William S. Burroughs, 7 books including Naked Lunch 1984-1990, each signed and inscribed.

Each small 4to or 8vo, with dust jacket (if issued with one); most with owner's inscriptions in ink on rear blank, Naked Lunch with owner's embossed stamps on free endpapers and newspaper clipping mounted to half-title verso.

Vp, vd.
Books by Burroughs: 

*Naked Lunch. "For George Kaull / a Charter member / of the Johnson Family / and a good friend / . . . December 3, 1984," on title-page. First Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition. New York: Grove Press (1984) 

\ The Wild Boys*. "to George Kaull / a charter / member of / the Johnson Family / . . . February 1, 1986," on title-page. Later printing. New York: Grove Press, (1971) 

\ The Western Lands.* "for George Kaull / may he reach / The Western Lands / . . . 3/23/88," on half-title. First edition. (New York): Viking Penguin, (1987) 

*  The Cat Inside (2). Each dated, October 13, 1992 or November 1, 1996, on half-title. The first, "for George Kaull / Charter member / of the Johnson / Family and / shootin' buddy / all best," on half-title. (New York: Viking Penguin, 1992). Both copies first edition.

Other books:

Ted Morgan. Literary Outlaw. (Literary bio of Burroughs)"For George Kaull / Charter ember / of the Johnson / Family with all / best wishes for / recovery and a / good New Year / . . . 12/10/88," on half-title. First edition. (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1988)

* Burroughs's article, "The War Universe," in  Grand Street 37. Jean Stein, Ed. "For George Kaull / Charter member of the / Johnson Family / . . . 5/10/91," on page 93. (New York: Grand Street Press, 1990). 

Anyone here, care to share their personal experiences with the dreamachine? Drugs or no drugs. 🥴

The Archive as Method and Counterattack
ON: William S. Burroughs: Thought Control, Aesthetic Weaponry, and Dystopian Modernism

"S. E. Gontarski’s William S. Burroughs: Thought Control, Aesthetic Weaponry, and Dystopian Modernism is at once a work of literary criticism, an archival reconstruction, a study of artistic collaboration, and a sustained inquiry into the institutions that determine what scholars are permitted to know. Its most consequential claim is methodological. Burroughs’s achievement cannot be adequately represented by a stable canon of published books, nor can his cut-up practice be reduced to a recognizable avant-garde technique. His work survives as a dispersed and continuously reactivated system of manuscripts, typescripts, recordings, images, correspondence, performances, editions, friendships, and institutional arrangements. Gontarski calls this system “Neuromatic”: recursive, intermedial, collaborative, and resistant to linear accounts of literary production. The term names both Burroughs’ compositional practice and the critical method required to follow it."

https://stanleyegontarski.substack.com/p/the-archive-as-method-and-counterattack

I was wondering if I'm the only one getting horror vibes from the Joselito chapter, not horror as in "monster horror", but horror as in "this is absolutely not normal, but we pretend that it's normal" kind of vibe. The same kind one gets from the scene in Shutter Island when the protagonist finds out that his wife killed their children, and she says: "Let's sit them at the table and take them on a picnic, they'll be our living dolls", or Roald Dahl's "The Landlady", or Nancy Etchemendy's "Lunch at Etienne's", or Robert McCammon's "I Scream Man".

In particular, while reading it, I came up with two interpretations:

1. Joselito is actually deadly ill and doesn't have much to live, and the doctor and Carl are pretending that everything is fine.
2. The sanatorium is some kind of nightmarish place, and, once again, the doctor and Carl are pretending that it isn't.

What do you think?

Author: Tekkoman

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20120714235642/http://tekkoman.blogspot.com/2011/09/naked-lunch.html/

I crossposted this to Goodreads. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

“This wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be. For me, the trick is to read Burroughs slowly. Don’t just agglomerate sentences in the hope to push through another paragraph to get through another page. You’ve got to read his cut-up work inch by inch, and create a mental image for each sentence. It’s not as laborious as it sounds, because if Burroughs is anything, he’s a master at creating visions, images, and scenes in the most minute grammatical sense possible. Worked for me at least. The broader socio-political, ideological, and esoteric themes mostly eluded me, though there was some class-A satire and darkly hilarious vignettes. I think that Burroughs was as much of a sex junkie as he was a junk junkie, and his unquenchable, agonizing internal drive for sex preoccupied him as much as anything else. That much I could recognize. Sex however, shouldn’t be derided as a second-class need, and I respect him for blasting his desires into the ether in an era that was just about to wake up from puritanical prudery. (At least on the surface.)

I got some artistic and literary enjoyment out of this one, though I’m sure it would’ve been much more explosive and mind-blowing if I’d read it when it was first published. On to The Ticket that Exploded.”

Tokens, anyone? So prescient. Wish he was here to witness the rise of AI and share his unique perspective

I'm not certain what decade exactly Bill Burroughs first read Weird Tales, but he said in Junkie and elsewhere, that he was reading the pulps from youth. In the early '50s in Mexico City, he encountered Lovecraft's then-closeted erstwhile friend and literary executor R.H. Barlow, probably unbeknownst to Bill in terms of his connection to Lovecraft. In the '70s he became interested in the Necronomicon as a grimoire, he wrote his poem Fear and the Monkey under its influence, and praised HPL's work in interviews throughout the '80s, Last Words has several references to The Great Old Ones, so the influence was truly enduring. What other examples have readers here detected in his work?

For context, I am a huge fan of Burroughs, he is my favourite writer and one of the most intriguing minds and figures that I have ever come across. I have read most of his books and will continue to engage in any and all media that he has contributed to - music, literature, art, film etc

I wonder for you fans out there, in this age where we are expected to take more responsibility and acknowledge the bad behaviour of our heroes- how do you (if at all) reconcile the fact that Burroughs almost certainly had relations with underage boys and talks about young boys/men in a very leery way? For me I can appreciate his contribution to art and literature while still acknowledging that he engaged in very questionable and unethical behaviour. I recently watched Chicken Hawk which is a documentary about NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) and was shocked to learn that Allen Ginsberg was a member and defender of NAMBLA. There is no evidence to suggest that Burroughs was ever a member but I do question both Burroughs and Ginsberg's involvement with underage boys. I guess it comes down to some double standards, I'll scoff at Michael Jackson yet still buy anything Burroughs has created. I feel that cancel cuture has stripped us of our ability to openly talk about these things, and discourages nuanced opinions that follow the "art vs the artist" mentality.

How would you justify your choice to continue engaging with Burroughs' art if confronted about this?

12mo. Original color pictorial wrappers. 151/169 pp. FIRST EDITION OF BURROUGHS' FIRST BOOK WRITTEN UNDER A PSEUDONYM William Lee, INSCRIBED BY BURROUGHS ON THE TITLE-PAGE OF JUNKIE: "For Don Kaufmann for William Lee William Burroughs". Kaufmann (1927-2015) was a literary scholar and a friend of Burroughs.

Burroughs' first book (written as "William Lee") of his notorious semi-autobiographical novel of heroin addiction which "tells us more about heroin use during the wartime and immediate postwar 1940s than any other volume; millions have read it since its original publication" (Dope Menace, p. 54).

Bound dos-a-dos (two together) with Maurice Helbrandt's Narcotic Agent.

Condition Wrappers rubbed, especially at joints, spine a bit sunned, small area on the cover of Junkie filled-in with red marker near upper right (not affecting artwork or text), and a small scuff-mark on the front wrapper of Narcotic Agent in a similar place as the damaged area of Junkie. First two leaves of Junkie are loose, yet present, text toned with some occasional wear, bumping to fore-edge, front hinge near Junkie is cracking. Good.

Provenance: Maynard & Miles A1a. A Horowitz high spot.

Note from OP: Rare Book Hub records show 22 offerings of this title since 2024. Of those offered two did not sell at, and not all of them were this Ace double edition. The current high hammer price was for $3,520 at Freeman's Hindman in 2026.

Potter & Potter had a similar copy without the Burroughs inscription that sold for $270 in 2024. So there's a wide variation in prices, and because it's a paperback also a wide variation in condition. Even though it shows up pretty often they are not all the same. This one, signed by Burroughs is desirable.

EEEee

My article The Beats of Kansas features friends of author William S. Burroughs, who lived in Lawrence, Kansas, for the last part of his life. My encounters with Allen Ginsberg, Wayne Propst, James Grauerholz and Chris Stein of Blondie. This article first appeared in The Oakland Express. Photo James Grauerholz and William Burroughs by Jon Blumb

https://thoughtfulinvestors.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-beats-in-kansas.html?m=1

I did this for an upcoming indie-comix anthology. Enjoy.

Hi everyone,

I'm one of the producers of NOVA '78, directed by Aaron Brookner and Rodrigo Areias, and I thought this community might appreciate hearing about it.

The film is built entirely from never-before-seen footage shot by filmmaker Howard Brookner during William S. Burroughs' legendary Nova Convention in New York in 1978.

The material remained in Howard's archive for decades before being recovered and restored as part of a 15-year archive project.

Alongside Burroughs, the film features Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Frank Zappa, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Brion Gysin, John Cage, Timothy Leary, John Giorno and many others.

The UK premiere is at London's ICA on 11 September, followed by a Q&A.

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eisWdJM-pU

More info:
https://www.ica.art/howard-brookner-films-archives-and-the-avant-garde

I'd be happy to answer any questions about Howard Brookner's archive or the restoration.

Has anyone here read them?

Found this at a local used bookstore. My (hopeful, admittedly) opinion is that it's good based on what I could find online, but his signature does seem to have changed over time. What do you all think?

Hello, I had a thought about cut ups. I was wondering if any of you had actually tried this, and if you’d like to try it again? I’ve edited music, so I’ve cut there for certain. I’m thinking if we could choose like five people, maybe the same text, or not, just do your own thing, cut it, and see what happens?

I’m up for more insight on the idea. It’s a starter.

It would be a cut up from whomever was involved, yet it needs to be a bit controlled for the experiment, but maybe not. I’m open, if anyone is intrigued?

Burroughs’ “Words are a Virus” has always stuck with me. It’s true, yet let’s not get bogged down with that word, true. I’ve always liked music without words once I found there was such. Words and the World are fascinating the way they most likely spiral together. Is there a spiral in the cut ups, is it just moving words, what is it? It may be nothing. I think it’s something. Best day to you all. Think about it and I’ll check back later.

Edit: I’m came back and there are still more to read. I’m going to go through all. I may need one of your methods to cut this up for a way to organize. So many great ways that everyone has used this method. I’m intrigued and hyped.