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The Letters of William S. Burroughs: Volume…
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The Letters of William S. Burroughs: Volume I: 1945-1959 (edition 1994)

by William S. Burroughs, Oliver Harris (Contributor)

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327378,981 (3.89)1
"Guru of the Beat generation, controversial eminence grise of the international avant-garde, dark prophet and blackest of black-humor satirists, William S. Burroughs has had a range of influence rivalled by few living writers. This meticulously assembled volume of his correspondence 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, they also show how in the period 1945-1959, letter-writing was itself integral to his life and to his fiction-making. These letters reveal the extraordinary route that took Burroughs from narrative to anti-narrative, from Junky to Naked Lunch and the discovery of cut-ups, a turbulent journey crossing two decades and three continents." "The letters track the great shifts in Burroughs' crucial relationship with Allen Ginsberg, from lecturing wise man ("Watch your semantics young man") to total dependence ("Your absence causes me, at times, acute pain.") to near-estrangement ("I sometimes feel you have mixed me up with someone else doesn't live here anymore."). They show Burroughs' initial despair at the obscenity of his own letters, some of which became parts of Naked Lunch, and his gradual recognition of the work's true nature ("It's beginning to look like a modern Inferno.") They reveal the harrowing lows and ecstatic highs of his emotions, and lay bare the pain of coming to terms with a childhood trauma ("Such horror in bringing it out I was afraid my heart would stop.")." "It is a story as revealing of his fellow Beats as it is of Burroughs: he writes of Kerouac and Cassady in the midst of the journey immortalized as On the Road ("Neal is, of course, the very soul of this voyage into pure, abstract, meaningless motion."), and to Ginsberg as he was writing Howl ("I sympathize with your feelings of depression, beatness: 'We have seen the best of our time.'")." "And throughout runs the unmistakable Burroughs voice, the unique drawl that mixes the humor of the hipster and the intellect of the mandarin, as unsparingly critical of contemporary politics - "The bastards might as well tear up the Constitution" - as of his own future biographers - "And some pansy shit is going to start talking about living his art."" "And yet it is Burroughs' "living his art" that makes these letters so remarkable. For unlike most collections, this one requires and rewards chronological reading, and tells its own compelling story: As Burroughs himself saw, writing Ginsberg, "Maybe the real novel is letters to you." These letters were lifelines for Burroughs the outcast, and works-in-progress for Burroughs the writer, and to read them as they were written is to experience a unique merging of life and letters, the extraordinary true story of William S. Burroughs, homme des lettres."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)
Member:cdavidwilburn
Title:The Letters of William S. Burroughs: Volume I: 1945-1959
Authors:William S. Burroughs
Other authors:Oliver Harris (Contributor)
Info:Penguin (Non-Classics) (1994), Paperback, 512 pages
Collections:Your library
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The Letters of William S. Burroughs: Volume I: 1945-1959 by William S. Burroughs

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This book, like "Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of Williams S. Burroughs" (by Ted Morgan)--which I read shortly after "The Letters"--was inspiring, enlightening, and often disturbing (as would be expected with Burroughs). These letters are often businesslike--IE Allen Ginsberg was Burroughs' agent in the 50's and was responsible for the publishing of "Junky" in 1953. I'd recommend reading "The Letters" after "Literary Outlaw", as "Literary Outlaw" provides a detailed context for these letters. In "The Letters" I felt a genuine shift once Burroughs started working on what would eventually become "Naked Lunch" in Tangier. During that period, the quality of the letters (the majority are written to Allen Ginsberg, some to Jack Kerouac, as well as sporadic communications with other members of Burroughs' international community) becomes more focused, forceful and driven. Nonetheless, in this body of work, the emotional state of Burroughs remains elusive and mysterious. I believe this collection of letters would be very helpful to anyone pursuing the path of avant-garde writer. Burroughs was not interested in creating compromised or "saleable" work, and while he was tormented by this aspect of his profession, in the end he did exactly what he wanted to do and became influential in the process. ( )
  stephencbird | Sep 19, 2023 |
Great insights into his writing during Naked Lunch, Interzone, etc. He often tried out material in the letters he wrote. ( )
  Bradley_Kramer | May 16, 2014 |
Necessary reading for the completist & scholar, but a trifle too involved in the minutiae of Burroughs' life to be of interest to the passing reader. Provides insight into the works in progress of the time ('Junky', 'Queer', 'The Yagé Letters', 'Naked Lunch') and the means by which they were assembled, correspondence being a vital component of the Beats' creative process-- perhaps moreso in Burroughs' case than any of the others. ( )
  revD | Apr 7, 2007 |
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Burroughs, William S.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Harris, OliverEditorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed

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"Guru of the Beat generation, controversial eminence grise of the international avant-garde, dark prophet and blackest of black-humor satirists, William S. Burroughs has had a range of influence rivalled by few living writers. This meticulously assembled volume of his correspondence 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, they also show how in the period 1945-1959, letter-writing was itself integral to his life and to his fiction-making. These letters reveal the extraordinary route that took Burroughs from narrative to anti-narrative, from Junky to Naked Lunch and the discovery of cut-ups, a turbulent journey crossing two decades and three continents." "The letters track the great shifts in Burroughs' crucial relationship with Allen Ginsberg, from lecturing wise man ("Watch your semantics young man") to total dependence ("Your absence causes me, at times, acute pain.") to near-estrangement ("I sometimes feel you have mixed me up with someone else doesn't live here anymore."). They show Burroughs' initial despair at the obscenity of his own letters, some of which became parts of Naked Lunch, and his gradual recognition of the work's true nature ("It's beginning to look like a modern Inferno.") They reveal the harrowing lows and ecstatic highs of his emotions, and lay bare the pain of coming to terms with a childhood trauma ("Such horror in bringing it out I was afraid my heart would stop.")." "It is a story as revealing of his fellow Beats as it is of Burroughs: he writes of Kerouac and Cassady in the midst of the journey immortalized as On the Road ("Neal is, of course, the very soul of this voyage into pure, abstract, meaningless motion."), and to Ginsberg as he was writing Howl ("I sympathize with your feelings of depression, beatness: 'We have seen the best of our time.'")." "And throughout runs the unmistakable Burroughs voice, the unique drawl that mixes the humor of the hipster and the intellect of the mandarin, as unsparingly critical of contemporary politics - "The bastards might as well tear up the Constitution" - as of his own future biographers - "And some pansy shit is going to start talking about living his art."" "And yet it is Burroughs' "living his art" that makes these letters so remarkable. For unlike most collections, this one requires and rewards chronological reading, and tells its own compelling story: As Burroughs himself saw, writing Ginsberg, "Maybe the real novel is letters to you." These letters were lifelines for Burroughs the outcast, and works-in-progress for Burroughs the writer, and to read them as they were written is to experience a unique merging of life and letters, the extraordinary true story of William S. Burroughs, homme des lettres."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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