William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)

William Seward Burroughs II (also known by his pen name William Lee; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997)

Author of Naked Lunch and Junkie. There were 18 novels both experimental and conventional. When I got into the Beats in the early 1980s, many books besides Howl and On The Road, were hard to find. I remember when you had to go to some of the old grubby type bookstores on Hollywood Boulevard to find books by Celine or Burroughs. Back then there were just a bunch of bookstores at the mall. I found a few good used bookstores later. And of course there was Acres of Books in Long Beach. I used to go to San Francisco, and buy a lot of books at City Lights, Cody's and Moe's, because they were so much better. So by 1984, I had a copy of Naked Lunch, and Three Novels (Soft Machine, Ticket That Exploded, and Nova Express). 

One time I was at the Tick Tocker thrift store in Costa Mesa and found an original copy of Naked Lunch, from Olympia Press, with a Brion Gysin drawing on the jacket. It was in great condition. I debated whether I should buy a second copy of this. The Burroughs movie came out in 1984. I saw it at the Fairfax Theater. Burroughs showed up to the screening with the director. I don't remember saying anything to him.

The Beats were obscure in the 1970s and early 1980s. I remember seeing a Jack Kerouac documentary in 1986. They had renamed the streets in San Francisco after famous Beat Writers around that time. There was a beat revival and poetry readings at the Spaghetti Factory and Cafe Babar. A lot of Beat books got reprinted around that time, and a lot of Burroughs stuff was out by 1990. Ten years early there was hardly anything available.

I saw the film Naked Lunch in 1994 when it came out. I did an interview with Allen Ginsberg in 1995. I was a writer and editor for CUPS magazine based out of San Francisco. We had produced a spoken word CD in the beginning of 1996. There were many writers involved in the project, including Ken Nordine and Don Bajema. There was a Burroughs track included on the CD, but I found out that it wasn't cleared. I received a one page cease and desist letter from James Grauerholz, Burroughs' secretary. There wasn't much that anyone could do. The CDs were already printed. We weren't selling them, but giving them away for free.

This is around the time I moved to New York City. I took James Grauerholz's info and tried to set up an interview with Burroughs, when I was driving through Lawrence, Kansas, back in March 1996. I tried to distance myself from Bryan Bence and the Cups Spoken Word CD. I sent a few messages back and forth. I got him on the phone once and he wondered how I had his number. When we finally got to Lawrence, Kansas, I tried to call again but I got an answering machine. We drove around Lawrence for a few hours, but gave up.

A year later when I was in New York City, both Ginsberg and Burroughs, both died in the summer of 1997. I figured it was a good time to publish my Ginsberg interview, which at the time, I thought didn't go so well. 

I guess the only other Burroughs related stuff was that I was involved in a few books about Barney Rosset and the history of Grove Press. The Review of Contemporary Fiction published a Grove Press issue back in 1990. The Grove Press reader came out later. I worked for Barney Rosset for a short time in 1998. I also took a writing class with Kathy Acker in Fall 1991 at SF Art Institute. I was friends with her as well as Dennis Cooper.

--Alexander Laurence