William S. Burroughs

"These funny, filthy, and terrifically smart letters reveal him in a way that no biographer can." -- New York Newsday Guru of the Beat generation, minence grise of the international avant-garde, dark prophet, and blackest of satirists, William S. Burroughs has had a range of influence rivaled by few living writers. This volume of his correspondence from 1945 to 1959 vividly documents the personal and cultural history through which Burroughs developed, revealing clues to illuminate his life and keys to open up his texts. More than that, it shows how letter-writing was itself integral to his life and to his fiction. Beginning as surprisingly formal notes from the road to his friends Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the letters deepen in substance and style. Then, in Tangier, comes a dramatic shift in voice and vision and the explosive, distinctive letters that will become Naked Lunch. Letters were lifelines for Burroughs, the outcast; and works-in-progress for Burroughs, the writer; and, they track his turbulent journey across two decades and three continents. To read them as they were written is to experience a unique merging of life and letters, the extraordinary story of Williams S. Burroughs homme de lettres. "Unrelenting impact." -- Los Angeles Reader

The hypocrisy of contemporary society is the focal point of this novel about various forms of extermination

"This is Burroughs's most accessible, tightly knit work of fiction. . . . Laid out as a stripped-down movie script it's almost as if this is the form that Burroughs has always needed."--Kirkus Reviews Before he was gunned down in the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey, in October 1935, Arthur Flegenheimer, alias Dutch Schultz, was generally considered New York's number one racketeer. Taken to a hospital following the gangland shooting, Schultz survived for two days. His room was guarded around the clock, and a police stenographer was stationed at his bedside in the hope of learning who is assailant or assailants were. Instead, what was recorded were Dutch's fevered fantasies, stemming from his childhood and youth, as well as his recent past. Taking these "last words" as a starting point, Burroughs has created in this work a fantasia on Dutch Schultz, a narrative that takes the form of a film script and explores themes including crime, addiction, and power.

Långt innan Trainspotting och Requiem for a Dream sprängde William S. Burroughs gränserna för hur man kunde skriva om droger. Junky är Burroughs till stor del självbiografiska roman från 1953 om hans eget heroinmissbruk, en osminkad skildring av en alltmer destruktiv livssituation. I ett naket och öppet porträtt av småtjuveri, lögner och misär - från New York via New Orleans till Mexico City - får vi en unik inblick i de fysiska och psykiska påfrestningar som missbruket innebär. Med sin kliniska, nästan dokumentära stil, undersöker Burroughs de destruktiva krafterna bakom beroendet, samtidigt som han reflekterar över samhällets normer och de gråzoner där moral och lag kolliderar. I översättning av Einar Heckscher. WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS [1914-1997] föddes i St. Louis. Efter studier vid Harvard och diverse kortvariga anställningar, som skadedjursutrotare och privatdetektiv, råkade han i klammer med rättvisan och tvingades i exil. Under femtio-, sextio- och sjuttiotalen bodde han bland annat i Mexiko City, Tanger, Paris och London. I Mexiko började han skriva romaner. Junky blev hans debut [1953], medan Queer [skriven under samma tid] kom ut först 1985. Vid tiden för publiceringen hade Burroughs hunnit bli en av den amerikanska efterkrigstidens viktigaste författare, vars unika språkradikalitet haft betydelse långt utanför litteraturens gränser.» Den enda nu levande amerikanska romanförfattaren som möjligen kan sägas vara ett geni.« Norman Mailer

Denne bog er dedikeret til de ældgamle guder, til afskyelighedernes herre, Humwawa, hvis ansigt er en klump indvolde, hvis ånde er stanken af lort og dødens parfume, forrådnelsens herre, den mørke engel over alt, der udskides og forsures, fremtidens herre som rider på en hviskende søndenvind, til Pazuzu, pestens og feberens herre, de fire vindes mørke engel med rådnende genitalier, fra hvilke han hyler gennem skarpslebne tænder over smittede byer, til Kutulu, den sovende slange som ikke kan påkaldes, til Akhkharuerne som suger menneskets blod i ønsket om at blive mennesker, til Lalussu som hjemsøger menneskets steder, til Gelal og Lilit som invaderer menneskets senge, og hvis børn fødes på hemmelige steder, til Addu, stormbringeren som kan oplyse nattehimlen, til Malah, herre over mod og tapperhed, til Zahgurim, hvis tal er 23 og som dræber på en unaturlig måde, til Zahrim, en kriger blandt krigere, til Itzamna, morgendisen og regnskyllenes ånd, til Ix Chel, spindelvævet-der-fanger-morgenduggen, til jomfruilden Zuhuy Kak, til Ah Dziz, kuldens mester, til Kak U Pacat, som arbejder i ild, til Ix Tab, gudinden af reb og snarer, beskytter af de som hænger sig selv, til Schmuun, den stille, tvillingebror til Ix Tab, til Xolotl, den uformede, genfødslens herre, til Aguchi, ejakulationernes mester, til Osiris og Amen i fallisk form, til Hex Chun Chan, den farlige, til Apook, ødelæggeren, til Den Store Gamle og Stjernebæstet, til Pan, panikkens gud, til opløsningens og tomhedens navnløse guder, til Hassan I Sabbah, snigmordernes mester. Til alle de forfattere og kunstnere og udøvere af magi gennem hvilke disse ånder har manifesteret sig… INTET ER SANDT. ALT ER TILLADT.

A haunting tale of possession and exorcism, now reissued on the seventieth anniversary of the year of its writing, the definitive text of William S. Burroughs's early, long-unpublished novel, now a cult classic and a highly regarded part of his oeuvre Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, Queer is an enigma. Both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel, it is both Burroughs's only realist love story and a montage of comic-grotesque fantasies that paved the way for his masterpiece, Naked Lunch. Set in Mexico City during the early fifties, Queer follows William Lee, the protagonist of Burroughs's debut novel Junky, a man afflicted with acute heroin withdrawal and romantic yearnings for Eugene Allerton. As Lee breaks down over the course of his hopeless pursuit of desire from bar to bar in the American expatriate scene, the trademark Burroughsian voice emerges, a maniacal mix of self-lacerating humor and the ugly American at his ugliest. Now reissued on the seventieth anniversary of the year of its writing, this edition of Queer features a contextualizing introduction by the eminent Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris.

ltimas palabras es sin dudas el libro m s ntimo de William S. Burroughs, uno de los malditos tutelares de la literatura contempor nea. Se trata del diario que el autor llev durante los ltimos nueve meses de su vida, y abarca todos los mbitos de su inter s: la cr tica cultural, la literatura, las drogas, la ecolog a, sus diatribas pol ticas, sus amigos ignotos y famosos, los miedos y miserias de la vejez, los vaivenes de la creaci n literaria y su irrefrenable pasi n por los gatos. Trata tambi n sobre la muerte -en su caso inminente-, y en esa vena reflexiona sobre el fallecimiento de dos de sus grandes amigos -Allen Ginsberg y Timothy Leary- para hacer luego un recuento de su existencia y de sus propios arrepentimientos. En suma, esta suerte de testamento constituye un retrato conmovedor y crepuscular del mayor autor de la Beat Generation, pol mico como nadie, provocador como pocos, que ni la sombra del final fue capaz de amedrentar.

First published in 1963 and representing Burroughs’s literary breakthrough in the UK, Dead Fingers Talk is, in the words of Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris, “a prophetic work of haunting power”, and is perhaps the most commercial and accessible of his works. Combining new material with selections from Naked Lunch and his cut-up novels The Soft Machine and The Ticket That Exploded, the book is also a fascinating precursor to remix and mash-up forms in art and music, which owe much to Burroughs’s influence. This newly edited edition of Dead Fingers Talk, based on the restored text of the novel, will delight all Burroughs fans and lovers of experimental literature, and offer a new insight into the artistic process of one of the most original and influential writers of the twentieth century.

Two seminal figures of the Beat movement, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, discuss literary influences and personal history in a never-before-published three-day conversation following the release of the David Cronenberg film of Burroughs’ classic novel Naked Lunch. The visit coincided with the shamanic exorcism of the demon that Burroughs believed had caused him to fatally shoot his common law wife, Joan Vollmer Burroughs, in 1951—the event that Burroughs believed had driven his work as a writer. The conversation is interspersed with photographs by Ginsberg revealing Burroughs’s daily activities from his painting studio to the shooting range. DON'T HIDE THE MADNESS presents an important, hitherto unpublished primary document of the Beat Generation.

Before the era of fake news and anti-fascists, William S. Burroughs wrote about preparing for revolution and confronting institutionalized power. In this work, Burroughs' parody becomes a set of rationales and instructions for destabilizing the state and overthrowing an oppressive and corrupt government. As with much of Burroughs' work, it is hard to say if it is serious or purely satire. The work is funny, horrifying, and eerily prescient, especially concerning the use of language and social media to undermine institutions. The Revised Boy Scout Manual was a work Burroughs revisited many times, but which has never before been published in its complete form. Based primarily on recordings of a performance of the complete piece found in the archives at the OSU libraries, as well as various incomplete versions of the typescript found at Arizona State University and the New York Public Library archives, this lost masterpiece of satiric subversion is finally available in its entirety.

'He felt a sudden deep pity for the finger joint that lay there on the dresser, a few drops of blood gathering around the white bone.'A deliberately severed finger, a junky's Christmas miracle and a Tangier con-artist, among others, feature in these hallucinogenic sketches and stories from the infamous Beat legend. Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), amerikansk ‘kult’-forfatter, homoseksuel og narkoman, mest kendt for Nøgen frokost samt som vigtig del af beatgenerationen. QUEER er en roman om en rejse ind i den sydamerikanske jungle i jagten på yage, et indiansk rusmiddel.“Queer er en vigtig brik i et forfatterskab, der uden tvivl vil blive stående som et af de vigtigste i amerikansk litteratur i sidste halvdel af det 20. århundrede.” - Christen K. Thomsen i Fyens Stiftstidende.“En iskold tyrker af en bog. Let it roll. Bare læs. Queer er et godt nok sted at begynde, og oversættelsen er fuld af fart ...” - Peter Laugesen i Information.

In late summer 1953, as he returned to Mexico City after a seven-month expedition through the jungles of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru, William Burroughs began a notebook of final reflections on his four years in Latin America. His first novel, Junkie, had just been published and he would soon be back in New York to meet Allen Ginsberg and together complete the manuscripts of what became The Yage Letters and Queer. Yet this notebook, the sole survivor from that period, reveals Burroughs not as a writer on the verge of success, but as a man staring down personal catastrophe and visions of looming cultural disaster. Losses that will not let go of him haunt Burroughs throughout the notebook: "Bits of it keep floating back to me like memories of a daytime nightmare." However, out of these dark reflections we see emerge vivid fragments of Burroughs' fiction and, even more tellingly, unique, primary evidence for the remarkable ways in which his early manuscripts evolved. Assembled in facsimile and transcribed by Geoffrey D. Smith, John M. Bennett, and Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris, the notebook forces us to change the way we see both Burroughs and his writing at a turning point in his literary biography.

A stunning clothbound edition of William S. Burroughs's cult classic, designed by the acclaimed Coralie-Bickford Smith. Nightmarish and fiercely funny, William Burroughs' virtuoso, taboo-breaking masterpiece Naked Lunch follows Bill Lee through Interzone: a surreal, orgiastic wasteland of drugs, depravity, political plots, paranoia, sadistic medical experiments and endless, gnawing addiction. One of the most shocking novels ever written, Naked Lunch is a cultural landmark, now in a restored edition incorporating Burroughs' notes on the text, alternate drafts and outtakes from the original.'A masterpiece. A cry from hell, a brutal, terrifying, and savagely funny book that swings between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire' Newsweek 'Naked Lunch is a banquet you will never forget' J. G. Ballard

Nightmarish and fiercely funny, William Burroughs' virtuoso, taboo-breaking masterpiece Naked Lunch follows Bill Lee through Interzone: a surreal, orgiastic wasteland of drugs, depravity, political plots, paranoia, sadistic medical experiments and endless, gnawing addiction. One of the most shocking novels ever written, Naked Lunch is a cultural landmark, now in a restored edition incorporating Burroughs' notes on the text, alternate drafts and outtakes from the original.'A masterpiece. A cry from hell, a brutal, terrifying, and savagely funny book that swings between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire' Newsweek 'Naked Lunch is a banquet you will never forget' J. G. Ballard

This surreal fable, set in America's Old West, features a cast of notorious characters: The Crying Gun, who breaks into tears at the sight of his opponent; The Priest, who goes into gunfights giving his adversaries the last rites; and The Nihilistic Kid himself, Kim Carson, a homosexual gunslinger who, with a succession of beautiful sidekicks, sets out to challenge the morality of small-town America and fight for intergalactic freedom. Fantastical and humorous, The Place of Dead Roads continues William Burroughs' exploration of society's controlling forces - the State, the Church, women, literature, drugs - with a style that is utterly unique in twentieth-century literature.

»Queer är en häpnadsväckande bok. Ett förbigånget verk som blev legendariskt i sin frånvaro.« Los Angeles TimesI sitt förord till Queer skriver William S. Burroughs: »Jag skrev Junky, men det var Queer som skrev mig.«Trots att den publicerades så sent som 1985 skrevsQueer under tidigt femtiotal, då den emellertid ansågs för extrem för att tryckas. Romanen handlar om William Lee, en exilamerikan som flackar omkring i Mexiko ochSydamerika. Han försöker bli kvitt sitt heroinberoende men blir i stället besatt av Eugene Allerton, en ung bisexuell man som mest tolererar Lees sällskap i väntan på något bättre. Tillsammans ger de sig ut för att leta efter en kraftfull hallucinogen som sägs skapa telepatiska förmågor. I översättning av Einar Heckscher, med ett förord av författaren såväl som ett nyskrivet förord av Daniel Westerlund. WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS [1914-1997] föddes i St. Louis. Efter studier vid Harvard och diverse kortvariga anställningar, som skadedjursutrotare och privatdetektiv, råkade han i klammer med rättvisan och tvingades i exil. Under femtio-, sextio- och sjuttiotalen bodde han bland annat i Mexiko City, Tanger, Paris och London. I Mexiko började han skriva romaner. Junky blev hans debut [1953], medan Queer [skriven under samma tid] kom ut först 1985. Vid tiden för publiceringen hade Burroughs hunnit bli en av den amerikanska efterkrigstidens viktigaste författare, vars unika språkradikalitet haft betydelse långt utanför litteraturens gränser.» Ett storverk. William S. Burroughs hjärta, naket framför oss.« Allen Ginsberg