Edited and with an Introduction by OLIVER HARRIS
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published in the United States of America by Grove Press 1966
Third revised edition published by Grove Press 2014
Published in Penguin Classics 2014
Copyright © William S. Burroughs, 1961, 1966
Copyright © Estate of William S. Burroughs, 2014
Introduction Copyright © Oliver Harris, 2014
Cover illustration by Julian House at Intro
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-0-141-97605-1
Introduction
Dead On Arrival
Who Am I To Be Critical?
Public Agent
Trak Trak Trak
Early Answer
Case Of The Celluloid Kali
The Mayan Caper
I Sekuin
Pretend An Interest
Last Hints
Where The Awning Flaps
1920 Movies
Where You Belong
Uranian Willy
Gongs Of Violence
Male Image Back In
Dead Fingers Talk
Cross The Wounded Galaxies
Appendices
1 From The Soft Machine (1961)
2 “Operation Soft Machine/Cut” (1961)
3 From The Soft Machine (1968)
4 Appendix to The Soft Machine (1968)
Notes
Acknowledgments
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PENGUIN MODERN CLASSICS
William S. Burroughs was born on 5 February 1914 in St Louis. In work and in life Burroughs expressed a lifelong subversion of the morality, politics and economics of modern America. To escape those conditions, and in particular his treatment as a homosexual and a drug-user, Burroughs left the United States in 1950, and lived in Mexico City, Tangier, Paris and London. By the time of his death he was widely recognized as one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential and innovative artists of the twentieth century. His numerous books include Naked Lunch, Junky and Queer.
Oliver Harris is the editor and author of ten books, including two trilogies by William Burroughs: Junky: The Definitive Text of “Junk” (2003), The Yage Letters Redux (2006), and Queer: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition (2010). He is also the editor of The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959 (1993) and Everything Lost: The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs (2008), the author of the critical study William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination (2003) and co-editor of Naked Lunch@50: Anniversary Essays (2009). He is Professor of American Literature at Keele University and President of the European Beat Studies Network.
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It is a privilege to edit works by William Burroughs, and a pleasure to thank James Grauerholz for making it possible and for all the support he has given. It is also a pleasure to thank the following for their expert help: Jed Birmingham for assistance with little magazines; Nicole Dittrich at Syracuse University; Ella Harris for typing out the 1961 edition; Bill McArthur, Stewart Smith, and Brian Schottlander; and above all, Véronique Lane, for working with me from start to finish, being by my side in the archival vaults, sharing ideas, reading every word I wrote, and for living with the Centipede People and the Crab Boys for the last two years.
For the great archival assistance they have provided, I also want to thank John Bennett of the Rare Books and Manuscript Library at Ohio State University, Columbus; Rob Spindler of the Archives and Special Collections at Arizona State University, Tempe; Isaac Gewirtz, Curator of the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library, and his staff; the Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries; Cath Tierney of Green Library, Stanford University; Elspeth Healey, Special Collections Librarian at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, Universtiy of Kansas, Lawrence; and Michael Ryan and all his staff at the Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Columbia University. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the Research Institute for the Humanities at Keele University. Thanks finally to Jeff Posternak of the Wylie Agency, a great guy to have on your side, and to Peter Blackstock at Grove Press.