Most Popular Books by William S. Burroughs

Conspirators plot to explode a train carrying nerve gas. A perfect servant suddenly reveals himself to be the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu. Science-fantasy wars, racism, corporate capitalism, drug addiction, and various medical and psychiatric horrors all play their parts in this mosaiclike, experimental novel. Here is William S. Burroughs at his coruscating and hilarious best.--publisher''s description.

Bill Lee, an addict and hustler, travels to Mexico and then Tangier in order to find easy access to drugs, and ends up in the Interzone, a bizarre fantasy world, in an edition that features restored text, archival material, and an essay on psychoactive drugs.

In the summer of 1944, a shocking murder rocked the fledgling Beats. William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, both still unknown, we inspired by the crime to collaborate on a novel, a hard-boiled tale of bohemian New York during World War II, full of drugs and art, obsession and brutality, with scenes and characters drawn from their own lives. Finally published after more than sixty years, this is a captivating read, and incomparable literary artifact, and a window into the lives and art of two of the twentieth century’s most influential writers.

"The Soft Machine is Burroughs'' original cut-up novel, first in an experimental trilogy that includes Nova Express and The Ticket That Exploded. A surreal space-age odyssey and a total assault on the powers that turn humans into machines, the book draws the reader into an unmappable textual space where nothing is true and everyting is permitted"--Back cover.

Written at a turning point in his life - when he was kicking drugs in Tangiers, writing Naked Lunch, and emerging from the literary underworld, these letters from Burroughs to his young friend Ginsberg are not only an intimate and diaristic account.

An intense, compelling conversation between legendary Beat icons William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, featuring photos by Ginsberg, and details of Burroughs'' shamanic exorcism of the demon that led him to shoot his wife and drove his work as a writer.

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, "e;a prophetic work of haunting power,"e; a unique experiment in writing that has for too long been overlooked. Combining new material with rearranged selections from Naked Lunch and his cut-up novels The Soft Machine and The Ticket That Exploded, the book is a fascinating precursor to remix and mash-up forms in art and music, which owe much to Burroughs''s influence.This newly restored edition of Dead Fingers Talk, based on the novel''s archival manuscripts, 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

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

The fortieth anniversary edition of the trenchant science-fiction screen treatment written in the mid-1970s. William S. Burroughs outlines the coming medical-care apocalypse: a Dante-esque horror show brought to a boil by a mutated virus and right-wing politics, set in a future all too near.

"The mind-boggling story of a man whose alternate selves take him on a fantastic journey through space, time, and sexuality."--Back cover.

Contains two autobiographical novels: "Speed" follows Billy as he hustles for dope and money, crashing in garbage-strewn apartments; and "Kentucky Ham" takes him from the squalor of the East Village crash pads to his father''s literary hideaway in Tangier. These autobiographical novels tell a story of generational isolation.

Singurul romancier american contemporan despre care se poate spune că are geniu. Norman Mailer Sondând limitele relației dintre artă și obscenitate, Prânzul dezgolit este una dintre cărțile ce au redefinit nu doar literatura, ci și întreaga cultură americană. Romanul a constituit obiectul unui proces considerat ultima acțiune majoră de cenzură împotriva unei opere literare în Statele Unite. Verdictul final, favorabil, s-a datorat pledoariei unora dintre cei mai importanți scriitori americani ai epocii, precum Norman Mailer și Allen Ginsberg, care au certificat valoarea artistică a cărții. În 1991, regizorul David Cronenberg a ecranizat romanul, iar producția lui s-a transformat foarte repede într-un film-cult. „O carte de o mare frumusețe și de o splendoare rară, obsesivă." Norman Mailer „Un adevărat geniu și primul mitograf al celei de-a doua jumătăți a secolului XX, William Burroughs este descendentul direct al lui James Joyce. Prânzul dezgolit e un festin de neuitat." J. G. Ballard „Burroughs nu a dat naștere numai la metafore, ci și la generații pline de viață, înzestrate cu spirit propriu." Allen Ginsberg William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) s-a născut în St. Louis, Missouri. A studiat literatura engleza și antropologia la Harvard, apoi medicina la Viena. În 1951, pe când se afla în Mexic, și-a împușcat accidental soția. A debutat în 1953 cu Junky, iar în 1959 a publicat (în Franța) romanul Naked Lunch (Prânzul dezgolit). Apariția în 1962 a ediției americane a provocat un imens scandal. În 1982 este ales membru în Academia Americană și în Institute of Arts and Letters, iar statul francez îi acorda titlul de Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Din opera lui William S. Burroughs, în seria Anansi. Clasic vor mai aparea Junky și Queer.

13 agosto 1944: il giovane Lucien Carr, per difendersi dalle avances dell’amico David Kammerer, lo ammazza e ne getta il corpo nelle acque dello Hudson. Due altri suoi amici, William Burroughs e Jack Kerouac, vengono arrestati per non aver denunciato l’omicidio. Forse anche per elaborare a modo loro l’accaduto, i due scrittori ne tracciano in seguito un resoconto a quattro mani iperrealistico e visionario, dissepolto solo in anni recenti. Raccontando a capitoli alternati, Burroughs e Kerouac assumono il punto di vista di due personaggi-narratori: Burroughs quello di Will Dennison, barista originario del Nevada, sempre preceduto dalla sua «ombra di un metro e novanta», Kerouac quello del marinaio Mike Ryko, «un finlandese diciannovenne dai capelli rossi». Attraverso il loro sguardo e intorno ai protagonisti del tragico fatto di cronaca vediamo così delinearsi una folta compagnia anarco-utopista e sgangherata, euforica e malinconica, che trascorre giorni e notti bevendo e fumando in pub luminescenti, leggendo Faulkner e sognando di raggiungere Parigi. Sullo sfondo, una New York caotica, atterrita e aggressiva, una metropoli di fine guerra in cui il caos visivo è tutt’uno con quello acustico, con le radio che trasmettono le note della Prima Sinfonia di Brahms o il reportage concitato di un giornalista su un circo in fiamme dove «gli ippopotami si sono lessati nelle loro vasche». In questo unico, anomalo dettato contrappuntistico il lettore può trovare miracolosamente armonizzati gli stili e le lingue di due protagonisti primari della beat generation: il realismo «on the road» con andamento jazz di Kerouac (specie nei dialoghi) e le accensioni lisergiche di Burroughs, preannuncio del suo sperimentalismo allucinato.

William Burroughs died in August 1997, after a lifetime of notoriety. In his final years, he was writing only in his journals. The last nine months of his diaries are here, in Last Words, and they form a complex, rarely seen, personal portrait of Burroughs at the end of his life, coming to terms with aging and death.

As seen through the eyes of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, this is the gripping story behind the acclaimed film Kill Your Darlings, starring Daniel Radcliffe.In 1944, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were charged as accessories to murder. One of their friends, Lucien Carr, had stabbed another, David Kammerrer. Carr had come to each of them and confessed; Kerouac helped him get rid of the weapon - neither told the police. For this failing they were arrested. Months later, the two writers - unpublished at the time - collaborated on And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a fictionalized account of the summer of the killing.William S. Burroughs was born in 1914. His first published novel was the largely autobiographical Junky, which remains a classic depiction of drug dependency. He died in 1997.Jack Kerouac was born in 1922. In 1947, he hitchhiked across America and wrote his most famous novel On the Road. He died in 1969.''The true(ish) story that Burroughs and Kerouac tell is sleazy, raw and painfully close to the bone even by the standards of the Beats ... [It''s] also fascinating for the insight it gives into Kerouac and Burroughs'' development ... A compelling read'' Sam Jordison, Guardian''Their efforts cohere into a spare existential narrative which races to a cruel denouement. Hippos stands the test of time; it is admirably hard-boiled'' Independent''Anyone interested in the making of the Beat generation will be fascinated by this survival from its beginnings'' Literary Review''Transfixingly readable ... It memorably evokes the demi-monde of New York at the war''s end, with its honky-tonk parlours, automats, bars and spaghetti joints. As a period piece, it can''t be beat'' Evening Standard

An unnerving tale of an addict adrift in New York, Tangiers and a nightmarish wasteland known as Interzone. The novel has exerted its influence on many authors regarding the relationship of art and obscenity, and on the shape of music, film, and media. This restored text includes editorial corrections and incorporates Burroughs'' notes, and several essays he wrote over the years about the book.