William S. Burroughs - Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader (Burroughs, William S.)

Praise for Word Virus:

A stringent modernist, a spiritual child of Joyce... The reader of this volume will find the anarchy of Burroughs finely tuned mind well represented.... Editors Grauerholz and Silverberg show sensitivity in their choice of selections from Burroughs long and productive career; their dedication to his legacy is evident. There is a very informative and compassionate introduction by Ann Douglas.Booklist

Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader finally brings the authors actual writing back to the forefront. In their selections, editors James Grauerholz and Ira Silverberg highlight the many faces of Burroughs: the narrative pioneer, the sardonic stand-up, the asexual Tiresias-like seer, and, in what may be a surprise to many, the humanist.... Apocalyptic, carnal and raw, Burroughs work bridges the epiphanies of modernism with the Foucaultian cool of postmodernism. He stretches modernist forms and grammar like narrative silly putty, prefiguring the sly mischief of postmodern writers such as Thomas Pynchon and William Gibson.Salon

The deadpan granddad of postmodernism is well represented in this bountiful collection of fiction, essays and collaborations from all stages of Burroughss (19131997) career.... Dark humor runs through this collection.

Publishers Weekly

This well-edited collection of Burroughs work... reminds us of his restless, savage intelligence and complicated insider-outsider perspective on human society.Out

Burroughs writing [was] as metallic and riveting as the bullet casings he left littering his real and fictional paths.... [Word Virus] traces the evolution of Burroughs style and preoccupations over the course of nearly 50 years.... Of great interest and a welcome contribution to Burroughs scholarship.

Bay Area Reporter

An endangered forest of words, narcotics, memories, and lessons. The trip is one not to be easily forgotten, full of fun and fury and feverish imaginings.... For both the student and the casual reader, [Grauerholz and Silverbergs] expertise and understanding of the work of William S. Burroughs will provide much food for thought as well as an apt resource for examining the postwar period in American letters.LGNY

This book surveys the lifes work of the author whom J. G. Ballard once called the greatest myth-maker of the twentieth century.... Readers seeking an introduction to his vast and multifarious oeuvre need look no further than this magnificent volume.Science Fiction Studies

WORD VIRUS

the WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS reader

the WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS reader

edited by james grauerholz
and ira silverberg

with an introduction by ann douglas

Copyright 1998 by James W. Grauerholz, Trustee, The William S. Burroughs Trust
Introduction copyright 1998 by Ann Douglas
Biographical essays copyright 1998 by James W. Grauerholz
Preface copyright 1998 by Ira Silverberg

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in the United States of America

All selections from The Cat Inside ( 1992 William S. Burroughs), Exterminator! ( 1966, 1967, 1969, 1973 William S. Burroughs), Interzone ( 1989 William S. Burroughs), My Education ( 1995 William S. Burroughs), Queer ( 1985 William S. Burroughs) and The Western Lands ( 1987 William S. Burroughs) are used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.

All selections from Cities of the Red Night ( 1981 William S. Burroughs) and The Place of Dead Roads ( 1983 William S. Burroughs) are reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, Inc.

All selections from The Burroughs File ( 1987 William S. Burroughs) and The Yage Letters ( 1963, 1975 William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg) are reprinted by permission of City Lights Books.
All selections from The Adding Machine ( 1985, 1986 William S. Burroughs) are published by arrangement with Seaver Books.

All selections from Junky ( 1953, 1977, renewed 1981 William S. Burroughs) The Job ( 1968, 1970, renewed 1997, 1998 William S. Burroughs) and The Third Mind ( 1974, 1978 William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin) are used by permission of The William S. Burroughs Trust.

The excerpt from And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (an unpublished manuscript by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac) is used by permission of The William S. Burroughs Trust and with the gracious consent of the Estate of Jack Kerouac, John Sampas, Executor.

The essay Personal Magnetism by William S. Burroughs was first published in Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs, by Ted Morgan (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1988) and is used by permission of The William S. Burroughs Trust.

All selections from Naked Lunch ( 1959, 1962, renewed 1987, 1990 William S. Burroughs), The Soft Machine ( 1961, 1966, renewed 1989, 1994 William S. Burroughs), The Ticket that Exploded ( 1962, 1967, renewed 1990, 1995 William S. Burroughs), Nova Express ( 1964, renewed 1992 William S. Burroughs) and The Wild Boys ( 1971 William S. Burroughs) are reprinted from editions published by Grove Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Burroughs, William S., 191497

Word virus : the William S. Burroughs reader / edited by James

Grauerholz and Ira Silverberg.

p. cm.

Collected in one volume the essential writings of Americas foremost literary innovator.

ISBN 0-8021-3694-X

ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-3694-7

1. Beat generationLiterary collections. 2. Burroughs, William

S., 191497 Biography. 3. Authors, American20th century
Biography. I. Grauerholz, James. II. Silverberg, Ira.
III. Title.
PS3552.U75A6 1998
813.54dc21

97-48269
CIP

DESIGN BY LAURA HAMMOND HOUGH

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

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Ann Douglas: Punching a Hole in the Big Lie:
The Achievement of William S. Burroughs

Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader collects passages, routines, chapters, and condensations of the entire literary output of William S. Burroughs. While this is a rather formidable anthology, it only represents about 10 percent of Burroughs published work.

We have attempted, through our selections, to follow recurring themes and characters in Burroughs work as well as to chronicle the shifts in style and content which took place throughout the years he wrote. The anthology is meant as much for the general reader as it is for the scholar, and provides links between Burroughs life and his writing through the chapter introductions written by James Grauerholz. Writer and scholar Ann Douglas introductory essay provides both an overview of the work and a history of the writer and his contemporaries.