page introduction by Burroughs, 6 pages of text concerning the anti-gay Proposition 6 which is reprinted here. Back of the last page printing a photo of Burroughs in the jungle. The cover features a silhouette of Burroughs in a top…
Interzone
New York: Viking 1989, first US printing, hardbound in dust jacket. Interzone was the working title for the novel finally published as Naked Lunch. Readers will recognize the “interzone” as the dream-like locus of so much of his fiction, an imagined world where the laws of time, space, and conventional human personality are suspended, where…
Tornado Alley
New York: Cherry Valley 1989, an edition of 100 copies signed by Burroughs. Hardbound and issued without a dust jacket. The copies were signed on the title page and were to have been numbered as well, but when book dealer Quill & Brush received their 10 copies for resale they found none were numbered. They…
Apocalypse
New York: G. Mulder 1988, Burroughs contributes texts to Keith Haring’s artwork. An edition of 250 copies comprising the “luxe issue” of 250 copies, hardbound with dust jacket. _____ an edition of 250 copies bound in wraps with dust jacket. Apocalypse Print New York: G. Mulder 1988, broadside printed to publicize the collaborative book, text…
The Western Lands
New York: Viking 1987, the trade edition hardbound in dust jacket with full wraparound cover art by Deborah Pinkney. The Western Lands is the final volume of a trilogy coming after Cities of the Red Night, and The Place of the Dead Roads. The title refers to the final state to which the souls of…
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…
The Adding Machine
London: John Calder 1985, first British printing preceding the American publication, hardbound in dust jacket. A collection of previously published essays. _____ simultaneous softbound issue, in pictorial wraps. New York: Seaver Books 1986, first US printing, hardbound in dust jacket. Adds the work “Bugger the Queen” which was, understandably, left out of the British edition….
Queer
New York: Viking 1985, first US printing, hardbound in dust jacket. An early autobiographical manuscript published some thirty years after being written. _____ Uncorrected Galley Proof in wraps including a dust jacket with a different design from the final issue. London: Picador 1985, first British printing, hardbound in dust jacket, rather scarce for a trade…
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Bonn: Expanded Media Editions 1984, bound in wraps. Contains a speech delivered by Burroughs in 1980 at the occasion of the Institute of Ecotechnics’ 1980 Planet Earth Conference in Aix-en-Provence. Speech transcript by Terry Wilson. Photographs by Udo Breger, Y. Fujii and C. Kohlhofer. Bilingual edition with text in English and German. The book’s contents…
New York Inside Out
Toronto: Skyline Press 1984, text by Burroughs and photos by Robert Walker, hardbound in dust jacket. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist and is published online courtesy of the author, who retains all rights. Published by RealityStudio in April…
Ruski
New York: Hand Job Press 1984, an edition of 500 numbered copies bound in wraps. An espionage story about a cat, with references to The Great Gatsby. New York: Odd-Job Press [n.d.], an apparent piracy of the Hand Job edition, this one differs in that it is bound using handmade paper wraps and printed on…
The Burroughs File
San Francisco: City Lights 1984, an edition of 300 copies hardbound in black cloth covered boards with gilt spine lettering and dust jacket. An anthology of writing and photographs. _____ simultaneous wraps issue. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist…
The Place of Dead Roads
New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston 1983, an edition of 300 copies signed by Burroughs, issued in slipcase without dust jacket. Burroughs enjoyed reading about the American West of frontier days, and he uses that setting as the basis and background, and in a sense the springboard, for this book. _____ the trade edition, full…
A William Burroughs Reader
London: Picador 1982, an original British anthology with an original introductory essay by John Calder and a number of photographs, published only in the UK and only in pictorial wraps. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist and is published…
Mummies
Dusseldorf & New York: Edition Kaldeway 1982, Illustrated with 5 etched plates signed by Carl Apfelschnitt, hand-made orange tissue guards, original black cloth, printed paper spine label, bound by Christian Zwang. An edition of 5 copies thus. _____ an edition of 65 copies unsigned. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from…
Sinki’s Sauna
New York: Pequod Press 1982, small pamphlet in gray wraps, limited to 500 numbered copies in gray wraps, scarce. A short story about a cat. New York, NY [n.d.], an apparent piracy of the Pequod edition, printed on bond and bound in beautiful handmade paper but really just a photocopy of the original work. Colophon…
Early Routines
Santa Barbara: Cadmus 1981, an edition of 26 lettered copies signed by Burroughs. A collection of routines (Burroughs’ term for skits or scenarios) from back in the 1940s and 50s, these show just how funny Burroughs could be when engaged in free-form extemporizing. _____ an edition of 125 copies signed by Burroughs, bound in cloth…
The Streets of Chance
New York: Red Ozier Press 1981, an edition of 160 copies, each signed by Burroughs and the illustrator Howard Buchwald. The text is an excerpt from the 1968 UK edition of The Soft Machine. Bound in cloth covered boards without dust jacket as issued. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from…
Cities of the Red Night
New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston 1981, an edition of 500 copies signed by Burroughs issued in a slipcase without dust jacket. There was also apparently a signed and lettered edition of this work, assumed to be 26 copies, which is not mentioned on the limitation page, but lettered copies have appeared for sale. Burroughs’…
Three Novels
New York: Grove Press/Black Cat 1980, first printing, includes Soft Machine, Nova Express, and The Wild Boys bound in pictorial wraps. New York: Evergreen 1988, a larger-size edition of the Black Cat printing, bound in wraps. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in…
Wouldn’t You Polish Pine Floors…
West Branch IA: Toothpaste Press 1979, a broadside published for Bookslinger in an edition of 26 lettered copies signed by Burroughs. Black print on red paper. _____ an edition of 125 copies signed and numbered by Burroughs. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs…
Blade Runner (a movie)
Berkeley: Blue Wind Press 1979, an edition of 100 signed and numbered copies hardbound in dust jacket. A treatment for a science fiction film, although not the one that eventually came out with that title. _____ Advance Review Copy ink-stamped with handwritten info concerning publication date, price, etc. Dated 6-21-79, bound in wraps. _____ the…
Doctor Benway
Santa Barbara: Bradford Morrow 1979, an edition of 26 lettered copies hardbound in dust jacket which were hors commerce, each signed Burroughs. This passage from Naked Lunch was issued on the 20th Anniversary of its original publication. _____ an edition of 150 copies numbered and signed by Burroughs, hardbound in dust jacket. _____ an edition…
Ah Pook is Here
London: John Calder 1979, first British publication of this title, hardbound in dust jacket. Also includes The Book of Breeething and Electronic Revolution which were published elsewhere previously. _____ simultaneous wraps issue. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric C. Shoaf’s Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist and…
Where Naked Troubadours Shoot Snotty Baboons
Northridge CA: Lord John Press 1978, limited edition broadside prints a piece from Cities of the Red Night and was designed and illustrated by James R. Silke. An edition of 26 lettered copies signed by Burroughs and Silke. _____ an edition 100 numbered copies each signed by Burroughs and Silke. This bibliography of A-List publications…
Letters to Allen Ginsberg
Geneva: Claude Givaudan/Am Here Books 1978, an edition of 100 numbered copies signed by Burroughs. Text in English only. Hardbound in a clear acetate dust jacket with facsimile signatures printed in blue. Published simultaneously with the bilingual edition listed below. _____ the trade edition limited to 400 numbered copies. Hardbound with clear acetate dust jacket…
Ali’s Smile / Naked Scientology
Bonn: Expanded Media Editions 1978, text in German and English, translations by Carl Weissner, first printing in wraps. First co-publication of these previously published works. Bonn: Expanded Media Editions 1985, second edition in pictorial wraps more gray than above. Bonn: Pociao’s Books/Expanded Media 2000, fifth edition in new wrapper design. This bibliography of A-List publications…
The Third Mind
New York: Viking 1978, first U.S. printing, hardbound in dust jacket. First published as Oeuvre Croisée in French (Paris: Flammarion 1976). A collaboration between Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Burroughs, known to have worked more productively in collaboration with others, wrote that the title stemmed from Think and Grow Rich, a twentieth-century guide to salesmanship by…
The Retreat Diaries
New York: City Moon 1976, a limited edition of 26 lettered copies signed by the author. The limited edition copies were issued in a special envelope die cut to reveal the color cover. There is some confusion about this publication since Morgan’s bibliography on Ginsberg (1994) notes that the limited edition copies were never distributed…
Cobble Stone Gardens
New York: Cherry Valley Editions 1976, an edition of 50 hardbound copies signed by Burroughs. The title is taken from the name of the gift shop run by Burroughs’ parents. Cover photograph of William Burroughs with his brother Mort and their father. Contains several pages of black and white photos from the author’s collection. _____…
Snack
London: Aloes Books 1975, pale green stapled wraps, two transcripts of taped conversations with Burroughs. Tape One from a radio broadcast by Eric Mottram. Tape Two a meeting between Eric Mottram and William Burroughs. These transcripts from BBC tapes (one in 1964, with work by Burroughs nowhere else preserved; the other from 1973). An often-overlooked…
The Naked Lunch Report
by Gary Indiana (Originally appeared in the Village Voice, December 31 1991) This behind-the-scenes report, which includes interviews with William S. Burroughs and David Cronenberg, on the making of the Naked Lunch film has never been reprinted until now. A few points from the report had stuck in RealityStudio’s mind all these years, and fortunately…
Sidetripping
New York: Derbibooks 1975, text by WSB, photos by Charles Gatewood, bound in pictorial wraps. The texts are from previously published works. San Francisco: Last Gasp 2001, contains a new introduction by Gatewood, and dedicated to the memory of WSB, bound in wraps. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs derives from Eric…
The Book of Breething
Ingatestone, Essex, UK: OU Henri Chopin 1974, one of 50 copies signed by Burroughs and hand-numbered in Roman numerals comprising the “deluxe presentation,” bound in wraps. _____ one of 350 copies in wraps. The colophon calls for these to have been numbered, though apparently none were. Berkeley: Blue Wind Press 1975, an edition of 250…
Port of Saints
London: Covent Garden Press 1973, hardbound in a dust jacket and housed in a white slipcase. Issued in a series of 100 copies numbered and signed by Burroughs. Later editions by Blue Wind Press vary slightly in text and also lack the illustrations of the Covent Gardens production. This was Burroughs’ last work written in…
Mayfair Acadamy Series More or Less
[M&M A25] London: Urgency Press Rip-Off 1973, a compilation of articles by Burroughs which appeared in Mayfair magazine, bound in wraps, one of 650 copies. Maynard & Miles A25. A piracy but a helpful compilation of articles for collectors who cannot find all the Mayfair copies. This bibliography of A-List publications by William S. Burroughs…
White Subway
[M&M A24] London: Aloes Books 1973, 25 signed and numbered copies. Another collection of previously published articles, mostly from magazines. Maynard & Miles A24a. _____ 975 copies in the trade edition. _____ second printing of 500 copies with slight changes to the wrapper design. _____ variant issue of second printing omits title and author on…
Exterminator!
[M&M A23] New York: Viking 1973, hardbound in dust jacket, one of 7,500 copies. From the collation it is noted “Portions of this volume have been previously published, in somewhat different form, in the following places: Antaeus, Atlantic Monthly, Cavalier, Daily Telegraph (London), Esquire, Evergreen Review, Mayfair, Rolling Stone, Village Voice.” M&M note that a…
Brion Gysin Let the Mice In
[M&M A22] West Glover, VT: Something Else Press 1973. A curious collaboration in which the authorship is attributed to Gysin with “texts by William Burroughs & Ian Sommerville, edited by Jan Herman” according to jacket copy. One of 500 copies hardbound in dust jacket. Technically this should probably be a B item because of Burroughs’…
John Calder and William S. Burroughs
Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting Much has been made of the imperiled state of the print publishing industry. Just this weekend I read a review of a large format art book entitled The Last Magazine. Everywhere you look there is an article on the future of the ebook…