A man, dispirited by ageing, endeavours to steal a younger man's face; a doctor yearns for a virus that might eliminate his discomfort by turning everyone else into doubles of himself; a Colonel lays out the precepts of the life of DE (Do Easy); conspirators posthumously succeed in blowing up a trai[...]
William Burroughs' work was dedicated to an assault upon language, traditional values and all agents of control. Produced at a time when he was at his most extreme and messianic, "The Job" lays out his abrasive, incisive, paranoiac, maddened and maddening worldview in interviews interspersed with st[...]
William Burroughs closed his classic debut novel, "Junky", by saying he had determined to search out a drug he called 'Yage' which he believed transmitted telepathic powers, a drug that could be 'the final fix'. In "The Yage Letters" - a mix of travel writing, satire, psychedelia and epistolary nove[...]
"Interzone" portrays the development of Burroughs' mature writing style by presenting a selection of pieces from the mid-1950s. His outrageous tone of voice represents the exorcism of four decades of oppressive sexual and social conditioning. Burroughs' close observations of humanity - its ugliness [...]
"My Education" is Burroughs' last novel, first published two years before his death in 1997. It is a book of dreams, collected over several decades and as close to a memoir as we will see. The dreams cover themes from the mundane and ordinary - conversations with his friends Allen Ginsberg or Ian So[...]
Both heartwarming and meditative, "The Cat Inside" explores not only the personal relationship between Burroughs and cats, but the deeper relationship of cats with mankind, which Burroughs traces back to the Egyptians. This book of moving and witty discourse is for both Burroughs' fans and cat lover[...]
Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, "Queer" is an enigma - both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel, Burroughs' only realist love story and a montage of comic-grotesque fantasies that paved the way for his masterpiece, "Naked Lunch". [...]
The diabolical Nova Criminals now include the nightmarish characters of Sammy the Butcher, Iron Claws, Izzy the Push and the Brown Artist, and are poised to wreak untold destruction on the world with their new-found control. Only Inspector Lee of the Nova Police has any chance of stopping them, by d[...]
An opium addict is lost in the jungle; young men wage war against an empire of mutants; a handsome young pirate faces his execution; and, the world's population is infected with a radioactive epidemic. These stories are woven together in a single tale of mayhem and chaos. In the first novel of the t[...]
A fascinating mix of autobiographical episodes and extraordinary Egyptian theology, Burroughs' final novel is poignant and melancholic. Blending war films and pornography, and referencing Kafka and Mailer, "The Western Lands" confirms his status as one of America's greatest writers. The final novel [...]
The most ferociously political and prophetic book of the Cut-Up Trilogy, Nova Express fires the reader into a textual outer space to show us our burning planet and to reveal the operations of the Nova Mob in all their ugliness. As with The Soft Machine and The Ticket That Exploded, William Burroughs[...]
Best known for the wild, phantasmagoric satire of works like Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs reveals another, gentler side in The Cat Inside. Originally published as a limited-edition volume, this moving and witty discourse on cats combines deadpan routines and dream passages with a heartwarming a[...]
The definitive 25th-anniversay edition of Burroughs's legendary second novel.
Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, "Queer" is an enigma-both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel, Burroughs' only realist love story and a montage of [...]
'Junk is not, like alcohol or weed, a means to increased enjoyment of life. Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life' William Burroughs, legendary drug addict, founder member of the Beats and author of "Naked Lunch", relates with unflinching realism the addict's life: from initial heroin bliss to an [...]
William S. Burroughs Cutting Up the Century is the definitive book on Burroughs' overarching cut-up project and its relevance to the American twentieth century. Burroughs's Nova Trilogy (The Soft Machine, Nova Express, and The Ticket That Exploded) remains the best-known of his textual cut-up creati[...]
While young men wage war against an evil empire of zealous mutants, the population of this modern inferno is afflicted with the epidemic of a radioactive virus. An opium-infused apocalyptic vision from the legendary author of Naked Lunchthe first of the trilogy with The Places of the Dead Roa[...]
A good old-fashioned shoot-out in the American West of the frontier days serves as the springboard for this hyperkinetic adventure in which gunslinger Kim Carson and his associates fight for galactic freedom. Comic, cosmic, and shocking, The Place of Dead Roads is a hypnotic tale that reveals one o[...]
"Speed" follows Billy as he hustles for dope and money, crashing in garbage-strewn apartments and guiding a paranoid friend through the perilous city streets. With tough, gritty detachment, he describes the stages of his own drug addiction and physical and emotional deterioration. "Kentucky Ham" tak[...]
William S. Burroughs is one of America's most influential and widely studied writers. A leading member of the Beat movement, his books and essays continue to attract a wide readership. His films, paintings, recordings and other projects that grew out of his literary production, together with his ico[...]
"Junk is not, like alcohol or a weed, a means to increased enjoyment of life. Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life."
In his debut novel, "Junky," Burroughs fictionalized his experiences using and peddling heroin and other drugs in the 1950s into a work that reads like a field report f[...]
The most ferociously political and prophetic book of Burroughs's "cut-up" trilogy, "Nova Express" fires the reader into a textual outer space the better to see our burning planet and the operations of the Nova Mob in all their ugliness. As the new edition demonstrates, the shortest of the three book[...]
As this new edition reveals, the cultural reach of "The Ticket That Exploded" has expanded with the viral logic of Burroughs's multimedia methods, recycling itself into our digital environment. A last chance antidote to the virus of lies spread by the ad men and con men of the Nova Mob, Burroughs's [...]