Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs
by Ted Morgan
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With a new preface as well as a final chapter on William S. Burroughs s last years, the acclaimed Literary Outlaw is the only existing full biography of an extraordinary figure. Anarchist, heroin addict, alcoholic, and brilliant writer, Burroughs was the patron saint of the Beats. His avant-garde masterpiece Naked Lunch shook up the literary world with its graphic descriptions of drug abuse and illicit sex and resulted in a landmark Supreme Court ruling on obscenity. Burroughs continued to show more revolutionize literature with novels like The Soft Machine and to shock with the events in his life, such as the accidental shooting of his wife, which haunted him until his death. Ted Morgan captures the man, his work, and his friends Allen Ginsberg and Paul Bowles among them in this riveting story of an iconoclast. show lessTags
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This book changed my life, as did Camille Paglia's "Sexual Personae" when I first read it 19 years ago. "Literary Outlaw" is a great window onto the post-WWII-beatnik culture--specifically the friends & people constituting Burroughs' Columbia University / Times Square NYC / Mexico City / Tangiers / Paris / London and again and finally New York City communities--in the 40's and 50's & beyond. Thus this text provides necessary background info missing from "The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959" (which I also highly recommend). I also learned via "Literary Outlaw" that Burroughs was very interested in magic and/or black magic, of which he was often a practitioner. Subsequently, this interest in magic ties into the dream world / show more dream time origins (where morality is suspended) of Burroughs' writing. Ted Morgan deconstructs Burroughs with fantastic and fascinating insight--Morgan is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist & experienced biographer, having written 3 other biographies covering more mainstream public figures. PS--The chapter in "Literary Outlaw" dealing with the demise and slow suicide of Burrough's incredibly self-destructive son Billy was heartbreaking and heart-wrenching! It killed me! In fact, it was so heavy it that I could only deal with it in stages. show less
Fascinated by the criminal underworld and wanting to become a part of it, Burroughs leaves his family and their fortune to experience life more fully. He is driven by two things: his homosexuality, and his use of drugs. He meets Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac who are both younger than him, and also more advanced in their respective writing careers. During a fateful party in Mexico, Burroughs accidentally shoots and kills his wife Joan during their "William Tell routine." Burroughs manages to escape any serious punishment for this, but the guilt of it haunts him forever. It also sets him on the path to becoming a writer. With a great deal of help from Ginsberg, Burroughs publishes his first book, "Junky," but it fails to make much of an show more impression on the world at large. show less
One of the best biographies I've read. Superb. A really heavyweight treatment for a heavyweight character.
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24+ Works 2,707 Members
Ted Morgan is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Valley of Death, Maugham, My Battle of Algiers, and FDR, among other books. He lives in New York.
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- William S. Burroughs; Joan Vollmer; Jack Kerouac; Allen Ginsberg; Lucien Carr
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA; Texas, USA; Tangier, Morocco; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; London, England, UK; St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- Related movies
- Naked Lunch (1991 | IMDb)
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 421
- Popularity
- 73,150
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.29)
- Languages
- English, Italian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 2
