William S. Burroughs is one of the twentieth century's most visible, controversial, and baffling literary figures. In the first comprehensive study of the writer, Timothy S. Murphy places Burroughs in the company of the most significant intellectual minds of our time. In doing so, he gives us an imm[...]

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[...]

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 [...]

In Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs revealed his genius. In The Soft Machine he begins an adventure that will take us even further into the dark recesses of his imagination, a region where nothing is sacred, nothing taboo. Continuing his ferocious verbal assault on hatred, hype, poverty, war, burea[...]

"The Wild Boys" is a futuristic tale of global warfare in which a guerrilla gang of boys dedicated to freedom battles the organized armies of repressive police states. Making full use of his inimitable humor, wild imagination, and style, Burroughs creates a world that is as terrifying as it is fasci[...]

Published for the first time more than 60 years after it was written, "And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks" is a remarkable piece of American literary history that brings to life a shocking murder at the dawn of the Beat Generation.[...]

Examining the major works of Burroughs from the 1950s, Harris pieces together a material record of his creative history through an examination of his letter writing in real life, and in his fiction. Thus, the book suggests new ways to comprehend Burroughs's unique work and politics.[...]

In late summer 1953, as he returned to Mexico City after a seven-month expedition through the jungles of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru, William Burroughs began a notebook of final reflections on his four years in Latin America. His first novel, Junkie, had just been published and he would soon be back[...]

In January 1953, William S. Burroughs began an expedition into the jungles of South America to find "yage," the fabled hallucinogen of the Amazon. From the notebooks he kept and the letters he wrote home to Allen Ginsberg, Burroughs composed a narrative of his adventures that later appeared as "The [...]