Call Me Burroughs
Page 91
13. WSB, The Western Lands, 13.
14. Victor Bockris, With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker, 65.
15. Jeffrey Scott Dunn, “A Conversation: Ginsberg on Burroughs,” Pennsylvania Review (Fall/Winter 1987): 42.
16. Reported by Stewart Meyer in Book of Days (unpublished).
17. Ibid.
18. “William Burroughs and Brion Gysin,” WSB interviewed by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, October 16, 1982.
19. From WSB interviewed by San Fleischer and Dan Turèll, Copenhagen, October 29, 1983.
20. “William Burroughs: Intellectual Gunman, Spectacular Junkie at Seventy Years of Age,” WSB interviewed by William Triplett, Washington Review, June–July 1984.
21. “The Devil’s Bargain: Two Interviews with William Burroughs,” WSB interviewed by Nicholas Zurbrugg, November 22, 1983, Art & Text, no. 35 (Summer 1990).
22. “William Burroughs: Intellectual Gunman, Spectacular Junkie at Seventy Years of Age,” WSB interviewed by William Triplett, Washington Review, June–July 1984.
23. WSB interviewed by Michele Corriel, Cover, January 1988.
24. “Shooting Gallery,” WSB interviewed by Lucinda Bredin, Evening Standard (London), June 2, 1988.
25. Marcel Duchamp, Notes on the Large Glass numbers 83, 84, and 85, The Green Box notes, 1912–1918. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
26. Unpublished text, 1987.
27. Fuck You: A Magazine of the Arts, no. 5, vol. 9 [sic] (July 1965).
28. WSB, Painting and Guns, 10.
29. Ibid., 15.
30. Wayne Propst interviewed by Tom King, September 2010, http://ereview.org/2010/09/22/reality-my-way (accessed January 2013).
31. Morgan, tape 1.
32. Morgan, tape 3.
Chapter Fifty
1. WSB, introduction to Brion Gysin, The Last Museum, 8.
2. It has been suggested that it is in fact built from a Montgomery Ward house kit. Both companies destroyed their records, but it looks like a Sears house.
3. WSB interviewed by the author, Lawrence, Kansas, November 29, 1991.
4. WSB, The Western Lands, 79.
5. Frank Tankard, The Inner Circle, July 30, 2007, http://www.lawrence.com/news/2007/jul/30/inner_circle? (accessed February 2013).
6. David Ohle, Mutate or Die: With Burroughs in Kansas (no pagination).
7. WSB, The Western Lands, 79–82.
8. WSB interviewed by San Fleischer and Dan Turèll, Copenhagen, October 29, 1983.
9. As witnessed by the author.
10. “Interview with William Burroughs,” by Jennie Skerl, Moody Street Irregulars (Winter–Spring 1981).
11. WSB interviewed by T. X. Erbe, East Village Eye, April 1984.
12. This was said to the author.
13. “An Ex-Junkie Exterminator,” WSB interviewed by Lynn Snowden, Guardian, April 25, 1992.
14. Pauline lost two fingers in an explosion using that flamethrower shortly afterward.
15. The manuscript of Queer had been raided in order to complete Junky back in 1953 and disappeared. For two decades there was no known copy. The manuscript was sold, along with Burroughs’s other archives, to Roberto Altman, who then sold them to the rare book collector Robert Jackson. During the transfer of ownership, a Xerox copy was made of the manuscript. See Oliver Harris’s introduction to the 25th Anniversary edition of Queer for the full story of the manuscript.
16. The author of this book found the manuscript of Interzone described as an “enclosure” on the index card for a letter from WSB to Lawrence Ferlinghetti in the card catalog of the Butler Library of Columbia University. I made a photocopy and told Andrew Wylie about it—he was my agent at the time—saying that I thought it should be published.
17. WSB interviewed by Kurt Chandler and John Lehndorff, Sunday Camera (Boulder, CO), July 28, 1985. The incident involving the Mexican policeman was in fact in Junky.
18. WSB, Queer, 131–32.
19. WSB to Brion Gysin, January 30, 1985.
20. “An Ex-Junkie Exterminator,” WSB interviewed by Lynn Snowden, Guardian, April 25, 1992.
21. WSB, introduction to Everything Is Permitted: The Making of “Naked Lunch.”
22. WSB interviewed by James Fox, Sunday Times Magazine, March 22, 1987. 22. Saint-John Perse, Anabasis, 83.
23. WSB interviewed by Kurt Chandler and John Lehndorff, Sunday Camera (Boulder, CO), July 28, 1985.
24. Ibid.
25. WSB, The Western Lands, 252.
26. WSB to Brion Gysin, January 30, 1985.
27. WSB to Brion Gysin, October 12, 1985.
28. Brion Gysin to WSB, August 28, 1985.
29. Times (London), July 26, 1988.
30. Terry Wilson, Perilous Passage, 137.
31. WSB interviewed by Timothy Leary, Mondo 2000, no. 4 (1991).
32. WSB interviewed by Robbie Conal and Tom Christie, LA Weekly, July 19, 1996.
33. WSB interviewed by Kristine McKenna, September 13, 1990, in Burroughs Live: Collected Interviews, 722–23.
34. WSB interviewed by James Fox, Sunday Times Magazine, March 22, 1987.
35. WSB, The Job, 97.
36. Ibid., 116.
37. John Geiger, Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted, 309.
38. Ted Morgan’s interview with James Grauerholz, 1986.
39. WSB, introduction to Gysin, The Last Museum, 8.
40. “William Tells,” WSB interviewed by Legs McNeil, Spin, October 1991.
41. WSB, The Western Lands, 236.
42. Ibid., 198.
43. Ibid.
44. WSB interviewed by Richard Goldstein, College Papers, no. 1 (Fall 1979).
45. WSB interviewed by James Fox, Sunday Times Magazine, March 22, 1987.
46. WSB interviewed by Jim McMenamin and Larry McCaffery in Across the Wounded Galaxies, ed. Larry McCaffery (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1990).
47. WSB, The Western Lands, 25.
48. WSB interviewed by James Fox, Sunday Times Magazine, March 22, 1987.
49. Saint-John Perse, Anabasis, 10.
50. “Journey Through Time-Space,” WSB interviewed by Daniel Odier, Evergreen Review vol. 13, no. 67 (June 1969).
51. WSB, The Western Lands, 3.
52. Ibid., 74–75.
53. Ibid., 235.
54. Ibid., 42.
55. Ibid., 171.
56. Ibid., 37.
57. Ibid., 40.
58. Ibid., 63.
59. Ibid., 134.
60. Ibid., 45.
61. Ibid., 258.
Chapter Fifty-One
1. Denton Welch, In Youth Is Pleasure, 128.
2. WSB, Word Virus, 413.
3. “Shooting Gallery,” WSB interviewed by Lucinda Bredin, Evening Standard, June 2, 1988.
4. See WSB and Philip Taaffe, Drawing Dialogue (New York: Pat Hearn Gallery, 1987), a transcription of a dialogue recorded while they drew pictures together on February 1, 1987.
5. WSB interviewed by the author, November 29, 1991.
6. “William S. Burroughs: Afterlife,” WSB interviewed by Eldon Garnet, Impulse (Toronto), February 25, 2008.
7. Ibid.
8. “Entrance to the Museum of Lost Species,” in the catalog to WSB’s show at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, December 19, 1987–January 24, 1988.
9. Ibid.
10. “Painting isn’t an aesthetic operation; it’s a form of magic designed as mediator between this strange hostile world and us.” Pablo Picasso, source unknown.
11. From a letter written at Castle Boisgeloup (Winter 1934), quoted in Richard Friedenthal, ed., Letters of the Great Artists: From Blake to Pollock (London, Thames & Hudson, 1963), 257–58.
12. WSB interviewed by the author, November 29, 1991.
13. Ibid.
14. WSB interviewed by Simone Ellis, Contemporanea, no. 23 (December 1990).
15. “Shooting Gallery,” WSB interviewed by Lucinda Bredin, Evening Standard, June 2, 1988.
16. WSB interviewed by Kristine McKenna, Los Angeles Times, July 14, 1996.
17. Gus Van Sant, author essay, Random House website.
18. Gus Van Sant interviewed by Alex Simon, Venice magazine, December 1997.
19. Gus Van Sant interviewed by Scott Tobias, March 5, 2003, A.V. Club, http://www.avclub.com/articles/gus-van-sant,13800 (accessed February 2013).
20. Raymond Foye to Ted Morgan, Morgan papers, “79. Wm Seventies. Raymond Foye.”
21. Marcus Ewert, “In Bed with Burroughs,” http://www.lawrence.com/news/2007/jul/30/bed_burroughs (accessed October 2013).
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. WSB, My Education, 99.
26. The 1821 opera of the same name by Carl Maria von Weber, with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, is based on the same story.
27. WSB, “George Schmid,” in the program for The Black Rider, Hamburg, March 31, 1990.
28. WSB interviewed by Klaus Maeck, Kozmik Blues, 9–15, special William Burroughs issue, 1990.
29. ftp://nmedia.net/pub/old/wsb/black-rider.html (accessed January 2013).
30. These artworks are reproduced in the book Paper Cloud Thick Pages (Kyoto: Kyoto Shoin International, 1992).
31. WSB, Paper Cloud Thick Pages (not paginated).
32. WSB interviewed by Victor Bockris, fall 1990.
33. WSB, My Education, 101.
34. Ibid.
35. WSB, Last Words, 81.
Chapter Fifty-Two
1. Morgan, tape 14.
2. Ira Silverberg, Everything Is Permitted, 15.
3. Chris Peachment, “A Trip to the Interzone,” Independent on Sunday, June 30, 1991.
4. Morgan, tape 23.
5. WSB to the author, Lawrence, Kansas, 1991.
6. See the interview with Tom Peschio, Reality Studio, http://realitystudio.org/biography/hikuta (accessed January 2013).
7. Frank Tankard, “The Inner Circle,” July 30, 2007, http://www.lawrence.com/news/2007/jul/30/inner_circle (accessed January 2013).
8. Jim McCrary, “Remembering William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg,” Beats in Kansas: The Beat Generation in the Heartland, http://www.vlib.us/beats/mccrary.html (accessed January 2013).
9. Interview with David Ohle, Lawrence Journal-World, September 28, 2006, http://www2.ljworld.com/chats/2006/sep/28/david_ohle (accessed January 2013).
10. Jim McCrary interviewed by the author, March 2013.
11. Ibid.
12. WSB, My Education, 185.
13. James Grauerholz in WSB, Word Virus, 412.
14. Tom Peschio interviewed by the author, March 2013.
15. “The War Universe,” WSB interviewed by Raymond Foye, Grand Street, no. 37 (1991).
16. WSB interviewed by Nicholas Zurbrugg, June 10, 1991, 21c magazine, http://www.21cmagazine.com/William-S-Burroughs-Matter-of-Lemurs (accessed January 2013).
17. Ibid.
18. “The Return of the Invisible Man,” WSB interviewed by James Fox, Sunday Times Magazine, March 22, 1987.
19. WSB, My Education, 108.
20. “An Ex-Junkie Exterminator,” WSB interviewed by Lynn Snowden, Guardian, April 25, 1992.
21. WSB, My Education, 173.
22. WSB, The Western Lands, 165.
23. WSB, My Education, 25.
24. Ibid., 32.
25. Ibid., 101–2.
26. Ibid., 129.
27. Ibid., 47.
28. Ibid., 131.
29. Kurt Cobain, Journals (New York: Riverhead, 2003), quoted at Reality Studio, http://realitystudio.org/biography/william-s-burroughs-and-kurt-cobain-a-dossier (accessed January 2013).
30. Charles R. Cross, Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain (New York: Hyperion, 2002), quoted at ibid.
31. Carrie Borzillo, Nirvana: The Day-by-Day Eyewitness Chronicle (New York: Thunder’s Mouth, 2000), quoted at ibid.
32. Martin Clarke, ed., The Cobain Dossier (London: Plexus, 2006), quoted at ibid.
33. Christopher Sandford, Kurt Cobain (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1996), quoted at ibid. (accessed January 2013).
34. Fresh Sounds FS 201.
35. WSB interviewed by LA Weekly, July 19, 1996.
36. T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land, line 63.
37. WSB, Last Words, 146–47.
38. Wilborn Hampton, “Allen Ginsberg, Master Poet of Beat Generation, Dies at 70,” New York Times, April 6, 1997.
39. WSB, Last Words, 177.
40. Perhaps the light bulb was a reference to Bob Dylan’s famous 1965 London press conference in which he carried a huge light bulb and advised the press, “Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb.”
41. Tom Peschio interviewed by the author, March 2013.
42. “Ever See Burroughs in Person?,” Reality Studio, http://realitystudio.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5&start=15 (accessed January 2013).
43. José Ferez in a recorded conversation with the author, London, 2000.
44. Online and in the booklet accompanying The Best of William Burroughs box set, which, as an authorized release, gives the reader the impression that the texts in the booklet are also approved by the Burroughs estate.
Endwords
1. Gerard Malanga, “William Burroughs, an Interview by Gerard Malanga,” The Beat Book vol. 4 (California, PA, 1974), 100, 102.
2. Published as Love and Napalm: Export USA by Grove in the United States.
3. William Gibson, “God’s Little Toys,” Wired 13.07 (July 2005).
4. David Sinclair, “Station to Station,” Rolling Stone, no. 658 (June 10, 1993) (accessed June 2013).
5. Jon Savage, “Oh! You Pretty Things,” in Martin Roth, ed., David Bowie Is Inside (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 2013), 103.
6. Double Bill (Toronto), nos. 1–4 (1993–94).
7. “W. S. Burroughs Alias Inspector J. Lee of the Nova Police,” WSB interviewed in Friends, no. 5 (April 14, 1970).
8. “Back to Dig the Home Scene” WSB interviewed by Dickson Terry, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, [January] 1965.
9. WSB, Last Words, 167.
10. Ibid., 244.
11. Interview with the author, March 2013.
12. WSB, “Some memories, unclarified drafts” (unpublished).
Bibliography
Books by William S. Burroughs
Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict. New York: Ace, 1953 (bound together with Narcotic Agent by Maurice Helbrant).
The Naked Lunch. Paris: Olympia, 1959.
(With Brion Gysin, Gregory Corso, and Sinclair Beiles) Minutes to Go. Paris: Two Cities, 1960.
(With Brion Gysin) The Exterminator. San Francisco: Auerhahn, 1960.
The Soft Machine. Paris: Olympia, 1961 (first version).
Naked Lunch. New York: Grove, 1962 (earlier draft text).
The Ticket That Exploded. Paris: Olympia, 1962 (first version).
Dead Fingers Talk. London: John Calder, 1963.
(With Allen Ginsberg) The Yage Letters. San Francisco: City Lights, 1963.
Roosevelt After Inauguration. New York: Fuck You Press, 1964.
Nova Express. New York: Grove, 1964.
Time. New York: “C,” 1965.
APO-33. San Francisco: Beach Books, Texts & Documents, 1966 (first issued by the Fuck You Press in New York but only about a dozen copies made).
The Soft Machine. New York: Grove, 1966 (second version).
(With Claude Pélieu) So Who Owns Death TV? San Francisco: Beach Books, Texts & Documents, 1967.
The Ticket That Exploded. New York: Grove, 1967 (second version).
The Soft Machine. London: Calder & Boyars, 1968 (third version).
The Dead Star. San Francisco: Nova Broadcast, 1969.
Entretiens avec William Burroughs. Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1969 (The Job, first version).
The Job. New York: Grove, 1970 (second version).
The Last Words of Dutch Schultz. London: Cape Goliard, 1970.
(With Claude Pélieu) Jack Ker
ouac. Paris: L’Herne, 1971.
Ali’s Smile. Brighton: Unicorn, 1971.
The Wild Boys. New York: Grove, 1971.
Electronic Revolution. Cambridge, UK: Blackmoor Head, 1971.
Exterminator! New York: Viking, 1973.
White Subway. London: Aloes seolA, 1973.
Mayfair Acadamy Series More or Less. n.p. [London]: Urgency Press Rip-Off, 1973.
Port of Saints. London: Covent Garden, 1973 (first version).
The Job. New York: Grove, 1974 (revised, enlarged version).
(With Eric Mottram) Snack. London: Aloes, 1975.
(With Bob Gale) The Book of Breeething. Berkeley, CA: Blue Wind, 1975.
(With Charles Gatewood) Sidetripping. New York: Strawberry Hill, 1975.
The Retreat Diaries. New York: City Moon, 1976.
Cobble Stone Gardens. Cherry Valley, NY: Cherry Valley, 1976.
(With Brion Gysin) Le Colloque de Tanger. Paris: Christian Bourgeois, 1976 (texts by WSB and proceedings of the conference).
Junky. New York: Penguin, 1977 (second version).
(With Brion Gysin) The Third Mind. New York: Viking, 1978.
Ali’s Smile/Naked Scientology. Bonn: Expanded Media Editions, 1978.
Letters to Allen Ginsberg, 1953–1957. Geneva: Editions Claude Givaudan/Am Here Books, 1978.
Where Naked Troubadours Shoot Snotty Baboons. Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1978 (broadside).
Roosevelt After Inauguration. San Francisco: City Lights, 1979 (second version).
(With Brion Gysin and Gérard-George Lemaire) Le Colloque de Tanger 2. Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1979 (texts by WSB and proceedings of the conference).
Wouldn’t You Polish Pine Floors…. West Branch, IA: Toothpaste, 1979 (broadside).
Blade Runner (a Movie). Berkeley, CA: Blue Wind, 1979.
Doctor Benway. Santa Barbara, CA: Bradford Morrow, 1979.
Ah Pook Is Here. London: Calder, 1979.
Port of Saints. Berkeley: Blue Wind, 1980 (second version).
The Streets of Chance. New York: Red Ozier, 1981.
Cities of the Red Night. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1981.
Early Routines. Santa Barbara, CA: Cadmus, 1981.
Sinki’s Sauna. New York: Pequod, 1982.
A William Burroughs Reader. Edited by John Calder. London: Picador, 1982.
The Place of Dead Roads. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1983.