“William S. Burroughs”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

William Seward Burroughs II ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|ʌr|oʊ|z}}; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. Burroughs was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author whose influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays. Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films. He was also briefly known by the pen name William Lee. Burroughs created and exhibited thousands of paintings and other visual art works, including his celebrated 'Gunshot Paintings'.

He was born into a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence, but did not begin publicizing his writing until his thirties. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. In 1942 Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve during World War II, but was turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and Navy, after which he picked up the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943, while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and out of their mutual influence grew the foundation of the Beat Generation, which was later a defining influence on the 1960s counterculture.

Much of Burroughs' work is semiautobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris and Tangier in Morocco, as well as from his travels in the South American Amazon. His work also features frequent mystical, occult or otherwise magical themes – a constant preoccupation for Burroughs, both in fiction and in real life.^[1]^[2]

Burroughs killed his second wife, Joan Vollmer, in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs initially claimed that he shot Vollmer while drunkenly attempting a "William Tell" stunt.^[3] He later told investigators a different story: that he had been showing his pistol to friends, when it fell and hit the table, firing the bullet that killed Vollmer.^[4] After Burroughs returned to the United States, he was convicted of manslaughter in absentia, and received a two-year suspended sentence.

Burroughs found success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), but he is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a highly controversial work that was the subject of a court case after it was challenged as being in violation of the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–1964).

In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France.^[5] Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift",^[6] a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion"^[7] of the moral, political, and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".^[6]

Burroughs created visual art throughout his lifetime, but never exhibited it until 1987, after the death of his friend and collaborator Brion Gysin. For the next and last 10 years of his life, he presented his paintings and drawings at museums and galleries worldwide.

Burroughs had one child, William S. Burroughs Jr. (1947–1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. William Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997.

Early life and education

Burroughs was born in 1914, the younger of two sons born to Mortimer Perry Burroughs (June 16, 1885 – January 5, 1965) and Laura Hammon Lee (August 5, 1888 – October 20, 1970). His was a prominent family of English ancestry in St. Louis, Missouri. His grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which evolved into the Burroughs Corporation. Burroughs' mother was the daughter of a minister whose family claimed to be closely related to Robert E. Lee. His maternal uncle, Ivy Lee, was an advertising pioneer later employed as a publicist for the Rockefellers. His father ran an antique and gift shop, Cobblestone Gardens in St. Louis; and later in Palm Beach, Florida when they relocated.

It was during his childhood that Burroughs' developed a lifelong interest in magic and the occult – topics which would find their way into his work repeatedly across the years.^[8] Burroughs later described how he saw an apparition of a green reindeer in the woods as a child, which he identified as a totem animal,^[9] as well as a vision of ghostly grey figures at play in his bedroom.^[10]

As a boy, Burroughs lived on Pershing Ave. in St. Louis' Central West End. He attended John Burroughs School in St. Louis where his first published essay, "Personal Magnetism" – which revolved around telepathic mind-control – was printed in the John Burroughs Review in 1929.^[11] He then attended the Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico, which was stressful for him. The school was a boarding school for the wealthy, "where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens".^[12] Burroughs kept journals documenting an erotic attachment to another boy. According to his own account, he destroyed these later, ashamed of their content.^[13] He kept his sexual orientation concealed from his family well into adulthood, due to the context in which he grew up and from which he fled—that is, a "family where displays of affection were considered embarrassing".^[14] He became a well-known homosexual writer after the publication of Naked Lunch in 1959. Some {{Who| date=November 2011}} say that he was expelled from Los Alamos after taking chloral hydrate in Santa Fe with a fellow student. Yet, according to his own account, he left voluntarily: "During the Easter vacation of my second year I persuaded my family to let me stay in St. Louis."^[13]

Harvard University

Burroughs finished high school at Taylor School in Clayton, Missouri, and in 1932, left home to pursue an arts degree at Harvard University, where he was affiliated with Adams House. During the summers, he worked as a cub reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering the police docket. He disliked the work, and refused to cover some events, like the death of a drowned child. He lost his virginity in an East St. Louis, Illinois brothel that summer with a female prostitute whom he regularly patronized.^[15] While at Harvard, Burroughs made trips to New York City and was introduced to the gay subculture there. He visited lesbian dives, piano bars, and the Harlem and Greenwich Village homosexual underground with Richard Stern, a wealthy friend from Kansas City. They would drive from Boston to New York in a reckless fashion. Once, Stern scared Burroughs so badly that he asked to be let out of the vehicle.^[16]

Burroughs graduated from Harvard in 1936. According to Ted Morgan's Literary Outlaw,

Burroughs' parents sold the rights to his grandfather's invention and had no share in the Burroughs Corporation. Shortly before the 1929 stock market crash, they sold their stock for $200,000 (equivalent to approximately ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|200000|1929|r=0}}}} in today's funds{{inflation-fn|US}}).^[18]

Europe

After Burroughs graduated from Harvard, his formal education ended, except for brief flirtations with graduate study of anthropology at Columbia and medicine in Vienna, Austria. He traveled to Europe and became involved in Austrian and Hungarian Weimar-era LGBT culture; he picked up young men in steam baths in Vienna and moved in a circle of exiles, homosexuals, and runaways. There, he met Ilse Klapper, née Herzfeld (1900–1982), a Jewish woman fleeing the country's Nazi government.^[19] The two were never romantically involved, but Burroughs married her, in Croatia, against the wishes of his parents, to allow her to gain a visa to the United States. She made her way to New York City, and eventually divorced Burroughs, although they remained friends for many years.^[20] After returning to the United States, he held a string of uninteresting jobs. In 1939, his mental health became a concern for his parents, especially after he deliberately severed the last joint of his left little finger at the knuckle to impress a man with whom he was infatuated.^[21] This event made its way into his early fiction as the short story "The Finger."

Beginning of the Beats

Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army early in 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. But when he was classified as a 1-A Infantry, not an officer, he became dejected. His mother recognized her son's depression and got Burroughs a civilian disability discharge —a release from duty based on the premise that he should have not been allowed to enlist due to previous mental instability. After being evaluated by a family friend, who was also a neurologist at a psychiatric treatment center, Burroughs waited five months in limbo at Jefferson Barracks outside St. Louis before being discharged. During that time he met a Chicago soldier also awaiting release, and once Burroughs was free, he moved to Chicago and held a variety of jobs, including one as an exterminator. When two of his friends from St. Louis, Lucien Carr, a University of Chicago student, and David Kammerer, Carr's admirer, left for New York City, Burroughs followed.

Joan Vollmer

In 1944, Burroughs began living with Joan Vollmer Adams in an apartment they shared with Jack Kerouac and Edie Parker, Kerouac's first wife.^[22] Vollmer Adams was married to a G.I. with whom she had a young daughter, Julie Adams. Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder involving Lucien Carr, who had killed David Kammerer in a confrontation over Kammerer's incessant and unwanted advances. This incident inspired Burroughs and Kerouac to collaborate on a novel titled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, completed in 1945. The two fledgling authors were unable to get it published, but the manuscript was eventually published in November 2008 by Grove Press and Penguin Books.

During this time, Burroughs began using morphine and became addicted. He eventually sold heroin in Greenwich Village to support his habit. Vollmer also became an addict, but her drug of choice was Benzedrine, an amphetamine sold over the counter at that time. Because of her addiction and social circle, her husband immediately divorced her after returning from the war. With urging from Allen Ginsberg, and also perhaps Kerouac, Burroughs became intellectually and emotionally linked with Vollmer and by the summer of 1945 had moved in with Vollmer and her daughter. In spring 1946, Burroughs was arrested for forging a narcotics prescription. Vollmer asked her psychiatrist, a Dr. Wollberg, to sign a surety bond for Burroughs' release. As part of his release, Burroughs returned to St. Louis under his parents' care, after which he left for Mexico to get a divorce from Ilse Klapper. Meanwhile, Vollmer's addiction led to a temporary psychosis that resulted in her admission to Bellevue Hospital, which endangered the custody of her child. Upon hearing this, Burroughs immediately returned to New York City to gain her release, asking her to marry him. Their marriage was never formalized, but she lived as his common-law wife. They returned to St. Louis to visit Burroughs' parents and then moved with her daughter to Texas.^[23] Vollmer soon became pregnant with Burroughs' child. Their son, William S. Burroughs Jr., was born in 1947. The family moved briefly to New Orleans in 1948.^[24]

Mexico and South America (1950–1952)

Burroughs fled to Mexico to escape possible detention in Louisiana's Angola state prison. Vollmer and their children followed him. Burroughs planned to stay in Mexico for at least five years, the length of his charge's statute of limitations. Burroughs also attended classes at the Mexico City College in 1950 studying Spanish, as well as "Mexican picture writing" (codices) and the Mayan language with R. H. Barlow.

Vollmer's death

Their life in Mexico was by all accounts an unhappy one.^[25] Without heroin and suffering from Benzedrine abuse, Burroughs began to pursue other men as his libido returned, while Vollmer, feeling abandoned, started to drink heavily and mock Burroughs openly.^[23] One night while drinking with friends at a party above the American-owned Bounty Bar in Mexico City,^[26] a drunk Burroughs allegedly took his handgun from his travel bag and told his wife, "It's time for our William Tell act." There is no indication that they had performed such an action previously.^[25] Vollmer, who was also drinking heavily and undergoing amphetamine withdrawal, allegedly obliged him by putting a highball glass on her head. Burroughs shot Vollmer in the head, killing her almost immediately.^[27]

Soon after the incident, Burroughs changed his account, claiming that he had dropped his gun and it had accidentally fired.^[28] Burroughs spent 13 days in jail before his brother came to Mexico City and bribed Mexican lawyers and officials to release Burroughs on bail while he awaited trial for the killing, which was ruled culpable homicide. Vollmer's daughter, Julie Adams, went to live with her grandmother, and William S. Burroughs Jr. went to St. Louis to live with his grandparents. Burroughs reported every Monday morning to the jail in Mexico City while his prominent Mexican attorney worked to resolve the case. According to James Grauerholz, two witnesses had agreed to testify that the gun had fired accidentally while he was checking to see if it was loaded, with ballistics experts bribed to support this story.^[29] Nevertheless, the trial was continuously delayed and Burroughs began to write what would eventually become the short novel Queer while awaiting his trial. Upon Burroughs' attorney fleeing Mexico in light of his own legal problems, Burroughs decided, according to Ted Morgan, to "skip" and return to the United States. He was convicted in absentia of homicide and was given a two-year suspended sentence.^[30]

Although Burroughs was writing before the shooting of Joan Vollmer, this event marked him and, biographers argue, his work for the rest of his life.^[31] Vollmer's death also resonated with Allen Ginsberg, who wrote of her in Dream Record: June 8, 1955, "Joan, what kind of knowledge have the dead? can you still love your mortal acquaintances? What do you remember of us?"

The Yage Letters

After leaving Mexico, Burroughs drifted through South America for several months, seeking out a drug called yagé, which promised to give the user telepathic abilities. A book composed of letters between Burroughs and Ginsberg, The Yage Letters, was published in 1963 by City Lights Books. In 2006, a re-edited version, The Yage Letters Redux, showed that the letters were largely fictionalised from Burroughs' notes.

Beginning of literary career

Burroughs described Vollmer's death as a pivotal event in his life, and one which provoked his writing by exposing him to the risk of possession by a malevolent entity he called "the Ugly Spirit":

As Burroughs makes clear, he meant this reference to "possession" to be taken absolutely literally, stating: "My concept of possession is closer to the medieval model than to modern psychological explanations ... I mean a definite possessing entity."^[32] Burroughs' writing was intended as a form of "sorcery", in his own words^[33] - to disrupt language via methods such as the cut-up technique, and thus protect himself from possession.^[34]^[35]^[36]^[37] Later in life, Burroughs described the Ugly Spirit as "Monopolistic, acquisitive evil. Ugly evil. The ugly American", and took part in a shamanic ceremony with the explicit aim of exorcising the Ugly Spirit.^[38]

Oliver Harris has questioned Burroughs' claim that Vollmer's death catalysed his writing, highlighting the importance for Queer of Burroughs' traumatic relationship with the boyfriend fictionalized in the story as Eugene Allerton, rather than the shooting of Vollmer. In any case, he had begun to write in 1945. Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a mystery novel loosely based on the Carr/Kammerer situation and that at the time remained unpublished. Years later, in the documentary What Happened to Kerouac?, Burroughs described it as "not a very distinguished work". An excerpt of this work, in which Burroughs and Kerouac wrote alternating chapters, was finally published in Word Virus,^[39] a compendium of William Burroughs' writing that was published by his biographer after his death in 1997.

Before Vollmer died, Burroughs had largely completed his first novel, Junkie, which was written at the urging of Allen Ginsberg, who was instrumental in getting the work published, even as a cheap mass-market paperback.^[40] Ace Books published the novel in 1953 as part of an Ace Double under the pen name William Lee, retitling it Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict (it was later republished as Junkie, then in 1977 as Junky, and finally in 2003 as Junky: the definitive text of 'Junk, edited by Oliver Harris').^[40]

Overseas

During 1953, Burroughs was at loose ends. Due to legal problems, he was unable to live in the cities toward which he was most inclined. He spent time with his parents in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York City with Allen Ginsberg. When Ginsberg refused his romantic advances,^[41] Burroughs went to Rome to meet Alan Ansen on a vacation financed from his parents' continuing support. When he found Rome and Ansen's company dreary, and inspired by Paul Bowles' fiction, he decided to head for Tangier, Morocco.^[42] In a home owned by a known procurer of homosexual prostitutes for visiting American and English men, he rented a room and began to write a large body of text that he personally referred to as Interzone.^[43]

To Burroughs, all signs directed a return to Tangier, a city where drugs were freely available and where financial support from his family would continue. He realized that in the Moroccan culture he had found an environment that synchronized with his temperament and afforded no hindrances to pursuing his interests and indulging in his chosen activities. He left for Tangier in November 1954 and spent the next four years there working on the fiction that would later become Naked Lunch, as well as attempting to write commercial articles about Tangier. He sent these writings to Ginsberg, his literary agent for Junkie, but none was published until 1989 when Interzone, a collection of short stories, was published. Under the strong influence of a marijuana confection known as majoun and a German-made opioid called Eukodol, Burroughs settled in to write. Eventually, Ginsberg and Kerouac, who had traveled to Tangier in 1957, helped Burroughs type, edit, and arrange these episodes into Naked Lunch.^[44]

Naked Lunch

Whereas Junkie and Queer were conventional in style, Naked Lunch was his first venture into a nonlinear style. After the publication of Naked Lunch, a book whose creation was to a certain extent the result of a series of contingencies, Burroughs was exposed to Brion Gysin's cut-up technique at the Beat Hotel in Paris in October 1959. He began slicing up phrases and words to create new sentences.^[45] At the Beat Hotel Burroughs discovered "a port of entry" into Gysin's canvases: "I don't think I had ever seen painting until I saw the painting of Brion Gysin."^[46] The two would cultivate a long-term friendship that revolved around a mutual interest in artworks and cut-up techniques. Scenes were slid together with little care for narrative. Perhaps thinking of his crazed physician, Dr. Benway, he described Naked Lunch as a book that could be cut into at any point. Although not considered science fiction, the book does seem to forecast AIDS, liposuction, and the crack pandemic.^[47]

Excerpts from Naked Lunch were first published in the United States in 1958. The novel was initially rejected by City Lights Books, the publisher of Ginsberg's Howl; and Olympia Press publisher Maurice Girodias, who had published English-language novels in France that were controversial for their subjective views of sex and antisocial characters. But Allen Ginsberg managed to get excerpts published in Black Mountain Review and Chicago Review in 1958. Irving Rosenthal, student editor of Chicago Review, a quarterly journal partially subsidized by the university, promised to publish more excerpts from Naked Lunch, but he was fired from his position in 1958 after Chicago Daily News columnist Jack Mabley called the first excerpt obscene. Rosenthal went on to publish more in his newly created literary journal Big Table No. 1; however, the United States Postmaster General ruled that copies could not be mailed to subscribers on the basis of obscenity laws. John Ciardi did get a copy and wrote a positive review of the work, prompting a telegram from Allen Ginsberg praising the review.^[48] This controversy made Naked Lunch interesting to Girodias again, and he published the novel in 1959.{{Citation needed|date= November 2011}}

After the novel was published, it slowly became notorious across Europe and the United States, garnering interest from not just members of the counterculture of the 1960s, but also literary critics such as Mary McCarthy. Once published in the United States, Naked Lunch was prosecuted as obscene by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, followed by other states. In 1966, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared the work "not obscene" on the basis of criteria developed largely to defend the book. The case against Burroughs' novel still stands as the last obscenity trial against a work of literature—that is, a work consisting of words only, and not including illustrations or photographs—prosecuted in the United States.

The Word Hoard, the collection of manuscripts that produced Naked Lunch, also produced parts of the later works The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket That Exploded (1962), and Nova Express (1964). These novels feature extensive use of the cut-up technique that influenced all of Burroughs' subsequent fiction to a degree. During Burroughs' friendship and artistic collaborations with Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville, the technique was combined with images, Gysin's paintings, and sound, via Somerville's tape recorders. Burroughs was so dedicated to the cut-up method that he often defended his use of the technique before editors and publishers, most notably Dick Seaver at Grove Press in the 1960s^[49] and Holt, Rinehart & Winston in the 1980s. The cut-up method, because of its random or mechanical basis for text generation, combined with the possibilities of mixing in text written by other writers, deemphasizes the traditional role of the writer as creator or originator of a string of words, while simultaneously exalting the importance of the writer's sensibility as an editor. In this sense, the cut-up method may be considered as analogous to the collage method in the visual arts. New restored editions of The Nova Trilogy (or Cut-Up Trilogy), edited by Oliver Harris (President of the European Beat Studies Network) and published in 2014, included notes and materials to reveal the care with which Burroughs used his methods and the complex histories of his manuscripts.

Paris and the "Beat Hotel"

Burroughs moved into a rundown hotel in the Latin Quarter of Paris in 1959 when Naked Lunch was still looking for a publisher. Tangier, with its political unrest, and criminals with whom he had become involved, became dangerous to Burroughs.^[50] He went to Paris to meet Ginsberg and talk with Olympia Press. He left behind a criminal charge which eventually caught up with him in Paris. Paul Lund, a British former career criminal and cigarette smuggler whom Burroughs met in Tangier, was arrested on suspicion of importing narcotics into France. Lund gave up Burroughs, and evidence implicated Burroughs in the importation of narcotics into France. When the Moroccan authorities forwarded their investigation to French officials, Burroughs faced criminal charges in Paris for conspiracy to import opiates. It was during this impending case that Maurice Girodias published Naked Lunch; its appearance helped to get Burroughs a suspended sentence, since a literary career, according to Ted Morgan, is a respected profession in France.

The "Beat Hotel" was a typical European-style boarding house hotel, with common toilets on every floor, and a small place for personal cooking in the room. Life there was documented by the photographer Harold Chapman, who lived in the attic room. This shabby, inexpensive hotel was populated by Gregory Corso, Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky for several months after Naked Lunch first appeared.

Burroughs' time at the Beat Hotel was dominated by occult experiments – "mirror-gazing, scrying, trance and telepathy, all fuelled by a wide variety of mind-altering drugs".^[51] Later, Burroughs would describe "visions" obtained by staring into the mirror for hours at a time – his hands transformed into tentacles,^[52] or his whole image transforming into some strange entity,^[53] or visions of far-off places,^[54] or of other people rapidly undergoing metamorphosis.^[55] It was from this febrile atmosphere that the famous cut-up technique emerged.

The actual process by which Naked Lunch was published was partly a function of its "cut-up" presentation to the printer. Girodias had given Burroughs only ten days to prepare the manuscript for print galleys, and Burroughs sent over the manuscript in pieces, preparing the parts in no particular order. When it was published in this authentically random manner, Burroughs liked it better than the initial plan. International rights to the work were sold soon after, and Burroughs used the $3,000 advance from Grove Press to buy drugs (equivalent to approximately ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|3000|1959|r=-3}}}} in today's funds{{inflation-fn|US}}).^[56] Naked Lunch was featured in a 1959 Life magazine cover story, partly as an article that highlighted the growing Beat literary movement. During this time Burroughs found an outlet for material otherwise rendered unpublishable in Jeff Nuttall's My Own Mag.^[57] Also, poetry by Burroughs' appeared in the avant garde little magazine Nomad at the beginning of the 1960s.

The London years

Burroughs left Paris for London in 1960 to visit Dr. Dent, a well-known English medical doctor who spearheaded a reputedly painless heroin withdrawal treatment using the drug apomorphine.^[58] Dent's apomorphine cure was also used to treat alcoholism, although it was held by several people who undertook it to be no more than straightforward aversion therapy. Burroughs however was convinced. Following his first cure, he wrote a detailed appreciation of apomorphine and other cures, which he submitted to The British Journal of Addiction (Vol. 53, 1956) under the title "Letter From A Master Addict To Dangerous Drugs"; this letter is appended to many editions of Naked Lunch.

Though he ultimately relapsed, Burroughs ended up working out of London for six years, traveling back to the United States on several occasions, including one time escorting his son to the Lexington Narcotics Farm and Prison after the younger Burroughs had been convicted of prescription fraud in Florida. In the "Afterword" to the compilation of his son's two previously published novels Speed and Kentucky Ham, Burroughs writes that he thought he had a "small habit" and left London quickly without any narcotics because he suspected the U.S. customs would search him very thoroughly on arrival. He claims he went through the most excruciating two months of opiate withdrawal while seeing his son through his trial and sentencing, traveling with Billy to Lexington, Kentucky from Miami to ensure that his son entered the hospital that he had once spent time in as a volunteer admission.^[59] Earlier, Burroughs revisited St. Louis, Missouri, taking a large advance from Playboy to write an article about his trip back to St. Louis, one that was eventually published in The Paris Review, after Burroughs refused to alter the style for Playboy's publishers. In 1968 Burroughs joined Jean Genet, John Sack, and Terry Southern in covering the 1968 Democratic National Convention for Esquire magazine. Southern and Burroughs, who had first become acquainted in London, would remain lifelong friends and collaborators. In 1972, Burroughs and Southern unsuccessfully attempted to adapt Naked Lunch for the screen in conjunction with American game-show producer Chuck Barris.^[60]

Burroughs supported himself and his addiction by publishing pieces in small literary presses. His avant-garde reputation grew internationally as hippies and college students discovered his earlier works. He developed a close friendship with Antony Balch and lived with a young hustler named John Brady who continuously brought home young women despite Burroughs' protestations. In the midst of this personal turmoil, Burroughs managed to complete two works: a novel written in screenplay format, The Last Words of Dutch Schultz (1969); and the traditional prose-format novel The Wild Boys (1971).

It was during his time in London that Burroughs began using his "playback" technique in an attempt to place curses on various people and places who had drawn his ire, including the Moka coffee bar^[61]^[62] and the London HQ of Scientology.^[63] Burroughs himself related the Moka coffee bar incident:

In the 1960s, Burroughs joined and then left the Church of Scientology. In talking about the experience, he claimed that the techniques and philosophy of Scientology helped him and that he felt that further study of Scientology would produce great results.^[65] He was skeptical of the organization itself, and felt that it fostered an environment that did not accept critical discussion.^[66] His subsequent critical writings about the church and his review of Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman led to a battle of letters between Burroughs and Scientology supporters in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine.

Return to United States

In 1974, concerned about his friend's well-being, Allen Ginsberg gained for Burroughs a contract to teach creative writing at the City College of New York. Burroughs successfully withdrew from heroin use and moved to New York. He eventually found an apartment, affectionately dubbed "The Bunker", on the Lower East Side of Manhattan at 222 Bowery.^[67] The dwelling was a partially converted YMCA gym, complete with lockers and communal showers. The building fell within New York City rent control policies that made it extremely cheap; it was only about four hundred dollars a month until 1981 when the rent control rules changed, doubling the rent overnight.^[68] Burroughs added "teacher" to the list of jobs he did not like, as he lasted only a semester as a professor; he found the students uninteresting and without much creative talent. Although he needed income desperately, he turned down a teaching position at the University at Buffalo for $15,000 a semester. "The teaching gig was a lesson in never again. You were giving out all this energy and nothing was coming back."^[69] His savior was the newly arrived twenty-one-year-old bookseller and Beat Generation devotee James Grauerholz, who worked for Burroughs part-time as a secretary as well as in a bookstore. Grauerholz suggested the idea of reading tours. Grauerholz had managed several rock bands in Kansas and took the lead in booking for Burroughs reading tours that would help support him throughout the next two decades. It raised his public profile, eventually aiding in his obtaining new publishing contracts. Through Grauerholz, Burroughs became a monthly columnist for the noted popular culture magazine Crawdaddy, for which he interviewed Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page in 1975. Burroughs decided to relocate back to the United States permanently in 1976. He then began to associate with New York cultural players such as Andy Warhol, John Giorno, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Susan Sontag, frequently entertaining them at the Bunker; he also visited venues like CBGB to watch the likes of Patti Smith perform.^[70] Throughout early 1977, Burroughs collaborated with Southern and Dennis Hopper on a screen adaptation of Junky. Financed by a reclusive acquaintance of Burroughs, the project lost traction after financial problems and creative disagreements between Hopper and Burroughs.

Organized by Columbia professor Sylvère Lotringer, Giorno, and Grauerholz, the Nova Convention was a multimedia retrospective of Burroughs' work held from November 30 to December 2, 1978, at various locations throughout New York. The event included readings from Southern, Ginsberg, Smith, and Frank Zappa (who filled in at the last minute for Keith Richards, then entangled in a legal problem), in addition to panel discussions with Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson and concerts featuring The B-52's, Suicide, Philip Glass, and Debbie Harry and Chris Stein.

In 1976, Billy Burroughs was eating dinner with his father and Allen Ginsberg in Boulder, Colorado, at Ginsberg's Buddhist poetry school (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) at Chogyam Trungpa's Naropa University when he began to vomit blood. Burroughs senior had not seen his son for over a year and was alarmed at his appearance when Billy arrived at Ginsberg's apartment. Although Billy had successfully published two short novels in the 1970s, and was deemed by literary critics like Ann Charters as a bona fide "second generation beat writer",^[71] his brief marriage to a teenage waitress had disintegrated. Billy was a constant drinker, and there were long periods when he was out of contact with any of his family or friends. The diagnosis was liver cirrhosis so complete that the only treatment was a rarely performed liver transplant operation. Fortunately, the University of Colorado Medical Center was one of two places in the nation that performed transplants under the pioneering work of Dr. Thomas Starzl. Billy underwent the procedure and beat the thirty-percent survival odds. His father spent time in 1976 and 1977 in Colorado, helping Billy through additional surgeries and complications. Ted Morgan's biography asserts that their relationship was not spontaneous and lacked real warmth or intimacy. Allen Ginsberg was supportive to both Burroughs and his son throughout the long period of recovery.^[72]

In London, Burroughs had begun to write what would become the first novel of a trilogy, published as Cities of the Red Night (1981), The Place of Dead Roads (1983), and The Western Lands (1987). Grauerholz helped edit Cities when it was first rejected by Burroughs' long-time editor Dick Seaver at Holt Rinehart, after it was deemed too disjointed. The novel was written as a straight narrative and then chopped up into a more random pattern, leaving the reader to sort through the characters and events. This technique differed from the author's earlier cut-up methods, which were accidental from the start. Nevertheless, the novel was reassembled and published, still without a straight linear form, but with fewer breaks in the story. The trilogy featured time-travel adventures in which Burroughs' narrators rewrote episodes from history to reform mankind.^[73] Reviews were mixed for Cities. Novelist and critic Anthony Burgess panned the work in Saturday Review, saying Burroughs was boring readers with repetitive episodes of pederast fantasy and sexual strangulation that lacked any comprehensible world view or theology; other reviewers, like J. G. Ballard, argued that Burroughs was shaping a new literary "mythography".^[73]

In 1981, Billy Burroughs died in Florida. He had cut off contact with his father several years before, even publishing an article in Esquire magazine claiming his father had poisoned his life and revealing that he had been molested as a fourteen-year-old by one of his father's friends while visiting Tangier. The liver transplant had not cured his urge to drink, and Billy suffered from serious health complications years after the operation. After he had stopped taking his transplant rejection drugs, his body was found near the side of a Florida highway by a stranger. He died shortly afterward. Burroughs was in New York when he heard from Allen Ginsberg of Billy's death.

Burroughs, by 1979, was once again addicted to heroin. The cheap heroin that was easily purchased outside his door on the Lower East Side "made its way" into his veins, coupled with "gifts" from the overzealous if well-intentioned admirers who frequently visited the Bunker. Although Burroughs would have episodes of being free from heroin, from this point until his death he was regularly addicted to the drug. He died in 1997 on a methadone maintenance program. In an introduction to The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs, James Grauerholz (who managed Burroughs' reading tours in the 1980s and 1990s) mentions that part of his job was to deal with the "underworld" in each city to secure the author's needed drugs.^[74]

Later years in Kansas

Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1981, taking up residence at 1927 Learnard Avenue where he would spend the rest of his life. He once told a Wichita Eagle reporter that he was content to live in Kansas, saying, "The thing I like about Kansas is that it's not nearly as violent, and it's a helluva lot cheaper. And I can get out in the country and fish and shoot and whatnot."^[75] In 1984, he signed a seven-book deal with Viking Press after he signed with literary agent Andrew Wylie. This deal included the publication rights to the unpublished 1952 novel Queer. With this money he purchased a small bungalow for $29,000.^[76] He was finally inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983 after several attempts by Allen Ginsberg to get him accepted. He attended the induction ceremony in May 1983. Lawrence Ferlinghetti remarked the induction of Burroughs into the Academy proved Herbert Marcuse's point that capitalistic society had a great ability to incorporate its one-time outsiders.^[77]

By this point, Burroughs was a counterculture icon. In his final years, he cultivated an entourage of young friends who replaced his aging contemporaries. He inspired 1970s proto-punk rock band Doctors of Madness. In the 1980s he collaborated with performers ranging from Bill Laswell's Material and Laurie Anderson to Throbbing Gristle, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Ministry, and in Gus Van Sant's 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy, playing a character based on a short story he published in Exterminator!, "The "Priest" They Called Him". In 1990, he released the spoken word album Dead City Radio, with musical back-up from producers Hal Willner and Nelson Lyon, and alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Burroughs and R.E.M. collaborated on the song "Star Me Kitten" on the Songs in the Key of X: Music From and Inspired By The X-Files album. A collaboration with musicians Nick Cave and Tom Waits resulted in a collection of short prose, Smack My Crack, later released as a spoken word album in 1987. He collaborated with Tom Waits and director Robert Wilson on The Black Rider, a play which opened at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg in 1990 to critical acclaim, and that was later performed all over Europe and the U.S. In 1991, with Burroughs' approval, director David Cronenberg adapted Naked Lunch into a feature film, which opened to critical acclaim.

During 1982, Burroughs developed a painting technique whereby he created abstract compositions by placing spray paint cans in front of blank surfaces, and then shooting at the paint cans with a shotgun. These splattered and shot panels and canvasses were first exhibited in the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York City in 1987. By this time he had developed a comprehensive visual art practice, using ink, spray paint, collage and unusual things such as mushrooms and plungers to apply the paint. He created file-folder paintings featuring these mediums as well as "automatic calligraphy" inspired by Brion Gysin. He originally used the folders to mix pigments before observing that they could be viewed as art in themselves. He also used many of these painted folders to store manuscripts and correspondence in his personal archive ^[78]

Until his last years, he prolifically created visual art. Burroughs' work has since been featured in more than fifty international galleries and museums including Royal Academy of the Arts, Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim Museum, ZKM Karlsruhe, Sammlung Falckenberg, New Museum, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum, and Whitney Museum of American Art.^[79]

According to Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen, "We hung out at Burroughs's house one time in '93. So he decides to shoot up heroin and he takes out this utility belt full of syringes. Huge, old-fashioned ones from the '50s or something. Now, I have no idea how an 80 year old guy finds a vein, but he knew what he was doing. So we're all laying around high and stuff and then I notice in the pile of mail on the coffee table that there's a letter from the White House. I said 'Hey, this looks important.' and he replies 'Nah, it's probably just junk mail.' Well, I open the letter and it's from President Clinton inviting Burroughs to the White House for a poetry reading. I said 'Wow, do you have any idea how big this is!?' So he says 'What? Who's president nowadays?' and it floored me. He didn't even know who our current president was."^[80]{{rp|136}}{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

He became a member of a chaos magic organization, the Illuminates of Thanateros, in 1993.^[83]

Burroughs' last filmed performance was in the music video for "Last Night on Earth" by Irish rock band U2, filmed in Kansas City, Missouri, directed by Richie Smyth and also featuring Sophie Dahl.^[84]

Political beliefs

The only newspaper columnist Burroughs admired was the right-wing opinion shaper for the William Randolph Hearst newspaper chain, Westbrook Pegler.^[85] Burroughs believed in frontier individualism, which he championed as "our glorious frontier heritage on minding your own business." Burroughs came to equate liberalism with bureaucratic tyranny, viewing government authority as a collective of meddlesome forces legislating the curtailment of personal freedom. According to his biographer Ted Morgan, his philosophy for living one's life was to adhere to a laissez-faire path, one without encumbrances—in essence a credo shared with the capitalist business world.^[86] His abhorrence of the government did not prevent Burroughs from using its programs to his own advantage. In 1949 he enrolled in Mexico City College under the GI Bill, which paid for part of his tuition and books and provided him with a seventy-five-dollar-per-month stipend. He maintained, "I always say, keep your snout in the public trough."^[87]

Magical beliefs

Burroughs had a longstanding preoccupation with magic and the occult, dating from his earliest childhood, and was insistent throughout his life that we live in a "magical universe".^[88] As he himself explained:

This was no idle passing interest – Burroughs also actively practiced magic in his everyday life: seeking out mystical visions through practices like scrying,^[91]^[92]^[54] taking measures to protect himself from possession,^[93]^[94]^[95]^[38] and attempting to lay curses on those who had crossed him.^[61]^[96]^[97] Burroughs spoke openly about his magical practices, and his engagement with the occult is attested from a multitude of interviews,^[98]^[99] as well as personal accounts from those who knew him.^[61]^[96]^[95]

Biographer Ted Morgan has argued that: "As the single most important thing about Graham Greene was his viewpoint as a lapsed Catholic, the single most important thing about Burroughs was his belief in the magical universe. The same impulse that led him to put out curses was, as he saw it, the source of his writing ... To Burroughs behind everyday reality there was the reality of the spirit world, of psychic visitations, of curses, of possession and phantom beings."^[100]

Burroughs was unwavering in his insistence that his writing itself had a magical purpose.^[101]^[102]^[103]^[104]^[105] This was particularly true when it came to his use of the cut-up technique. Burroughs was adamant that the technique had a magical function, stating "the cut ups are not for artistic purposes".^[106] Burroughs used his cut-ups for "political warfare, scientific research, personal therapy, magical divination, and conjuration"^[106] – the essential idea being that the cut-ups allowed the user to "break down the barriers that surround consciousness".^[107] As Burroughs himself stated:

In the final decade of his life, Burroughs became heavily involved in the chaos magic movement. Burrough's magical techniques – the cut-up, playback, etc. – had been incorporated into chaos magic by such practitioners as Phil Hine,^[108]^[109]^[110] Dave Lee^[111] and Genesis P-Orridge.^[112]^[61] P-Orridge in particular had known and studied under Burroughs and Brion Gysin for over a decade.^[61] This led to Burroughs contributing material to the book Between Spaces: Selected Rituals & Essays From The Archives Of Templum Nigri Solis, published by Templum Nigri Solis, an "Australasian Chaos Sorcery" group.^[113] Through this connection, Burroughs came to personally know many of the leading lights of the chaos magic movement, including Hine, Lee, Peter J. Carroll, Ian Read and Ingrid Fischer, as well as Douglas Grant, head of the North American section of chaos magic group The Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT).^[88]^[114] Burroughs' involvement with the movement further deepened, as he contributed artwork and other material to chaos magic books,^[115] addressed an IOT gathering in Austria,^[116] and was eventually fully initiated into The Illuminates of Thanateros.^[117]^[88] As Burrough's close friend James Grauerholz states: "William was very serious about his studies in, and initiation into the IOT ... Our longtime friend, Douglas Grant, was a prime mover."^[114]

Death

Burroughs died August 2, 1997 in Lawrence, Kansas from complications of a heart attack he had suffered the previous day.^[18] He was interred in the family plot in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri,^[118] with a marker bearing his full name and the epitaph "American Writer". His grave lies to the right of the white granite obelisk of William Seward Burroughs I (1857–1898).

Posthumous works

Since 1997, several posthumous collections of Burroughs' work have been published. A few months after his death, a collection of writings spanning his entire career, Word Virus, was published (according to the book's introduction, Burroughs himself approved its contents prior to his death).^[39] Aside from numerous previously released pieces, Word Virus also included what was promoted as one of the few surviving fragments of And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a novel by Burroughs and Kerouac (later published in 2008). A collection of journal entries written during the final months of Burroughs' life was published as the book Last Words in 2000. Publication of a memoir by Burroughs entitled Evil River by Viking Press has been delayed several times; after initially being announced for a 2005 release, online booksellers indicated a 2007 release, complete with an ISBN number ({{ISBN|0670813516}}), but it remains unpublished.^[119] In December 2007, Ohio State University Press released Everything Lost: The Latin American Journals of William S. Burroughs. Edited by Oliver Harris, the book contains transcriptions of journal entries made by Burroughs during the time of composing Queer and The Yage Letters, with cover art and review information. In addition, restored editions of numerous texts have been published in recent years, all containing additional material and essays on the works. The complete Kerouac/Burroughs manuscript And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks was published for the first time in November 2008.^[120]

Literary style and periods

Burroughs' major works can be divided into four different periods. The dates refer to the time of writing, not publication, which in some cases was not until decades later:

Burroughs also produced numerous essays and a large body of autobiographical material, including a book with a detailed account of his own dreams (My Education: A Book of Dreams).

Reaction to critics and view on criticism

Several literary critics treated Burroughs' work harshly. For example, Anatole Broyard and Philip Toynbee wrote devastating reviews of some of his most important books. In a short essay entitled "A Review of the Reviewers", Burroughs answers his critics in this way:

Burroughs clearly indicates here that he prefers to be evaluated against such criteria over being reviewed based on the reviewer's personal reactions to a certain book. Always a contradictory figure, Burroughs nevertheless criticized Anatole Broyard for reading authorial intent into his works where there is none, which sets him at odds both with New Criticism and the old school as represented by Mathew Arnold.

Photography

Burroughs used photography extensively throughout his career, both as a recording medium in planning his writings, and as a significant dimension of his own artistic practice, in which photographs and other images feature as significant elements in cut-ups. With Ian Sommerville, he experimented with photography's potential as a form of memory-device, photographing and rephotographing his own pictures in increasingly complex time-image arrangements. (See: Patricia Allmer and John Sears (ed.) Taking Shots: The Photography of William S. Burroughs, London: Prestel and The Photographers' Gallery, 2014).

Legacy

Burroughs is often called one of the greatest and most influential writers of the 20th century, most notably by Norman Mailer whose quote on Burroughs, "The only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius", appears on many Burroughs publications. Others consider his concepts and attitude more influential than his prose. Prominent admirers of Burroughs' work have included British critic and biographer Peter Ackroyd, the rock critic Lester Bangs, the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the authors J. G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Jean Genet, William Gibson, Alan Moore, Kathy Acker and Ken Kesey. Burroughs had a profound influence on the German writer Carl Weissner, who in addition to being his German translator was a novelist in his own right and frequently wrote cut-up texts in a manner reminiscent of Burroughs.^[122]

Burroughs continues to be named as an influence by contemporary writers of fiction. Both the New Wave and, especially, the cyberpunk schools of science fiction are indebted to him. Admirers from the late 1970s—early 1980s milieu of this subgenre include William Gibson and John Shirley, to name only two. First published in 1982, the British slipstream fiction magazine Interzone (which later evolved into a more traditional science fiction magazine) paid tribute to him with its choice of name. He is also cited as a major influence by musicians Roger Waters, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Genesis P-Orridge, Ian Curtis, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Tom Waits and Kurt Cobain.^[123]

Drugs, homosexuality, and death, common among Burroughs' themes, have been taken up by Dennis Cooper, of whom Burroughs said, "Dennis Cooper, God help him, is a born writer".^[124] Cooper, in return, wrote, in his essay 'King Junk', "along with Jean Genet, John Rechy, and Ginsberg, [Burroughs] helped make homosexuality seem cool and highbrow, providing gay liberation with a delicious edge". Splatterpunk writer Poppy Z. Brite has frequently referenced this aspect of Burroughs' work. Burroughs' writing continues to be referenced years after his death; for example, a November 2004 episode of the TV series Crime Scene Investigation included an evil character named Dr. Benway (named for an amoral physician who appears in a number of Burroughs' works.) This is an echo of the hospital scene in the movie Repo Man, made during Burroughs' life-time, in which both Dr. Benway and Mr. Lee (a Burroughs pen name) are paged.

Burroughs was cited by Robert Anton Wilson as the first person to notice the "23 Enigma":

Appearances in media

In music

Burroughs appears on the cover of The Beatles' eighth studio album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Burroughs participated on numerous album releases by Giorno Poetry Systems, including The Nova Convention (featuring Frank Zappa, John Cage, and Philip Glass) and You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With (with John Giorno and Laurie Anderson).

He is featured in a spoken word piece entitled "Sharkey's Night" on Laurie Anderson's 1984 album Mister Heartbreak, but the longer version of this track, with additional dialogue from Burroughs, was released only on a promotional 4-track 12" Ep (Warner Bros PRO-A-2123). In addition, Burroughs provided vocal samples for the soundtrack of Anderson's 1986 concert film, Home of the Brave, and made a cameo appearance in it.

Burroughs reads a passage from his novel Nova Express during the bridge of the title song from Todd Tamanend Clark's 1984 album Into The Vision, which also features Cheetah Chrome from The Dead Boys on guitar.

Bill Laswell's Material collaborated with Burroughs to produce the 1989 album Seven Souls, wherein Burroughs recites passages from his book The Western Lands to musical accompaniment. The album was reissued in 1997 with 3 bonus remixes. In 1998, an additional unreleased six remixes (plus one previously released) were introduced on the album The Road To The Western Lands. Spring Heel Jack's remix of the track '"The Road to the Western Lands" from this album was also included on their Oddities album from 2000.

In 1990, Island Records released Dead City Radio, a collection of readings set to a broad range of musical compositions. It was produced by Hal Willner and Nelson Lyon, with musical accompaniment from John Cale, Donald Fagen, Lenny Pickett, Chris Stein, Sonic Youth, and others. The remastered edition of Sonic Youth's album Goo includes a longer version of "Dr. Benway's House", which had appeared, in shorter form, on Dead City Radio.

In 1992 he recorded "Quick Fix" with Ministry, which appeared on their single for "Just One Fix". The single featured cover art by Burroughs and a remix of the song dubbed the "W.S.B. mix". Burroughs also made an appearance in the video for "Just One Fix". The same year he also recorded the EP The "Priest" They Called Him; Burroughs reads the short story of the same name, while Kurt Cobain creates layers of guitar feedback and distortion. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic is featured on the cover as the titular "Priest". The track on the 13th Ministry album "Thanx but No Thanx" makes use of William S. Burroughs' poem "A Thanksgiving Prayer", as read by Sgt. Major.

In 1992 Burroughs worked with The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy on Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales, with the duo providing musical background and accompaniment to Burroughs' spoken readings from several of his books. A 12" Ep was released with five different remixes of the Spare Ass Annie track Words of Advice for Young People, all done by Bill Laswell.

Burroughs appears on two songs from Technodon, the 1993 reunion album by the Japanese electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra. The opening track "Be a Superman" begins with a sample of Burroughs proclaiming, "Be a man! Be a human animal... be a superman! Be a superman." The latter part of the sample reappears throughout. "I Tre Merli" features a longer reading taken from The Job.

Burroughs recites the lyrics of R.E.M.'s "Star Me Kitten" for a special version of the song on the Music from and Inspired by the X-Files soundtrack.

Burroughs appears near the end of U2's music video "Last Night on Earth", pushing a shopping cart with a large spotlight positioned inside it. The video ends with a close up of his eyes.

Burroughs is featured on the 2000 compilation tribute album, Stoned Immaculate, on a track that pairs Jim Morrison yelping and groaning with Burroughs reading Morrison's poetry. The music was recorded by the surviving Doors members in 2000 specifically for this album.^[126]

A Burroughs quote from a visualisation exercise called 'Take Nirvana'^[127] was used by director Shane Meadows in the final scene of The Stone Roses' 2013 concert DVD, Made of Stone.^[128]

Band names

Numerous bands have found their names in Burroughs' work. The most widely known of these is Steely Dan, a group named after a dildo in Naked Lunch.^[129] Also from Naked Lunch came the names Clarknova, The Mugwumps and The Insect Trust. The novel Nova Express inspired the names of Grant Hart's post-Hüsker Dü band Nova Mob, as well as Australian 1960s R&B band Nova Express.^[130] British band Soft Machine took its moniker from the Burroughs novel of the same name. Alt-country band Clem Snide is named for a Burroughs character. Thin White Rope took their name from Burroughs' euphemism for ejaculation.^[131]

The American extreme metal band Success Will Write Apocalypse Across the Sky took their name from the 1989 text "Apocalypse",^[132] in which Burroughs describes "art and creative expression taking a literal and physical form".^[133]

In film and television

Burroughs played Opium Jones in the 1966 Conrad Rooks cult film Chappaqua, which also featured cameo roles by Allen Ginsberg, Moondog, and others. In 1968, an abbreviated—77 minutes as opposed to the original's 104 minutes—version of Benjamin Christensen's 1922 film Häxan was released, subtitled Witchcraft Through The Ages. This version, produced by Antony Balch, featured an eclectic jazz score by Daniel Humair and expressionist narration by Burroughs.^[134] He also appeared alongside Brion Gysin in a number of short films in the 1960s directed by Balch.^[135] Jack Sargeant's book Beat Cinema details Burroughs film work at length, covering his collaborations with Balch and Burroughs' theories of film.

Burroughs narrated part of the 1980 documentary Shamans of the Blind Country by anthropologist and filmmaker Michael Oppitz.^[136] He gave a reading on Saturday Night Live on November 7, 1981, in an episode hosted by Lauren Hutton.

In 1983 director Howard Brookner released the Movie. The film is perhaps the definitive account of Burroughs' life and Brookner and Burroughs maintained a very close collaboration during the shooting process. The film features interviews with many of Burroughs' friends and collaborators including Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith and Terry Southern.

Burroughs subsequently made cameo appearances in a number of other films and videos, such as David Blair's Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees, an elliptic story about the first Gulf War in which Burroughs plays a beekeeper, and Decoder by Klaus Maeck. He played an aging junkie priest in Gus Van Sant's 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy. He also appears briefly at the beginning of Van Sant's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (based on the Tom Robbins novel), in which he is seen crossing a city street; as the noise of the city rises around him he pauses in the middle of the intersection and speaks the single word "ominous". Van Sant's short film "Thanksgiving Prayer" features Burroughs reading the poem "Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986", from Tornado Alley, intercut with a collage of black and white images.

Burroughs was portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland in the 2000 film Beat, written and directed by Gary Walkow. Loosely biographical, the plot involves a car trip to Mexico City with Vollmer, Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Lucien Carr, and includes a scene of Vollmer's shooting.

Burroughs is portrayed by Ben Foster in the 2013 film Kill Your Darlings, directed by John Krokidas and written by John Krokidas and Austin Bunn. The film tells the story of Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) and David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall), with appearances by actors playing Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) and Kerouac (Jack Huston).^[137]

Near the end of his life, recordings of Burroughs reading his short stories "A Junky's Christmas" and "Ah Pook Is Here" were used on the soundtracks of two highly acclaimed animated films.^[138]

Filmmakers Lars Movin and Steen Moller Rasmussen used footage of Burroughs taken during a 1983 tour of Scandinavia in the documentary William S. Burroughs on the Road. A 2010 documentary, William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, was made for Independent Lens on PBS.

As a fictional character

Burroughs was fictionalized in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novel On the Road as "Old Bull Lee". He also makes an appearance in J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical 1991 novel The Kindness of Women. In the 2004 novel Move Under Ground, Burroughs, Kerouac, and Neal Cassady team up to defeat Cthulhu.

Burroughs appears in the first part of The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson during the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots and is described as a person devoid of anger, passion, indignation, hope, or any other recognizable human emotion. He is presented as a polar opposite of Allen Ginsberg, as Ginsberg believed in everything and Burroughs believed in nothing. Wilson would recount in his Down to Earth having interviewed both Burroughs and Ginsberg for Playboy the day the riots began, as well as his experiences with Shea during the riots, providing details on the creation of the fictional sequence.^[139]

Bibliography

See also

Notes

1. ^Stevens, Matthew Levi (2014). The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. Mandrake of Oxford.
2. ^Morgan, Ted (1988). Literary Outlaw. Pimlico.
3. ^El Nacional, Sept. 8, 1951
4. ^La Prensa, Sept. 8, 1951
5. ^[https://www.theguardian.com/books/data/author/william-s-burroughs Biography], The Guardian
6. ^¹Naked Lunch: The Restored Text, Harper Perennial Modern Classics (2005). It includes an introduction by J. G. Ballard and an appendix of biography and reference to further reading: "About the author", "About the book" and "Read on".
7. ^2003 Penguin Modern Classics edition of Junky.
8. ^"TV: So much of your work deals with the juncture between science and mystery, it seems. I mean there've been references to Orgone boxes, and Scientology, and Castaneda, it just goes on and on ... how did you get interested in this sort of area? WB: Always was. I always was involved in that area from my early childhood. I was always interested in the occult and the mysterious ... just a life-long preoccupation." – William S. Burroughs, interviewed by Tom Vitali, 26th Nov 1986. Transcript published as A Moveable Feast in Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs 1960-1977. 2001.
9. ^"When I was four years old I saw a vision in Forest Park, St. Louis ... I was lagging behind and I saw a little green reindeer about the size of a cat ... Later, when I studied anthropology at Harvard, I learned that this was a totem animal vision and knew that I could never kill a reindeer." – William S. Burroughs, The Cat Inside. Viking. 1992.
10. ^"I was subject to hallucinations as a child. Once I woke up in the early morning light and saw little men playing in a block house I had made. I felt no fear, only a feeling of stillness and wonder." – William S. Burroughs, prologue, Junky. Penguin. 1977.
11. ^William S Burroughs Popsubculture.com Biography.
12. ^Morgan, Ted, Literary Outlaw, p. 44.
13. ^¹Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader. James Grauerholz, Ira Silverberg, Ann Douglas (eds), Grove Press, 2000, p. 21.
14. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 26.
15. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, papers, p. 62.
16. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 611.
17. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 65.
18. ^¹{{cite news |title = William S. Burroughs Dies at 83; Member of the Beat Generation Wrote 'Naked Lunch' |first = Richard |last = Severo |date = August 3, 1997 |publisher = New York Times |url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEED6123DF930A3575BC0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |accessdate = October 22, 2007 }}
19. ^¹{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=MMZqLXP01e4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Beat+Culture:+Lifestyles,+Icons,+and+Impact%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjLj87ZtbrgAhUho1kKHe8LDhkQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Klapper&f=false|title=Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons, and Impact|last=Lawlor|first=William|date=2005|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=|isbn=9781851094004|location=|pages=29|language=en}}
20. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, pp. 65–8.
21. ^Grauerholz, James. Introduction p. xv, in William Burroughs. Interzone. New York: Viking Press, 1987.
22. ^{{cite book |title = The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac |publisher = Penguin Group |author = Johnson, Joyce |year = 2012 |isbn = 9780670025107 }}
23. ^¹{{cite book |last1 = Grauerholz |first1 = James |last2 = Silverberg |first2 = Ira |title = Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader |date = Dec 1, 2007 |publisher = Grove Press |page = 42 }}
24. ^Women of the Beat.org written by Maureen Latvala {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927184715/http://www.womenofthebeat.org/JoanVollmer/JoanVollmer2.htm |date=September 27, 2007 }}
25. ^¹{{cite news |last1=Severo |first1=Richard |title=William S. Burroughs, the Beat Writer Who Distilled His Raw Nightmare Life, Dies at 83 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/13/specials/burroughs-obit.html |accessdate=February 7, 2015 |work=New York Times |date=August 4, 1997}}
26. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.lawrence.com/news/2003/dec/09/the_death/ |title=The Death of Joan Vollmer Burroughs: What Really Happened? |accessdate=July 28, 2008 |last=Grauerholz |first=James |work=American Studies Department, University of Kansas |publisher=lawrence.com|date=2003-12-09 }}
27. ^{{cite news |last1=Snowden |first1=Lynn |title=Which is the Fly and Which is Human |url=http://callmeburroughs.tripod.com/joan.html |accessdate=February 7, 2015 |work=Esquire |date=February 1992}}
28. ^{{cite news |title=Heir's Pistol Kills His Wife; He Denies Playing Wm. Tell |url=http://callmeburroughs.tripod.com/joan.html |accessdate=February 7, 2015 |agency=Associated Press |date=September 7, 1951}}
29. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 202.
30. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 214.
31. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, pp. 197–198.
32. ^¹Queer, Penguin, 1985, p. xxiii.
33. ^Stevens, Matthew Levi. The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. p.125.
34. ^"When Gysin, apparently in trance, told Burroughs 'The Ugly Spirit shot Joan because' he thought he finally had the answer ... the unforgiveable slip that had caused the death of his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer ... had come about because he was literally possessed by an evil spirit ... William instinctively knew the only solution available to him ... If the Word was indeed the basic mechanism of control - the 'virus' by which The Ugly Spirit, or its agency Control, exerted its malevolent influence - then surely a real understanding of the Word, what words are and what can be done with them - was essential. All these explorations and obsessions were not merely diversions, experiments for artistic or literary amusement ... but part of a deadly struggle with unseen, invisible - perhaps evil - psycho-spiritual enemies." – Stevens, Matthew Levi. The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. pp.124-125.
35. ^"The cut-up techniques made very explicit a preoccupation with exorcism - William's texts became spells, for instance." – Terry Wilson, in conversation with Brion Gysin. Ports of Entry, published in Here to go: planet R-101 (1982). Re/Search Publications.
36. ^"The word of course is one of the most powerful instruments of control ... Now if you start cutting these up and rearranging them you are breaking down the control system." – William S. Burroughs, interviewed by Daniel Odier. Journey through space-time, published in The Job (1970). John Calder Ltd.
37. ^"Burroughs often wrote about his belief in a 'magical universe.' ... Curses are real, possession is real. This struck him as a better model for human experience and psychology than the neurosis theories of Freud, in the end ... he did pursue a lifelong quest for spiritual techniques by which to master his unruly thoughts and feelings, to gain a feeling of safety from oppression and assault from without, and from within." – James Grauerholz, On Burroughs and Dharma, Summer Writing Institute, 24th June 1999, Naropa University. Transcript published in Beat Scene Magazine, No.71a, Winter 2014.
38. ^¹William S. Burroughs, interviewed by Allen Ginsberg (1992). Published as The Ugly Spirit in Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs 1960-1997. 2001.
39. ^¹James Grauerholz. Word Virus, New York: Grove, 1998.
40. ^¹"William S. Burroughs." Biography.com.
41. ^Bill Morgan, I Celebrate Myself, 2006, New York: Viking Press, p. 159.
42. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, pp. 232–34.
43. ^James Grauerholz writes, in Interzone, the body of text that Burroughs was working on was called Interzone, see Burroughs, William S. Interzone. "Introduction", pp. ix–xiii. New York: Viking Press, 1987.
44. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, pp. 238–42.
45. ^Miles, Barry "The Inventive Mind of Brion Gysin" in José Férez Kuri (ed) Brion Gysin: Tuning in to the Multimedia Age, London: Thames and Hudson, 2003, p.124-125.
46. ^Burroughs, William S., Ports of Entry – Here is Space-Time Painting, p.32.
47. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 355.
48. ^Ginsberg, Allen. Postcard to John Ciardi. July 11, 1959. MS. Stuart Wright Collection: Richard Ghormley Eberhart Papers. Joyner Lib., Greenville, North Carolina.
49. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 425.
50. ^Grauerholz, James. Introduction p. xviii, in William Burroughs. Interzone. New York: Viking Press, 1987.
51. ^Stevens, Matthew Levi. The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. p.50.
52. ^"Once I looked in a mirror and saw my hands completely inhuman, thick, black-pink, fibrous, long white tendrils growing from the curiously abbreviated finger-tips as if the finger have been cut off to make way for tendrils." – William S. Burroughs, Letter to Allen Ginsberg, 2nd Jan 1959. The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945 to 1959. Viking Penguin, 1993.
53. ^"What is happening is that I literally turn into someone else, not a human creature but man-like: He wears some sort of green uniform. The face is full of black boiling fuz and what most people would call evil - silly word. I have been seeing him for some time in the mirror." – William S. Burroughs, Letter to Allen Ginsberg, late July 1959. The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945 to 1959. Viking Penguin, 1993.
54. ^¹William S. Burroughs, letter to Brion Gysin, 17th Jan 1959. The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945 to 1959. Viking Penguin, 1993.
55. ^"The Para-normal occurrences thick and fast ... I saw Stern lose about seven pounds in ten minutes ... On another occasion he felt my touch on his arm across six feet of space." – William S. Burroughs, Letter to Allen Ginsberg, 2nd Jan 1959. The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945 to 1959. Viking Penguin, 1993.
56. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p.316-326.
57. ^Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker: Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting
58. ^Dent, John Yerbury. Anxiety and Its Treatment. London: J. Murray, 1941.
59. ^Burroughs, William, S. "Afterword". Speed/Kentucky Ham: Two Novels. New York: Overlook Press, 1984.
60. ^Lee Hill A Grand Guy: The Art and Life of Terry Southern.
61. ^¹²³⁴P-Orridge, Genesis. Magick Squares and Future Beats
62. ^"William continued going to the bar for a few more days, enduring their abuse, while he tape recorded the sounds inside. Later, he would stand outside and film or photograph the premises from outside. THen he went back n and began to play the tape recordings at low or subliminal levels, and continued to take photographs on his way in and out of the place ... The effects were remarkable: accidents occurred, fights broke out, the place lost customers, the subsequent loss of income became irredeemable, and within a few weeks, the bar was permanently closed." – Cabell McLean, Playback: My Experience of Chaos Magic with William S. Burroughs, Sr. Ashe Journal of Experimental Spirituality, Vol.2 Issue 3. 2003.
63. ^" ... Burroughs also made similarly sorcerous attempts that same year against the London HQ of Scientology at 37 Fitzroy Street. Although he considered it another success when they closed down, he seemed unable to bring any 'playback' influence to bear on their new location in Tottenham Court Road." – Stevens, Matthew Levi. The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. p.129.
64. ^William S. Burroughs, Playback From Eden to Watergate, published in The Job. John Calder Ltd.
65. ^David S. Wills, "The Weird Cult: William S. Burroughs and Scientology", Beatdom Literary Journal, December 2011.
66. ^Burroughs on Scientology, Los Angeles Free Press, March 6, 1970.
67. ^[https://www.google.com/maps/place/222+Bowery,+New+York,+NY+10012/@40.7220402,-73.993453,3a,60y,292.52h,88.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssstm2M9ZCupP7EW9Q_4vPQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c25985e2404163:0x9613dc038516de20!8m2!3d40.7221412!4d-73.9937417!6m1!1e1?hl=en Google street view: 222 Bowery]
68. ^Bockris, Victor. With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1996.
69. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 477.
70. ^Thurston Moore interview on William Burroughs
71. ^Charters, Ann. "Introduction". Speed/Kentucky Ham: Two Novels. New York: Overlook Press, 1984.
72. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, pp. 495–536.
73. ^¹Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 565.
74. ^Burroughs, William. "Introduction". Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs. New York: Grove Press, 2000.
75. ^"Godfather of Beat Generation was content to live last days in Kansas", Wichita Eagle and Kansas.com, April 5, 2010.
76. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 596.
77. ^Morgan, Literary Outlaw, p. 577.
78. ^William S. Burroughs 'Life-File' at Beak Street.
79. ^"William Burroughs Biography", October Gallery.
80. ^{{cite book|last1=Jourgensen|first1=Al|author-link=Al Jourgensen|last2=Wiederhorn|first2=Jon|title=Ministry: The Lost Gospels According To Al Jourgensen|date=July 9, 2013|publisher=Da Capo Press|ref=harv|lastauthoramp=y|isbn=9780306822186|via=Internet Archive|postscript=. Includes the discography section on pp. 275-278. Between pp. 128 and 129 there are 12 pages of pictures.}}
81. ^{{Citation |title = St. Louis Walk of Fame - William Burroughs |publisher = St. Louis Walk of Fame |year = 2008 |url = http://stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductees/william-burroughs.html |accessdate = April 25, 2013 }}
82. ^"The Life of William S. Burroughs: A timeline," Phil Cauthon, lawrence.com. July 30, 2007. Retrieved: May 24, 2010.
83. ^{{cite web |last = Grant |first = Douglas |title = Magick and Photography |url = http://www.ashejournal.com/index.php?id=166 |year = 2003 |work = Ashé Journal |publisher = Rebel Satori Press |accessdate = March 31, 2012 }}
84. ^William S. Burroughs: Overview from msn.com
85. ^Morgan, Ted, "Literary Outlaw", W. W. Norton & Company, 2012, p. 170
86. ^Morgan, Ted, "Literary Outlaw", W. W. Norton & Company, 2012, p. 55
87. ^Morgan, Ted, "Literary Outlaw", Morgan, Ted, W. W. Norton & Company, 2012, p. 173
88. ^¹²Stevens, Matthew Levi (2014). The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. Mandrake of Oxford.
89. ^William S. Burroughs, quoted in Morgan, Ted (1988). Literary Outlaw. Pimlico.
90. ^William S. Burroughs, in conversation with Stephen Davis, Rock Magic, Crawdaddy Magazine. 1975. Published in LZ-'75: The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin's 1975 American Tour. Penguin Publishing Group. 2010.
91. ^William S. Burroughs, Letter to Allen Ginsberg, 2nd Jan 1959. The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945 to 1959. Viking Penguin, 1993.
92. ^William S. Burroughs, Letter to Allen Ginsberg, late July 1959. The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945 to 1959. Viking Penguin, 1993.
93. ^Terry Wilson, in conversation with Brion Gysin. Ports of Entry, published in Here to go: planet R-101 (1982). Re/Search Publications.
94. ^William S. Burroughs, interviewed by Daniel Odier. Journey through space-time, published in The Job (1970). John Calder Ltd.
95. ^¹James Grauerholz, On Burroughs and Dharma, Summer Writing Institute, 24th June 1999, Naropa University. Transcript published in Beat Scene Magazine, No.71a, Winter 2014.
96. ^¹Cabell McLean, Playback: My Experience of Chaos Magic with William S. Burroughs, Sr. Ashe Journal of Experimental Spirituality, Vol.2 Issue 3. 2003.
97. ^William S. Burroughs, Playback From Eden to Watergate, published in The Job. John Calder Ltd. 1970.
98. ^"Interviewer: You're interested in the occult, aren't you? Burroughs: Certainly. I'm interested in the golden dawn, Aleister Crowley, all the astrological aspects." – William S. Burroughs, Grandpa From Hell, LA Weekly, 1996. Published in Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs 1970-1997.
99. ^"I will speak now for magical truth to which I myself subscribe. Magic is the assertion of will, the assumption that nothing happens in this universe (that is to say the minute fraction of the universe we are able to contact) unless some entity wills it to happen." – William S. Burroughs, On Coincidence, in The Adding Machine: Collected Essays, 1985.
100. ^Morgan, Ted (1988). Literary Outlaw. Pimlico.
101. ^"It is to be remembered that all art is magical in origin - music sculpture writing painting - and by magical I mean intended to produce very definite results ... " – William S. Burroughs, Essay on Brion Gysin for Contemporary Artists, ed. Naylor and P-Orridge (1977). As quoted in Brion Gysin and Terry Wilson, Here to Go: Planet R101 (1982).
102. ^"I will examine the connections between so-called occult phenomena and the creative process. Are not all writers, consciously or not, operating in these areas?" – William S. Burroughs, Technology of Writing, included in The Adding Machine: Collected Essays. 1985. John Calder Ltd.
103. ^"JT: Rather than simply informing us of a vision of the future, as in The Wild Boys, I feel the ultimate end of your fiction is a kind of alchemy - magic based on precise and incantatory arrangement of language to create particular effects, such as the violation of Western conditioning. WB: I would say that that was accurate ... Of course the beginning of writing, and perhaps of all art, was related to the magical. Cave painting, which is the beginning of writing ... The purpose of those paintings was magical, that is to produce the effect that is depicted." – William S. Burroughs, interviewed by John Tytell, New York, 24th March 1974. Transcript published in A Burroughs Compendium: Calling the Toads (1998).
104. ^"NZ: Your work often seems more primitive, ritualistic or magical perhaps. WB: It's supposed to be, yes. It's supposed to have an element of magical invocation." – William S. Burroughs, interviewed Nicholas Zurbrugge. Transcript published in My Kind of Angel, 1998.
105. ^Queer, Penguin, 1985.
106. ^¹Harris, Oliver. William S. Burroughs: Beating Postmodernism
107. ^¹Burroughs, William S. The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs
108. ^Hine, Phil (2000). Zimbu Xototl Time. Ashe Journal of Experimental Spirituality, Vol.2, Issue 3.
109. ^Hine, Phil. Bitter Venom: The Magic of William S. Burroughs.
110. ^Hine, Phil. Cacodemonic Copulations.
111. ^Lee, Dave. Cut Up and Collage in Magic
112. ^P-Orridge, Genesis. THEE PSYCHICK BIBLE
113. ^Templum Nigri Solis (2010). Between Spaces: Selected Rituals & Essays From The Archives Of Templum Nigri Solis. {{ISBN|9780646535289}}.
114. ^¹Grauerholz, James interviewed 25th June 2010 by Steve Foland. Taking the broooooaaaaad view of things: A Conversation with James Grauerholz on William S. Burroughs and Magick, Online at http://pop-damage.com/?p=5393 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101111213022/http://pop-damage.com/?p=5393 |date=November 11, 2010 }}
115. ^Hine, Phil. Condensed Chaos: An Introduction to Chaos Magic. New Falcon, 1995.
116. ^William S. Burroughs Addresses The Magickal Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros. Transcript published in Kaos Magic Journal No.1, 1994.
117. ^"William ... was subsequently initiated into the IOT, by myself and another Frater and Soror. William did not reecive an honorary degree, he was put through an evening of ritual that included a Retro Spell Casting Rite, and Invocation of Chaos, and a Santeria Rite, as well as the Neophyte Ritual inducting WIlliam into the IOT as a full member ... Though it is not included in the list of items buried with William, James Grauerholz assured me that William was buried with his IOT Initiate ring." – Douglas Grant, Magick and Photography, Ashe Journal of Experimental Spirituality, Vol.2 Issue 3, 2003.
118. ^Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 6494). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
119. ^Reality Studio.org: Evil River-A Burroughs Memoir?, a 2005 discussion on the origin of this book.
120. ^Chris Hastings and Beth Jones, "[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/02/wkerouac102.xml New Jack Kerouac book to be published], The Telegraph, March 2, 2008 . Retrieved March 3, 2008.
121. ^Burroughs, William S. The Adding Machine: Selected Essays. Arcade Publishing, 1993
122. ^{{cite web |url = http://realitystudio.org/publications/death-in-paris/in-memory-of-carl-weissner/ |title = In Memory of Carl Weissner |date = January 25, 2012 |publisher = Reality Studio |accessdate = February 25, 2012 }}
123. ^Wills, D. 'Modern Beats: Tom Waits', in Wills, D. (ed.), Beatdom, Vol. 3 (Dundee: Mauling Press, 2007) p. ????
124. ^{{cite book |title = My Loose Thread |publisher = Canongate Books |author = Cooper, Dennis |year = 2003 |page = 1 |isbn = 9781841954127 }}
125. ^{{cite web |title = The 23 Phenomenon |author = Robert Anton Wilson |url = http://forteantimes.com/features/commentary/396/the_23_phenomenon.html |publisher = Fortean Times |date = May 2007 |accessdate = September 25, 2008 |authorlink = Robert Anton Wilson |deadurl = yes |archiveurl = https://archive.is/20120526215723/http://forteantimes.com/features/commentary/396/the_23_phenomenon.html |archivedate = May 26, 2012 |df = mdy-all }}
126. ^The Music of The Doors liner notes
127. ^{{cite book|title= Refiguring Techniques in Digital Visual Research|url=https://books.google.com/?id=adsxDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA121&dq=William%20S.%20Burroughs%20zero%20camera&pg=PA121#v=onepage&q&f=false|accessdate=11 April 2018|isbn=9783319612225|last1=Cruz|first1=Edgar Gómez|last2=Sumartojo|first2=Shanti|last3=Pink|first3=Sarah|date=2017-08-20}}
128. ^{{cite web|title= Phoenix New Times|url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/how-made-of-stone-explains-the-stone-roses-and-the-death-of-rave-culture-6622505|publisher=phoenixnewtimes.com|accessdate=11 April 2018|date=2013-12-11}}
129. ^FAQ from the Official Steely Dan website
130. ^Nova Express, band profile
131. ^{{cite web |work = AllMusic |title = Thin White Rope Biography |first = Jason |last = Ankeny |url = http://www.allmusic.com/artist/thin-white-rope-mn0000496207 }}
132. ^{{cite book |last = Murphy |first = Timothy S. |title = Wising Up the Marks: The Amodern William Burroughs |publisher = University of California Press |location = Berkeley, California |year = 1998 |page = 6 |chapter = Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted |isbn = 978-0-520-20951-0 |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=x_x5kgD1ijAC&lpg=PA6&dq=Success%20Will%20Write%20Apocalypse%20Across%20the%20Sky&client=firefox-a&pg=PA6 |accessdate = June 23, 2009 }}
133. ^{{cite web |url = http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showinterview.php?id=2619&lang=en |title = Success Will Write Apocalypse Across the Sky interview |last = G. |first = Richard |date = April 2009 |publisher = Lords of Metal |accessdate = June 23, 2009 }}
134. ^{{cite web |title = Häxan / Witchcraft Through the Ages: The Criterion Collection |author = Mark Bourne |url = http://www.dvdjournal.com/reviews/h/haxan_cc.shtml |publisher = DVD Journal |year = 2001 |accessdate = October 24, 2008 }}
135. ^U B U W E B : William S. Burroughs Films
136. ^Ausgewählte Publikationen von Michael Oppitz {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080523191844/http://www.musethno.unizh.ch/de/publikationen/michael_oppitz.html |date=May 23, 2008 }} from the website of the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zürich.
137. ^[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/movies/kill-your-darlings-stars-daniel-radcliffe.html?src=dayp&pagewanted=2 "The Watchful Years, Before the Howling Began" (movie review)], The New York Times, October 15, 2013.
138. ^Wills, David, "Naked Lunch on Film" in Beatdom, Vol. 5 (City of Recovery Press, 2009), p. 30.
139. ^{{cite book |last1 = Wilson |first1 = Robert Anton |title = Cosmic Trigger Volume 2, Down to Earth |publisher = New Falcon Publications |date = 1993 |page = 37 |isbn = 978-1561840113 }}