Book description
This major collection of William Burroughs' letters gives an
unprecedented insight into one of America's most incisive and
influential writers, at a time when his work was at its most
experimental and his life entered a new era of creativity.
William Burroughs' life was often as extreme as his prose. This
second volume of his letters documents the time after the notorious
publication of Naked Lunch in 1959, as he drifted away from
Kerouac, Ginsberg and the Beats and on towards new horizons in Europe
and North Africa, moving from place to place in search of inspiration,
or to avoid the law over his drug addiction and openly gay lifestyle.
We see Brion Gysin gradually replace Ginsberg as Burroughs' most
trusted confidant, as they explore ideas on mind control and language,
and there is correspondence with Paul Bowles, Ian Sommerville, Timothy
Leary and Norman Mailer, among many others. These letters show the
creative surge that led to works such as the Nova Trilogy; Burroughs'
brief fascination with Scientology; his desperation to kick his drug
habit; his continuing dedication to the cut-up method, but also a
gradual return to more narrative forms of writing as, in 1974, he
prepared to return to New York.
Darkly funny, sharply perceptive and often shocking, these letters
also reveal an open and curious side to Burroughs, in contrast to the
familiar view of his isolated, itinerant life at this time. Rub Out
the Words adds a new richness to our view of one of the most
innovative artists of the twentieth century.
William S. Burroughs was born in 1914. His first published novel
was the largely autobiographical Junky, which remains a classic
depiction of the constant cycle of drug dependency, cures and relapses
he was victim to for most of his life. In 1951, in a drunken William
Tell stunt, he accidentally shot and killed his common law wife. He is
most famous for his use of the 'cut-up' technique of writing and the
novel Naked Lunch. His other major works included Queer,
Exterminator!, the 'Nova Trilogy' (The Soft
Machine, Nova Express and The Ticket That Exploded)
and the 'Red Night Trilogy' (Cities of the Red Night, The
Place of Dead Roads and The Western Lands). He died in
1997.
Bill Morgan is the author and editor of more than two dozen books
about the Beat writers, including the acclaimed biography I
Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg.
For close to forty years he has worked as an editor and archival
consultant for nearly every member of the Beat Generation.
