Rub Out The Words: The Letters Of William S. Burroughs 1959 1974

Author: William S. Burroughs

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $39.99 AUD
  • : 9781846141676
  • : Penguin Books Ltd
  • : Penguin Classics
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  • : 0.803
  • : October 2011
  • : 240mm X 162mm X 42mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 49.95
  • : April 2012
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

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  • :
  • : William S. Burroughs
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  • : Hardback
  • : 1
  • :
  • :
  • : 818.5403
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  • :
  • : 480
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Barcode 9781846141676
9781846141676

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.

Reviews

The most important writer in the English language since the Second World War - J. G. Ballard Burroughs is the greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift - Jack Kerouac

Author description

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.