Part One: Literary Pronouncements and Reading References
“The shaping spirit of imagination must have materials on which to work.”
-John Livingston Lowes, The Road To Xanadu.
“As was typical of his way of proceeding, he used names unchanged from his reading (...) he incorporated into Lord Jim parts of scenes and incidents (...) reading, actual figures, and his own background blended into each other in a seamless flow. Sources, his own life, and real people are present even as they are transcended.”
-Frederick Karl, Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives
“The fact that something is quoted from someone else or somewhere (else) gives it a magical gloss, the portentous found-object.”
-Last Words
“Literary allusion creeps rampant in Burroughs’ work. If Shakespeare and early Eliot predominate, a wide variety of texts from the Bible to popular song pit the seemingly inhospitable surface. Where in Pound and Eliot they achieve the mournful dignity of broken columns, in Burroughs they very often lie around like discarded Coca-Cola caps.” -Alan Ansen, William Burroughs
Abrahamson, David. Crime and the Human Mind. NY: Columbia University Press, 1944. (C)
Burroughs always took a scientific approach to reading. A landmark study in criminology, Abrahamson’s work was authoritative and is still seen as a classic in the field. Another book William was interested in and was greatly influential on his thought during this period was Robert M. Lindner’s Rebel Without a Cause, The Story of a Criminal Psychopath. Burroughs continued to be interested in crime and the human mind from his reading of Lombroso to his later affection for true crime during the Lawrence years. (1)
Addams, Charles. (B) Charles Addams (1912-1988) American cartoonist.
Charles Addams was the creator of the “Addams Family” comic strips which ran through the 30’s, 40’s, and the 1950’s and later became the basis for the television show and the movie. There is a photograph of Burroughs and Charles Addams in the first edition of Literary Outlaw. The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs.
"And what has become of the New Yorker cartoons? They are not funny or even comprehensible any more. Where are the classic cartoons of Charles Addams and Peter Arno?" LW, p. 5.
Aiken, Conrad. The Great Circle. NY: Arbor House, 1984. (C) Conrad Potter Aiken (1889-1973)
American poet, critic, short story writer, and novelist.
"Dance of rooms dance of faces". POS, p. 108. Burroughs was a fan of the work of Conrad Aiken and used favorite lines of his work throughout his cut-up period. Aiken was also a favorite of Joan Vollmer Burroughs.
Aiken, Conrad. “Mr. Arcularis.” The Collected Short Stories of Conrad Aiken. Cleveland, OH: World, 1960. (C)
“Mr. Arcularis” appears on pp. 33-53.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
Aiken, Conrad. "Silent Snow, Secret Snow." The Collected Short Stories of Conrad Aiken. Cleveland, OH: World, 1960. (C)
“Silent Snow, Secret Snow” appears on pp. 216-35.
On Joan and WSB: “They liked the same stories, such as Conrad Aiken’s ‘Silent Snow, Secret Snow’.” LO, p. 115.
Algren, Nelson. The Man With The Golden Arm. NY: Pocket, 1951. (D) Nelson Ahlgren Abraham
(1909-1981) American writer.
Burroughs probably read The Man With The Golden Arm upon it’s release or shortly thereafter. Texas author, Nelson Algren became famous for his The Man With The Golden Arm and A Walk On The Wild Side. “Paul Bowles caught the junk feel in ‘Mr. Young and Mr. Woo’, a short story. usually a non user is way off, like The Man With the Golden Arm - Algren. He didn’t know the first thing about junk. Later, I hear, admitting his ignorance.” LW, p. 46. Burroughs was not a
fan of Algren’s.
Anderson, Poul. Twilight World. NY: TOR, 1983. (F) This science-fiction novel by Poul Anderson was
originally released in 1961. Burroughs expressed admiration for the book in the late 60’s and
early 70’s and appropriated pieces into The Wild Boys. The two books that he made the most
use of for this novel were Twilight World and the story, ‘The House By the Water’ included
in The Fourth Ghost Book, edited by James R. Turner. (2, 3, 4, 5)
Andrews, Lynn. (H) On Lynn Andrews: “Yes, I met her in Santa Fe, briefly. She’s the female Castaneda, covering much the same area. Whistling Elk, that is her mentor.” On her books: “They’re about the whole matter of consciousness. Awareness. Extension of awareness. The idea that there is no reality. It’s all in the perception. There’s no such thing as reality. Which is, of course, a very old idea in Eastern philosophy- it’s all an illusion.” JW, p. 150.
Andrews, Lynn. Jaguar Woman. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1986. (H) “Ah yes... Find some old dream notes in Jaguar Woman by Lynn Andrews. The supervisor is connected to, or perhaps is, Fielding from A Passage To India, one of those very decent English types with a dim view of life and death.
Anything after death?
‘I’m afraid not!’ Fielding says.” ME, p. 27.
Apel, August and Friedrich Laun. “Der Freischutz” Gespensterbuch. (1810). English translation: The Fatal Marksman. (H) The short story, “Der Freischutz” by August Apel and Friedrich Laun was originally included in the book, Gerspensterbuch (Book of Ghosts) and was later the source of the romantic opera, Der Freischutz by Carl Maria von Weber and Friedrich Kind.
This story of the happy shooter was also the basis for Burroughs, Tom Waits, and Robert
Wilson’s The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets. (Miles, p. 246.)
Ardrey, Robert. African Genesis. NY: Dell, 1961. (F) Robert Ardrey, also the author of The Territorial Imperative, proposes in African Genesis that man is by nature an aggressive animal. Very similar to Brion Gysin’s statement, “man is a bad animal.”
“Have you read African Genesis? Well, there was the aggressive southern ape who survived because he was a killer, and has really in a sense forced his way of life on the whole species. There is only one game and that game is war.” BL, p. 181.
In Academy Series, p. 31. WSB uses the premise of the book as a starting point for political routine.
Arlen, Michael. The Green Hat. Grosset & Dunlap, 1924. (A) Michael Arlen (1895-1956)
British novelist and playwright is now known mostly for this novel, which is an invocation of 1920’s culture and style.
“When I open the front door Mother is there, very young and smart, in 1920’s style, like The Green Hat.” ME, p. 169. LO, p. 408. (6, 7)
Arno, Peter. (B) Peter Arno (1904-1968) was the single-speaker captioned cartoonist for the New Yorker whose work ran for 43 years, beginning on June 20, 1925.
"And what has become of the New Yorker cartoons? They are not funny or even comprehensible any more. Where are the classic cartoons of Charles Addams and Peter Arno?" LW, p. 5.
Arnold, Matthew. Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English critic and poet was a favorite of Burroughs during the fifties.
3 Questions to ask when reading a book. Unknown source. AM, p. 38. & BL, pp. 610-1. Matthew
Arnold, Matthew. (E) "Dover Beach" Matthew Arnold Selected Poems and Prose. Edited by Miriam Allott. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., Everyman’s Library, 1991. “Dover Beach”, p. 88. “Woke up last night at 3 am with a character in mind who is writing a great, gloomy, soul- searing homosexual novel. 600 pages of heartache and loneliness and frustration.’ Title: Ignorant Armies from ‘Dover Beach’ ‘Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight/ Where ignorant armies clash by night.’” (“By Mathew Arnold”) From Harris footnote. LWSB, p. 271.
Artaud, Antonin. (B) Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) French poet, critic, actor, and director.
Burroughs probably became familiar with the work of Artaud during his college
years. Artaud was a pioneer in the surrealist movement. He wrote much on the theater, worked
with Alfred Jarry, and was an actor in the classic film, The Passion of Joan of Arc. Artuad
had a following and still does. Carl Solomon, for whom Howl was dedicated was a devoted
follower of Artaud’s writing and teachings. A collection of his work edited by Susan Sontag
is available and has remained in print for quite some time.
Burroughs mentions Artaud in his introduction to The Drug User. p. xv. (44)
Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of New York. NY: Alfred Knopf, 1928.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
COTRN, p. 227. This classic history of New York during the time of the American Civil War was
probably Asbury’s most popular book. He was also the author of The Gangs of Chicago. The
Gangs of New York was made into a film by Martin Scorsese in 2002. I’m not sure when
Burroughs first became familiar with the work, but his first references to it are in the 1970’s
during the writing of Cities of the Red Night.
Auden, W.H. (B) Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973) English poet and critic.
Burroughs was reading Auden during the 1930’s. He continued to quote him throughout his career. He was also one of the poets Burroughs introduced to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg when they met in the 40’s. W. H. Auden, English poet educated at Oxford, was a key influence on the poetry of the beat generation, but probably not a big influence on Burroughs himself even though he introduced them to his work. Poet and friend of Burroughs, Harold Norse, was responsible for introducing Auden to his lover, Chester Kallman. A book about their relationship, Wystan and Chester by Thekla Clark was in Burroughs library in Lawrence.
Burroughs meeting with Auden in 1939 can be found in Ted Morgan’s Literary Outlaw.
He found Auden to be an insufferable bore. (8, 9)
Auden, W.H. “September 1, 1939.” W. H. Auden Selected Poems. Edited by Edward Mendelson. London: Faber and Faber, 1979. Lines 21-2. "Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return." Wystan Auden. LW, p. 244. This poem is usually found in collections published after Auden’s death in 1973. Having come to dislike portions of the poem, which was written after the German invasion of Poland, Auden wouldn’t allow further publication.
Auden, W. H. & Christopher Isherwood. Journey To a War. NY: Paragon House, 1990. TTM, p. 11.
Burroughs makes reference to Auden and Isherwood’s book in the context of writers and
successful collaborations. Auden also collaborated with Louis MacNiece in Letters from Iceland.
Aurobindo, Sri. (H) Ghose Aurobindo (1872-1950) Indian Yogi and philosopher whose work was based on the idea that all philosophy and religion stem from personal experience. His “Integral Yoga” attracted a huge following and still does. In 1926 he developed the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, with
the assistance of his collaborator, The Mother. Among his works are Lights on Yoga, The Problem of Rebirth, Bases of Yoga, Thoughts and Glimpses, The Hierarchy of Minds, and
The Life Divine.
James Grauerholz on WSB in his old age: “I think he never stopped believing that, in the words of Sri Aurobindo, which he often quoted: ‘This is a war universe’ - and he always saw himself in the warrior’s role.” From “Tricycle.” The Buddhist Review. Spring, 2001. Burroughs made published reference to this Aurobindo statement on at least two occasions:
PAG, p. 53, LW, p. 79.
He also quoted Aurobindo’s last words twice in his final journal entries: “It is all over.” LW, p. 42, and LW, p. 214.
(1872-1950) was an Indian Yogi and philosopher whose work was based on the
idea that all philosophy and religion stem from personal experience. His “Integral Yoga” attracted a huge following and still does. In 1926 he developed the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, with
the assistance of his collaborator, The Mother. Among his works are Lights on Yoga, The Problem of Rebirth, Bases of Yoga, Thoughts and Glimpses, The Hierarchy of Minds, and
The Life Divine.
Ballard, J. G. (F) James Gray Ballard (1930- ) British novelist and short story writer.
Burroughs was very fond of J. G. Ballard and his work. He made several comments throughout his career stating this as well as donating some blurbs and an introduction to Ballard’s Love and Napalm: Export U.S.A which was later published with the Burroughs intro as The Atrocity Exhibition. J. G. Ballard was very interested in Burroughs’ work. He made it a habit to mention him in many interviews and always as a major influence. Ballard referred to WSB as the greatest author in postwar America. Ballard is the author of many novels including Empire of the Sun, Crash, Concrete Island, and many works of science-fiction. MKA, p. 24, WWB, p. 79. (10)
Barnes, Djuna. Nightwood. NY: New Directions, 1961. (B) Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) American
writer. Author of The Antiphon, Nightwood, A Night Among Horses, and Ryder.
Burroughs called Nightwood one of the great books of the twentieth century. He read the book upon it’s release in 1936 and praised it throughout his life.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
Included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990. Burroughs also gave a blurb for the Dalkey Archive edition which can be found in the “blurbs” section of this work.
BL, pp. 580 (1, 11, 40)
Bateson, Gregory. (F) Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) English psychologist & anthropologist. He
was the man behind the unified biological, physio, and psychological theory of mind. He was one of the first to attempt to integrate ecological studies with socio and psychological sciences. His classic Steps To an Ecology of Mind was first published in 1972. His and R. D. Laing’s theory of the “double bind” was of interest to Burroughs. WSB describes the “double bind” as “people are subjected to a set of contradictory statements or attitudes expressed by authority figures.” He goes on to describe the use of the “double bind” in film to upset the audience to affect awareness.
LOKA 2, pp. 122, 166. DP, p. 281. See also R. D. Laing and David Cooper.
Baudelaire, Charles. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) (B) French poet. Early translator of Edgar Allen Poe, and author of Petits Poemes en Prose, Les Fleurs du Mal, and many others. Baudelaire was a drug addict and regarded; along with Verlaine, Mallarme, and Rimbaud, as one of the leaders of the “decadence,” a French group of poets concerned with decadence and “hypercivilized society.” Burroughs was heavily influenced by Baudelaire as a young man at Los Alamos.
(1, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) Also see WSB’s introduction to The Drug User. p. xv.
Baudelaire, Charles. The Flowers of Evil. NY: The Sylvan Press, 1947. (B)
“Yes, I had and have an insatiable appetite for the extreme and the sensational, for the morbid, slimy, and unwholesome. At Los Alamos I was reading Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil, and burning incense.” WSB in LO, p. 235.
Bayley, Barrington J. The Star Virus. NY: Ace, 1970. Ace Double with The Mask of Chaos by John Jakes. (F) Burroughs mentions the concept of “deadliners” found in this science-fiction book on numerous occasions.
TTTE, p. 156. TTM, pp. 6-7, 146.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
(2, 17, 70)
Beckett, Samuel. Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Irish writer. Author of Waiting For Gadot, Watt, How It Is, and many other plays and novels. One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century he
wrote in French as well as English and usually did his own translations. He died in 1989.
(E) BF, p. 195. AM, pp. 49, and entire essay called "Beckett and Proust", AM, P. 182. LW, p. 134. TTM, p. 97.
Used in fold-in method. "Beckett wants to go inward... I am aimed in the other direction; outward." TTM, p. 2.
"Beckett wants to go inward. First he was in a bottle and now he is in the mud. I am aimed in the other direction- outward." BL, p. 66.
“I think the whole body of Beckett’s work is wider in scope than Joyce’s.” WWB, p. 215.
(7, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 39)
Beckett, Samuel. Malone Dies. Molloy Malone Dies The Unnamable. Olympia, 1959. (E) (25)
Beckett, Samuel. Watt. NY: Grove, 1959. (E) (25)
Behanan, Kovoor. Yoga: A Scientific Evaluation. NY: Macmillan, 1937. (C) (1)
Bellow, Saul. The Dangling Man. NY: Signet, 1965. (F) Saul Bellow, Canadian born author, was raised in Chicago and educated at the University of Chicago. The Dangling Man was his first novel. He is probably best known for his works, The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, Henderson the Rain King and Seize the Day. Burroughs never mentioned Bellow or The Dangling Man again after the reference in The Job. Bellow was involved in Reichian therapy and like Burroughs sat in an orgone accumulator quite often. his early novels make references to orgone and Wilhelm Reich. (26)
Benchley, Peter. Jaws. NY: Ballantine, 1991. (G) Peter Benchley is the author of Jaws, The Deep,
White Shark, and others. Burroughs found his work to be entertaining and frequently mentioned
Jaws as the perfect formula for a best-selling book.
“A friend of mine who had to change his name to Ted Morgan, wrote an article on Jaws, called ‘The Birth of a Best-Seller.’ That is the formula of a best-seller. It’s a very good book. It’s worth reading. It’s entertainment, to be sure; but it’s expertly written about the challenge posed by a shark. The way in which this challenge is met and the final resolution of the challenge when the shark is finally killed. The challenge can be an epidemic; it can be a war; it can be almost anything.” BV, p. 212. AM, p. 38. BL, p. 306. CWWB, p. 158. (27)
Benchley, Peter. White Shark. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. (H) Burroughs recommended White Shark
to yours truly in August of 1995. His recommendation was a bit cool however. He claimed
that the end was unrealistic and unbelievable. He was always a fan of Benchley’s fiction and
mentioned his work several times throughout his career.
Bender, Peter. Voices From the Tapes. NY: Drake, 1973. (G) One of the sources for Burroughs’ lecture,
“It Belongs to the Cucumbers: On the Subject of Raudive’s Tape Voices.” Along with
Breakthrough by Raudive this book was very influential on Burroughs in the seventies. He saw the tape recorded voices of the dead as being very interesting and these recordings were very similar to the tape recording experiments and cut-ups he had done with Gysin and Ian Sommerville in the sixties. (28)
Bishop, Jim. The Day Lincoln was shot. NY: Harper & Row, 1964. (F) Jim Bishop also wrote The Day Kennedy Was Shot among others. (29)
Black, Jack. You Can’t Win. NY: Amok Press, 1988. Originally published in 1926 by the MacMillan Company. (A)
It wouldn’t be too far from the truth to say that the Jack Black book, You Can’t Win was the
most influential book Burroughs ever read. From his first novel to his final memoirs he was
making references to it’s characters and philosophy. He incorporated the hobo jungles, the
criminal code, the Johnson family, and Salt Chunk Mary into his mythology so thoroughly that
many Burroughs readers aren’t even aware that the Johnsons or Salt Chunk Mary are not
his creations. Burroughs first read the book when he was fifteen and it had a profound
affect not only on his literary life but his personal life as well. His reading of You Can’t
Win was his earliest introduction to the junky, criminal lifestyle and he attempted to recreate
it in his life and in his fiction from that moment on. Alongside with the work of Denton Welch
and Joseph Conrad, Jack Black’s You Can’t Win was easily the most influential book in Burroughs life.
The Place of Dead Roads incorporates the Johnson family and Salt Chunk Mary and is probably
the most obviously influenced of Burroughs books by You Can’t Win.
First encounter with book described in The Adding Machine, pp. 3-4.
AM, p. 74.
Salt Chunk Mary appears in The Soft Machine, p. 132.
The Johnson Family appears in The Soft Machine, p. 134.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
LO, pp. 36-8, 83, 119, 208, 593.
From the WSB foreword to Joe Maynard and Barry Miles’ WSB A Bibliography, 1953-73: “Salt Chunk Mary is a character I lifted from a book called You Can’t Win, being the autobiography of a burglar, which I read at the age of fifteen. This was my first literary contact with the drug world from a former addict. He mentions extracting opium from lettuce, and this story turned up recently in High Times magazine, with detailed instructions. Richard Aaron obtained a copy of this book for me recently, and I found it quite good on rereading after forty-five years.” (p.xii)
Miles acknowledges You Can’t Win as a direct influence on The Place of Dead Roads with this comparison of passages:
“Salt Chunk Mary... she keeps a pot of pork and beans and a blue porcelain coffee pot always on the stove. You eat first, then you talk business... She names a price. She doesn’t name another. Mary could say ‘no’ quicker than any woman Kim ever knew and none of her no’s ever meant yes.” (The Place of Dead Roads)
“’Did you eat yet?’ was the first thing you heard after entering her house. ‘I have a pot of beans on the stove and a fine chunk of salt pork in them.’ ...She could say ‘no’ quicker than any woman I ever knew, and none of them ever meant ‘yes’.” (You Can’t Win by Jack Black.) Miles, p. 217.
(30, 31)
Blake, William. (C) William Blake (1757-1827) English artist, poet, and mystic. Among his
works include Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, he was apprenticed to an engraver
and also illustrated Mary Wollstonecraft’s works, Young’s Night Thoughts, and engraved many
religious designs including Inventions to the Book of Job. He is also the author of mystical and
metaphysical works including Prophetic Books. Burroughs introduced Allen Ginsberg to Blake’s
work in the forties. Ginsberg became heavily influenced by his poetry and even claimed to have
had visions of Blake.
On influence: “To some extent, yes. He is one of the prime influences on me, through Allen Ginsberg. But I have read Blake.” CWSB, p. 165.
(1, 9, 32, 33, 34)
Blake, William. "The Question Answer'd." Blake Complete Writings. London: Oxford, 1966. (C)
“The Question Answer’d” appears on p. 180.
Burroughs on Kells Elvins’ sex life: “...from the time he was just a kid he was getting all the ass he wanted. The technique was simple. Most people want it too much, but as soon as you sit back as though you don’t need it, they’ll line up at your door. As Blake said, the lineaments of gratified desire, that’s what’s most attractive to a woman.” WSB in LO, p. 36. “The Question Answer’d” Blake Complete Writings. London: Oxford, 1966. p. 180,
What is it men in women do require
The lineaments of Gratified Desire
What is it women do in men require
The lineaments of Gratified Desire
Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and Experience. Blake Complete Writings. London: Oxford, 1966. (C) Appears pp. 111-26 & pp. 210-20.
(35)
Blatty, William Peter. The Exorcist. NY: Harper & Row, 1971. (G)
“I don’t care for supernatural themes. I couldn’t read The Exorcist.” BL, p. 514. Bluestone, George. Novels Into Film. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961. (G)
(36, 37)
Blum, Richard. “The House By The Water.” The Fourth Ghost Book. Edited by James Turner. London: Pan, 1968. (F) "The Dead Child" from The Wild Boys, p. 102. Source: “The House by the Water” by Richard Blum. Included in the collection The Fourth Ghost Book, edited by James R. Turner, Pan Paperbacks, page 229. The character Audrey is also a character from this story and a book called 19: A Diary of the Teens by Aubrey Fowkes.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
(4, 5)
Bogan, Louise. "Several Voices Out of a Cloud." The Blue Estuaries Poems 1923-1968. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995. (H) Bogan, American born poet born in Maine was also the author of
Body of This Death, and The Sleeping Fury. Burroughs may have been familiar with her work
early on but didn’t make reference to this poem until The Western Lands.
“Come, drunks and drug takers; come, perverts unnerved!/ Receive the laurel given though
late, on merit; to whom/ and wherever deserved../ Parochial punks, trimmers, nice people,
joiners, true blue,/ Get the hell out of the way of the laurel. It is Deathless/ And it isn’t for
you.” From Louise Bogan, The Blue Estuaries Poems 1923-1968. NY: Farrar, Straus &
Giroux, 1995. p. 93. TWL, p. 180.
Bonewits, Isaac. Real Magic. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1989. (G)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB. Isaac Bonewits is America’s first academically accredited magician with a BA
in magic and thaumaturgy. One of the points taken from this book by Burroughs was Bonewits’s
appointing of colors to emotions, the body, and different aspects of magic.
Bouthoul, Betty. Le Caliph Hakim. Paris: Sagittaire, 1950. (E)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB. Le Caliph Hakim and Le Vieux De La Montagne were both books studied by
Burroughs and Brion Gysin during the fifties. Both books pertain to Hassan I Sabbah and
the assassins.
Bouthoul, Betty. Le Vieux De La Montagne. Paris: Gallimard, 1958. (E)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB. Le Caliph Hakim and Le Vieux De La Montagne were both books studied by
Burroughs and Brion Gysin during the fifties. Both books pertain to Hassan I Sabbah and
the assassins.
Bowles, Jane. (E, G) William Burroughs met Jane Bowles during his years in Tangier. Jane and
Burroughs were friendly but he never expressed interest in her writings until the nine-
teen seventies and from that point on listed her along with Denton Welch as being one of his
favorite writers. He praised her frequently in interviews, his work, and even named his
cat, Calico Jane after her.
“I don’t remember when I first met her. She was someone of extreme charm. It was a number of years later that I read her books and realized what an extremely talented writer she was.” WWB, p. 49.
From the WSB foreword for Denton Welch’s In Youth Is Pleasure: “I think the writer to whom Denton is closest is Jane Bowles. Both writers are masters of the unforgettable phrase that no one else could have written. The prose of both writers is impregnated with a unique personality; each has a very special way of seeing things. And they never deviate into whimsy.”
AM, p. 105.
(11, 38, 39, 40, 41) Bowles, Jane. My Sister’s Hand In Mine. The Collected Works of Jane Bowles. NY: Noonday, 1976. (G)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
Bowles, Jane. Plain Pleasures. London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1966. (G)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
Bowles, Jane. Two Serious Ladies. London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1995. (G)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
From the introduction by WSB to S. Clay Wilson’s The Collected Checkered Demon. Volume 1: “...Jane Bowles... you read a sentence in that great work of hers Two Serious Ladies and realize that the sentence could NOT have been written by anyone else!”
BOL2 lists Two Serious Ladies as being Burroughs’ fourth favorite novel of all time (see note 124 for context.)
Bowles, Paul. (D, E) Burroughs and Paul Bowles met in the mid-fifties in Tangier where Bowles lived
and wrote as an expatriate. Bowles had moved to Morocco at the height of his fame and recog-
nition after having written Let It Come Down and The Delicate Prey. Bowles called Burroughs:
“a true eccentric, thus vex much worth knowing.” Burroughs was a great fan of Bowles and
his wife, Jane Bowles. They remained friends until Burroughs’ death.
"The Sheltering sky is thin as paper here.", "The piper pulled down the sky.", "Let it come down." Lines from Bowles's novels. PODR, pp. 5-6.
Burroughs had read Bowles’s novels, The Sheltering Sky and Let It Come Down and in 1953
moved to Tangier because it sounded like his sort of place.
"These writers are going to write history as it happens in present time." BF, p. 148
"From Paul Bowles: 'I disturbed an agitated centipede.' 'Don't kill it.' 'Someone should.'" LW, p. 29. Unknown source. “We are at the entrance to the 18 Maze. Here time has little or much influence. A million years can pass in an injection, an orgasm, a glimpse of ‘pure lyric happiness’ (Paul Bowles).” LW, pp. 60-65.
(42)
Bowles, Paul. Let It Come Down. NY: Random House, 1952. (D)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
Also one of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
As influence. LO, pp. 233, 576.
(43)
Bowles, Paul. The Sheltering Sky. NY: New Directions, 1949. (D)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
As influence. LO, pp. 233, 576.
BOL2 lists The Sheltering Sky as being Burroughs’ fifth favorite novel of all time (see note 124 for context.)
(39, 40, 43)
Bowles, Paul. The Spider’s House. Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1987. (E)
“Our minds similar, telepathy flows like water, I mean there is something portentously familiar about him, like a revelation, I also borrowed and read his book which I think very good.” (“Bowles book would probably have been his novel The Spider’s House (NY: Random House, 1955).”) From Harris footnote. LWSB, p. 337.
Bowles, Paul. Without Stopping. The Autobiography of Paul Bowles. NY: Putnam, 1972. (G) Burroughs
called Bowles’ autobiography “without telling,” on several occasions because of Bowles
lack of candor.
Bowles, Paul. "Senor Ong and Senor Ha.” Paul Bowles Collected Stories 1939-1976. Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1997. pp. 173-191. (E) “Paul Bowles caught the junk feel in ‘Mr. Young and Mr. Woo’, a short story. usually a non user is way off, like The Man With The Golden Arm - Algren. He didn’t know the first thing about junk. Later, I hear, admitting his ignorance.” LW, p. 46.
Brackett, Leigh. The Big Jump. NY: Ace, 1955. (G) AM, p. 19.
Brean, Herbert. How To Stop Smoking. NY: Pocket Books, 1975. (G)
A Book Review. AM, p. 167. CWWB, p. 100. WWB, p. 115.
Breihan, Carl W. The Day Jesse James Was Killed. NY: Fell, 1962. (F)
One of the cut-up sources for "Palm Sunday Tape".
Breton, Andre. Manifestos Of Surrealism. MI: The University of Michigan, 1969. (F)
Andre Breton, French poet, essayist and member of the Dadaists, was a founder of the
surrealist movement. Burroughs was not enthusiastic about Breton because of his treatment
of Brion Gysin during Gysin’s involvement with the surrealist movement.
TTM, p. 12. (44)
Brown, Dr. Barbara. (F) One of the"experts" listed by Burroughs "who could define the uses and limitations of this instrument" (E-Meter). ASNS, pp. 92-3.
Browning, Robert. “Song From 'Paracelsus'.” Robert Browning (1812-1889) English poet.
“shredded incense in a cloud/ From closet long to quiet vowed/ Moldering her lute and books among/ As When A Queen long dead was young.” Lines 9-16. AM, p. 44.
Brunner, John. The Dreaming Earth. NY: Pyramid, 1974. (G)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
Bryant, Baird. (E) In a conversation with James Grauerholz, Allen Ginsberg, and Maurice Giordias, WSB refers to Bryant as one of the Olympia authors. While Giordia is naming authors Burroughs
steps in with the name “Ed Bryant”. I am assuming that Burroughs was referring to Baird
Bryant. In Conversations With American Writers by Charles Runs this conversation is
included with minor changes. This comment by Burroughs does not appear (p. 135) in this
transcript of the conversation. Baird Bryant was the translator of the first English language
edition of The Story of O, the author of Play My Love, and wrote db’s (dirty books) under
a pseudonym for Olympia Press. Burroughs and Baird also shared a similar taste for heroin.
One of their experiences together is described in the history of the Olympia Press by John
De St. Jorre, The Good Ship Venus.
BL, p. 332.
Bukowski, Charles. Women. Corrected Typescript. Item #190 from the estate of WSB. AG&F. (H)
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward. "The House and the Brain." Famous Ghost Stories. Edited by Bennett Cerf. NY: Vintage, 1974.
Story appears on pp. 3-31 and is titled “The Haunted and the Haunters.” This story is published under both titles in different collections.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress. NY: Signet, 1981. John Bunyan (1628-1688) English preacher and writer. The Pilgrim’s Progress is a literary and Christian classic. (B) (45)
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. NY: Ballantine, 1965. (F)
WWB, p. 74. AM, p. 32.
On Anthony Burgess and his bad review of Cities of the Red Night: “Mr. Burgess seems to be as inexhaustibly prolific as a warren of rabbits... but what has happened to the freshness and humor that made A Clockwork Orange such an exhilarating experience?” LO, p. 565.
Used in cut-ups. WSB, pp. 163, 244. Used in cut-ins. WSB, pp. 239, 242, 290.
Burns, Robert. Tam O’Shanter. A Scottish Folk Tale. Translated by May Kramer-Muirhead. San Anselmo: Kramer-Muirhead, 1984. Robert Burns (1759-1796) Scottish national poet and farm laborer. (D) "Gathering her brows like the gathering storm, Nursing her wrath to keep it warm." LWSB, p. 33. “Gathering her brows like a gathering storm,/ Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.” p. 38, Tam O’Shanter.
Burroughs, Edgar Rice. “Phillippe Mikriammos: What about the other Burroughs, Edgar Rice?
WSB: Well, no. That’s for children.” BL, p. 274.
Byron, George Gordon Lord. (A) Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet.
Used in cut-ups. WSB, p. 158. (16)
Byron, George Gordon Lord. “Stanzas For Music (‘There’s not a joy’).” George Gordon Lord Byron Selected Works Revised and Enlarged. NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. P. 11. (A)
“There’s not a joy in the world can give like that it takes away,/ When bloom of early
thought declines in feelings dull decay.” AM, p. 44.
Campbell, Joseph. The Way of the Animal Powers. (H)
Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) the great mythologist. His books include The Way of the Animal Powers, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Myths To Live By, The Power of Myth and many more. There is no recorded reference by Burroughs to Joseph Campbell or his work. This
book was however spotted on his shelf in a photograph by Jose Ferez Kuri. (46)
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. NY: Vintage, 1988. (C) The French existentialist Albert Camus was mentioned only twice in all of Burroughs work and only when making comparisons to other books.(47, 48)
Capote, Truman. (F) American author Truman Capote was not an influence on Burroughs work at all. However he did use his work in the cut-ups and made references to his work on many different occasions.Used in cut-ups. WSB, p. 163
Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany’s. NY: Signet, 1958. (E) Used in cut-ins, WSB, p. 241.
Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. NY: Signet, 1965. (F)
1966: “He was reading Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, and wondered how it could be a bestseller. My God, what a bore it was, with its dull victims, their church suppers and 4-H clubs, and even duller killers.” LO, p. 427. (26)
Capote, Truman. "Shut a Final Door". A Tree of Night and Other Stories. NY: Penguin, 1978. (H) “Shut a Final Door”, pp. 46-61. “How to describe Mary McCarthy’s ‘Young Man,’ and ‘Walter Ramsey’ in Truman Capote’s ‘Shut a Final Door’? Hopeless- neither could ever receive grace.” LW, P. 83.
And denial of responsibility is pandemic- read Truman Capote’s ‘Shut a Final Door’ for the terminal stage of such denial. LW, p. 153.
Carney, William. The Real Thing. NY: Masquerade Books, 1995. (G) Mentioned and quoted in Sidetripping.
Castaneda, Carlos. (G) Carlos Castenada (1925-1998) was the author of a number of bestselling books
based on the teachings of Don Juan Matus, a Mexican Yaqui shaman. His books include The
Teachings of Don Juan, Journey to Ixtlan, and many others. Burroughs became very interested
in his work from the time of his first published book in the early seventies. He continued to
quote Castenada and his teachings for the rest of his life.
"Don Juan says anyone who always looks like the same person isn't a person. He is a person impersonator." COTRN, p. 41.
PODR, p. 202 (three obstacles/phases of Don Juan). BF, pp. 193, 195. “Well, yes. You’ve read Castaneda’s Don Juan books. Don Juan says that nothing can be accomplished magically. Stopping the internal dialogue, in effect, enables you to will without desiring. Don Juan says that you can’t advance until you achieve that. See, if you want money without desiring it, you get it, but if you desire it and are thinking, ‘I’m going to do this, that and the other with it,’ that desire becomes a hindrance. (...) Yes, Don Juan and also the Buddhists claim that death is always there. It’s something you carry with you. (...) the word ‘should’ must be ruled out because it’s up to you and what you want to do. I think Don Juan’s saying something very similar, not only to Buddhism, but to a lot of disciplines. What he means by a path with heart is a sort of intuitive guidance system to where you are going.” BL, pp. 443-4.
"As Don Juan says, 'Your death is always with you.'". BL, p. 786. Unknown source.
"Nagual Art" and Don Juan -MKA, p. 31.
TCI, p. 50.
“Don Juan speaks of the possibility of inorganic beings.” CWWB, p. 163.
Burroughs mentions Castaneda in an interview released on cd as The Last Interview with
William S. Burroughs conducted by Patrick Hudson and a fellow called Cardinal Sin.
Castaneda, Carlos. The Art of Dreaming. NY: Harper Perennial, 1994. (H)
"Castenada says to look at your hands in a dream. Mine were out in front, at elbow level. Plain old white brown hands. Nothing special." LW, p. 92.
Castaneda, Carlos. A Separate Reality. NY: Pocket, 1973. (G) Used in cut-ups. WSB, p. 163.
Castaneda, Carlos. Tales of Power. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1974. 8=BF, p. 190.
Castaneda, Carlos. The Teachings of Don Juan. A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. CA: University of California, 1994. (G) "Rub out the word. Castaneda in The Teachings of Don Juan stresses the need to suspend the inner dialogue- rub out the word- and gives precise exercises designed to attain a wordless state." LW, p. 24.
CWWB, p.43.
1974: "His current psychic interest was Carlos Castaneda and The Teachings of Don Juan." LO, p. 481.
Celine, Louis-Ferdinand. Journey to the End of the Night. NY: New Directions,1960. (C)
Louis-Ferdinand Celine (1894-1961) the French author of Death on the Installment Plan,
Journey to the End of the Night. Burroughs was heavily inspired by his picaresque style
and mentioned him quite frequently as one of his major influences.
“Like to make an anthology of my favorite passages in books: Celine, the scene on the boat to Africa where he talks his way out of a beating:
‘All this time I felt my self-respect slipping away from me and finally-as it were- officially removed.’ LW, pp. 60-65.
Philippe Mikriammos: “Have you been influenced by Celine?
WSB: Yes, very much so.” BL, p. 272.
WWB, pp. 15-6.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
On Scientology: “What most disgusted Burroughs, however, were the See Checks, a sort of Orwellian thought police. (...) going to See Checks reminded him of a line in Celine: ‘All this time I felt my self-respect slipping away from me, and finally completely gone, as if officially removed. LO, p. 442.
BOL2 lists Journey To The End of the Night as being Burroughs’ seventh favorite novel of all time (see note 124 for context.)
(1, 8, 9, 22, 30, 32, 33, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
Chandler, Raymond. (C) Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) the creator of Philip Marlowe, and the
hardboiled style of American detective fiction. Along with Dashielle Hammett, Chandler was
important to Burroughs writing style from his early work on And the Hippos were Boiled In
Their Tanks (with Jack Kerouac), and his first novel, Junkie. He was influenced by this writing style but said later that it could only be taken so far and its use was limited.
AM, p. 9. Used in cut-ups. TTM, pp. 6-7. MKA, p. 23. CWWB, p. 106.
(1, 31, 55, 70)
Charnas, Suzy McKay. Motherlines. NY: Berkeley, 1979. (G)
“A not-so-well known writer I like is Suzy McKay Charnes, and particularly her book A Walk To the End of the World. It is about an all-male society where the women are outcasts. There a woman is slapped if she talks before spoken to. Now Charnes has written a sequel in which women escape and form their own society.” BL, p. 514. The sequel which Burroughs
is referring to is Motherlines.
Charnas, Suzy McKay. A Walk To the End of the World. NY: Ballantine, 1980. (G)
“A not-so-well known writer I like is Suzy McKay Charnes, and particularly her book A Walk To the End of the World. It is about an all-male society where the women are outcasts. There a woman is slapped if she talks before spoken to. Now Charnes has written a sequel in which women escape and form their own society.” BL, p. 514.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990. (56)
Charters, Ann. Kerouac. NY: Warner, 1974. (G) "Pretty good." CWWB, p. 130.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. (B) Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) English poet. Author of The Canterbury
Tales. Burroughs studied Chaucer under Jere Bartlett Whiting at Harvard. (57, 60)
Cheever, John. The Stories of John Cheever. NY: Ballantine, 1980. (H) AM, p. 101.
Clark, Walter van Tilburg. The Ox-Bow Incident. NY: Random House, 1940. (C) Walter Van Tilburg
Clark (1909-1971) American novelist. Best known for this novel, Clark was the author
of three westerns and a collection of short stories. Burroughs was interested in this book
at the time of its publication. The Ox-Bow Incident concerns the mob rule of a lynching of
three innocent men in the old west. WSB’s interest probably lied in his concern over capital
punishment, contemporary literature, and the old west. (1)
Clarke, Arthur C. Science fiction author probably best known for his novels Childhood’s End and 2001 A Space Odyssey. (10) Clarke, Arthur C. 2001. NY: Signet, 1968. (F) TWL, p. 2.
Clarkson, Wensley. Doctors of Death. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. This book was spotted on
Burroughs shelf by the author in 1995.
Cleland, John. Fanny Hill. Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. NY: Penguin, 1985. Classic book of erotica.
WSB blurb on the back of Kathy Acker's Bodies of Work and on the front of her book, Great Expectations states: "Acker is a postmodern Colette with echoes of Cleland's Fanny Hill."
Cocteau, Jean. (B) Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French poet, writer, artist, and film maker.
Burroughs was mostly interested in Cocteau’s book Opium and his insightful approach to opiate addiction. (22, 58)
Cocteau, Jean. Opium. Chester Springs: Peter Owen, 1996. (B) BL, p. 388. (1, 9, 15, 32, 33, 34, 35, 59)
Coleridge, S. T. (B) Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic. His most studied poems are the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Kahn. Burroughs studied Coleridge at Harvard under John Livingston Lowes, author of The Road to Xanadu. WSB was very interested in his use of drugs for creative purposes. (57, 60)
Coleridge, S. T. Kubla Kahn. S. T. Coleridge Poems. NY: Knopf: Everyman’s Library, 1991. (B) The event that WSB describes can be found on p. 163. The poem follows.
"You may have something just beautiful and you'll never remember it later. Like Coleridge forgot the end of Kubla Kahn because someone came in." LOKA 2, p. 170.
Coleridge, S. T. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. S. T. Coleridge Poems. NY: Knopf: Everyman’s Library, 1991. pp. 173-189. (B)
“’We were the first that ever burst into that silent sea.’” (“Quotation (heavily crossed out in manuscript) is from Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, lines 105-6.”) From Harris footnote. LWSB, p. 338.
WSB in his dj blurb for Rudolph Wurlitzer's Hard Travel To Sacred Places: "...And like the Ancient Mariner, Wurlitzer holds his reader right there by his account."
LAG, p. 2.
Colette. Pen name for French writer Sidione Gabrielle Claudine Colette. She was the author of novels,
short stories, essays, and plays. Burroughs expressed interest in her Cheri novels as well
as a favorable comparison to Kathy Acker’s work.
WSB blurb on the back of Kathy Acker's Bodies of Work and on the front of her book, Great Expectations states: "Acker is a postmodern Colette with echoes of Cleland's Fanny Hill."
(11)
Colette. Cheri. Short Novels of Colette. NY: The Dial Press, 1951. pp. 1-120.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB. (40)
Colette. Fin De Cheri. Short Novels of Colette. NY: The Dial Press, 1951. pp. 121-239.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB. (40)
Collins, William. “Ode. Written In the Beginning of the Year 1746.” (A)
“...otherwise this land may well be ravaged by bigotry and self-righteous hatred, and the American Dream destroyed forever... and in the words of that great all-American poet, James Whitcomb Riley, ‘Freedom shall a while repair, to dwell a weeping hermit there.’” From “The Whole Tamale”. RAI. p. 43.
The author of the line: “And Freedom shall a-while repair,/ To dwell a weeping Hermit
there!” is William Collins. WSB may have been making a joke.
Conrad, Joseph. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) born Teodor Jozef Konrad in the Ukraine. Novelist. Author
of many classics including Lord Jim, Almayer’s Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, The Nigger of
the Narcissus, Lord Jim, Youth, Under Western Eyes, Heart of Darkness, and many more.
Along with Denton Welch, Joseph Conrad was probably Burroughs favorite author and was
his biggest literary influence. Burroughs claimed to have read and reread all of Conrad through-
out his life and career as a writer. From his use of Conrad’s descriptive passages of jungles
and island life to his lifting of an entire scene and characters from Lord Jim and Under Western Eyes Burroughs was a great Joseph Conrad reader. His Lawrence library had the complete Conrad from Doubleday Doran.
"...Conrad did some superb descriptive passages on jungles, water, weather; why not use them verbatim as background in a novel set in the tropics?" AM, p. 19.
“In Conrad: Captain Marlowe talks to French naval officer who traveled in Patna:
‘As to what life may be worth when the honor is gone?’
Lord Jim: interview between Councillor Mikulin and [Razumov], the protagonist. Catches sight of his face in the mirror next day:
‘It was the most unhappy face he had ever seen.’” LW, pp. 60-65.
Used in cut-ups. TTM, pp. 6-7. AM, p. 49.
WSB from the Foreword to Jack Black's You Can’t Win: "I see the world as a stage on which different actors are assigned to different roles. Joseph Conrad arrived at a similar concept."
(7, 13, 17, 18, 21, 22, 40, 42, 53, 61, 62, 63, 64)
Conrad, Joseph. Almayer’s Folly. NY: Signet, 1965. "A scene in a dream, intricate and large building, colors, water, two men talking. I find it in Conrad, in the banal reflections of Almayer on the unhealthy conditions on the east bank of the river." LW, p. 32.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
Conrad, Joseph. An Outcast of the Islands. NY: Doubleday Doran, 1936. COTRN, p. 234.
Chosen by Audrey in "Light Reading" from the AM, p. 196-201 to be read in space.
"'As pain is drowned in the flood of drowsy serenity that follows a dose of opium.' An Outcast of the Islands, Joseph Conrad." LW, pp. 139-40.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB. (65)
Conrad, Joseph. Arrow of Gold. NY: Doubleday Doran, 1919. "I live by my sword." TWL, p. 257.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. A Conrad Argosy. NY: Doubleday Doran, 1942. pp. 27-77. "'Mistah Kurtz he dead.'" LWSB, p. 432. AM, p. 43.
Burroughs compares Heart of Darkness with Apocalypse Now. WWB, p. 192. (66)
Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim. NY: The Modern Library, ND.
“ ‘She was full of reptiles.’ J. Conrad, Lord Jim.
‘(four) bottles of that kind of brandy a day... should be dead, after such a furtive experiment - tough old buzzard.’” LW, p. 241.
“In Conrad: Captain Marlowe talks to French naval officer who traveled in Patna:
‘As to what life may be worth when the honor is gone?’
Lord Jim: interview between Councillor Mikulin and [Razumov], the protagonist. Catches sight of his face in the mirror next day:
‘It was the most unhappy face he had ever seen.’” LW, pp. 60-65
Lord Jim is mentioned in APO-33.
From the WSB foreword to Joe Maynard and Barry Miles William S. Burroughs A Bibliography, 1953-73: “Leafing through these titles I glimpse a number of scenes, bits of vivid and vanishing detail, that phrase is from Conrad’s Lord Jim.” (p. ix)
(30, 31, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 105)
Conrad, Joseph. Nigger of the Narcissus. Typhoon and Other Tales. NY: Signet, 1962. “Nigger of the Narcissus”, pp. 23-144.
“See what I mean about the future of writing.
Now I’m a writer myself, if you ask me- a humble practitioner of the scriveners trade. The Shakespeare squadron in the way years.
[Unstrung] heroes. Awfully depressin, all that.
‘You reckon ill
who leave me out
when me you fly,
I am the wings.’
‘The old, old words.’
The Nigger of the Narcissus.”
LW, p. 206.
Burroughs calls The Nigger of the Narcissus Conrad's great story." BL, p. 700
BL, p. 768. (36, 67, 74)
Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Agent. A Conrad Argosy. NY: Doubleday Doran, 1942.
“English police in my apartment. James is in there and the location was not here. I was talking to an English cop, very high up, who knew I was not guilty of whatever I was charged with. He had a dark clean-shaven face. Obviously he is the Assistant Commissioner in Conrad’s Secret Agent. ME, p. 46. One of many literary references found within Burroughs’ dreams. Others
include Stephen Spender’s The Temple, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
Conrad, Joseph. Under Western Eyes. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1911.
AM P. 20. Under Western Eyes also found in essay devoted to "cutting up characters," p. 189.
Scene in Naked Lunch: Carl Peterson and Doctor Benway in “The Examination” routine (p.186- 7), parallels scene between Mikulin and Razumov. In Under Western Eyes the scene appears
on pp. 84-line 8 through 11. pp. 96-7, last line through line 3 of page 97. P. 97, “...He
walked to the door (lines 15-23.)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
BOL2 lists Under Western Eyes as being Burroughs’ sixth favorite novel of all time (see note 124 for context.)
(38, 39, 67, 68, 69, 72, 113)
Conrad, Joseph. Victory. An Island Tale. London: Methuen & Co. LTD., 1915.
Conrad, Joseph. Victory. "In the words of one of a great misogynist's plain Mr. Jones, in Conrad's Victory: 'Women are a perfect curse.'" TJ, p. 116.
"According to Conrad in Victory, women are a curse, a kind of fundamental error." BL, p. 134.
(75)
Conrad, Joseph. Youth. Typhoon and Other Tales. NY: Signet, 1962. pp. 219-248. (74)
Conrad, Joseph & Ford Madox Ford. The Inheritors. Phoenix Mill: Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, 1991. TTM, p. 11.
"Certain things you must take literally if you want to understand." ...Instructions from the 4th dimension in The Inheritors by Conrad. TTM, p. 133.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
(76, 77)
Conrad, Joseph & Ford Madox Ford. Romance. NY: Signet, 1954.
TTM, p. 11.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
(29, 76, 77)
Conway, David. Magic: An Occult Primer. NY: Bantam, 1993. (G)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB. (78)
Cook, Robin. Brain. NY: Signet, 1982. (H) Burroughs interest in medical thrillers lead him to read
a great deal of Robin Cook, the father of the medical mystery. (79)
Cook, Robin. Coma. NY: Signet, 1977. (G) (79, 80) Cook, Robin. Invasion. NY: Signet, 1997. (H) “Reading Invasion by Robin Cook. Little black disks rain down on a dull town - I mean heavy dull. Any more teenage talk over banana and marshmallows... Well, the disks appear seamless, but a slit will open, a needle pop out, and a drop injected. Flu for a matter of hours for the young and healthy, death for sufferers from chronic illness (diabetes, arthritis). Those who recover are transformed for the better. They are stronger, healthier, more confident and concerned with important factors, like rainforest and environment.
So I can’t see why Casey and Pitt and Jesse are so concerned to stop this thing.
I say give it a boost.” LW, p. 186.
Cooke, John & Rosalind Sharpe. The New Tarot. Kentfield, CA: Western Star Press, 1969. (F)
Used in cut-ups. WSB, p. 162. Used in cut-ins. WSB, p. 290.
Cooper, Clarence. The Farm. NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 1998. (F) (81) Cooper, David. (F) David Cooper worked closely with R. D. Laing on the study of the family in psychology and 20th century sociology. Burroughs was mainly interested in his work from the perspective that the family is the most destructive psychological influence on man today.
BL, p. 199.
Cory, Donald Webster. The Homosexual In America: A Subjective Approach (D) (NY: Greenberg, 1951 “By the way I glanced through a book called The Homosexual In America. Enough to turn a man’s gut. This citizen says a queer learns humility, learns to turn the other cheek, and returns love for hate. Let him learn that sort of thing if he wants to. I never swallowed the other cheek routine, and I hate the stupid bastards who won’t mind their own business. They can die in agony for all I care.” (“Donald Webster Cory, The Homosexual In America: A Subjective Approach (NY: Greenberg, 1951”) From Oliver Harris footnote.
Crane, Hart. (C) Hart Crane (1899-1932) American poet. Author of The Bridge and White Buildings.
Burroughs was interested in Hart Crane’s poetry from an early age. His introduction of Crane’s work to Allen Ginsberg became essential in Ginsberg’s education.
(8, 9)
Crane, Hart. Collected Poems. NY: Liveright, 1933. Old red clothbound Liveright edition. (C) (1, 33, 34)
Cravens, Gwyneth & John S. Marr. The Black Death. NY: Ballantine, 1977. (G)
“I enjoy horror stories especially where there are mass epidemics that kill off a lot of people, I enjoyed The Black Death, which was about a bubonic plague hitting New York.” BL, p. 514.
Crichton, Michael. Eaters of the Dead. NY: Bantam, 1977. “What’s the big secret (above) The secret is a reliable time-polished device in story, usually reserved for the end, like ‘the evidence’ in Michael Crichton’s book about the Salem Witch nonsense.” LW, p. 135.
From what I can gather, Michael Crichton never wrote a book directly concerning the Salem
witch trials. However, his novel called Eaters of the Dead ends with a rumination on
scientific theory and what is necessary to prove a theory wrong, while nothing can prove
one right. A fictional manuscript of an Arab ambassador and his encounters with Vikings and the
things that Grendel is made of, Eaters of the Dead raises the question of Neanderthal man
and what made him disappear. Or, did he survive into recent history. Crichton states, in
Lovecraftian fashion, that a theory can never be proven, only disproven and... “Until that
skeletal evidence is found, speculation will continue, and one may adopt whatever stance
satisfies an inner sense of the fitness of things.” This must be the “evidence” which WSB
is referring.
Crichton, Michael. Rising Sun. NY: Ballantine, 1992. (H) (82)
Crichton, Michael. The Terminal Man. NY: Bantam, 1973. (G) BL, pp. 209, 217, 258, 685. AWG, p. 47. KATB, p. 37.
Crowley, Aleister. (B) Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was probably the 20th century’s most profound
magician, Qabalast, and yogi. Burroughs was interested in Crowley as a magician but felt that
his writing left much to be desired.
"I'm interested in the golden dawn, Aleister Crowley, all the astrological aspects." BL, p. 769. AM, p. 82.
“There is also the question of the actual relations between formal ritual magic and writing. People who are into ritual magic like Aleister Crowley- he may have been a competent black magician but he is not a good writer, in fact he’s not readable.” KATB, p. 38.
(16)
Crowley, Aleister. The Book of the Law. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1997. (B) "'Do what thou wilt' is the whole of the law." BL, p. 382.
“Well, he did say something very profound. He was simply requoting the Old Man of The Mountain. He said, ‘Do what thou wilt. That is the whole of the law.’ “ LOKA 2, p. 165.
Rarely did Burroughs mention Crowley without a reference to Hassan I Sabbah, and his
“Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.”
Cummings, Anne (E) See Felicity Mason. Friend of Burroughs through Brion Gysin from the Tangier
and Paris years. Burroughs also contributed the cover blurb for her book, The Love Habit.
cummings, e. e. (B) Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962) American author, poet, and painter. (83)
Dalton, David. James Dean: The Mutant King. NY: Dell, 1975. "To me the only success the only greatness in immortality." -James Dean. AM, p. 127.
Davis, James. Cut-ins with "page from a short story by James Davis..." WSB, p. 240. Unknown title.
Davis, Wade. Passage of Darkness. The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie. Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1988. An anthropolical investigation into the Bizango zombi cult of Haiti.
The non-fictional basis for The Serpent and the Rainbow book and film. Recommended to the author by Burroughs in 1995. WSB claimed that this book was better than Davis’s other book, The Serpent and the Rainbow. This edition sports a preface by Richard Evans Schultes, the
anthropologist Burroughs went along to South America with in his search for yage.
Davis, Wade. The Serpent and the Rainbow. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1985. Davis’s first account of the
Bizango zombi cult of Haiti, and the use of tetrodotoxin. The basis for the film of the same
name. A more scholarly approach to Davis’s studies can be found in his Passage of Darkness.
Both books recommended to the author in 1995 by Burroughs.
De La Mare, Walter. "Bad Company". The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories.
Chosen by Michael Cox and R. A. Gilbert. NY: Oxford University Press, 1989. (H)
Walter De La Mare (1873-1956) English author.
"Just read a story by Walter de la Mare-jolly good." LW, p. 69. WSB probably read
this story from this anthology of ghost stories which he owned and is listed among his books
in Lawrence, KS.
De Quincey, Thomas. Confessions of an Opium Eater. NY: The Heritage Press, 1950.
Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) English author, poet, and essayist and drug addict. De Quincey
became addicted to opium in his second year at Oxford. He published The Confessions of an
Opium Eater in 1821 in London Magazine. Burroughs was a reader of de Quincey from an early
age and he cited him throughout his career as a good drug source.
PODR, p. 58. AM, p. 109. HR, pp. 70-1. LO, p. 121. BL, p. 393 (as good drug source.), & 388.
LAG, p. 2
“DeQuincey, who wrote the first, and still the best, book about drug addiction, Confessions of an Opium Eater.” BL, p. 507.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
“During the next six years I lived in Tangier, Morocco, then in Paris, and experienced the depression and hopelessness of heavy addiction, a state of which DeQuincey gives a good account in his Confessions of an Opium Eater, under the section entitled ‘The Pains of Opium’ - the numb, despairing feeling of being buried alive.” WSBAF, p. 265.
De Quincey’s Confessions. NY: Heritage press, 1950. pp. 55-70 (The Pains of Opium.)
“De Quincey reports that Coleridge had to hire somebody to keep him out of drugstores, and then he fired him the next day when the man attempted to obey his instructions. He told him, ‘Do you know that men have been known to drop down dead for the timely want of opium?’ Very funny indeed.’” WWB, p. 110.
“So in the dream of last night I ask myself: Am I a woman or a man? What is this dead self?
Qu’est - ce que c’est que ce bete morte?
It is certain that the split here is too profound for mending. No solution is viable. From DeQuincey: ‘A chorus of female voices singing, Everlasting farewells.’” ME, p.102.
(30, 57, 59, 60)
Delgado, M. D., Jose M. R. Physical Control of the Mind. Toward A Psychocivilized Society. NY: Harper & Row, 1969. AM, pp. 90, 153. CWWB, pp. 93, 126. (F)
Dr. Jose M. R. Delgado was a professor of Physiology at Yale, where he developed techniques
for electrical and chemical stimulation of the brain. He applied these discoveries to the study
of primate and human behavior. Burroughs was primarily interested in Delgado during his
time as a scientologist in reference to the e-meter.
"Experts" listed by Burroughs "who could define the uses and limitations of this instrument" (the E-Meter). ASNS, pp. 92-3. BL, pp. 194, 596. WWB, pp. 37-8. (85)
Dent, Dr. John. Anxiety and It’s Treatment. London: Skeffington & Son Limited, 1955. (E)
Dr. John Dent, London author and medical doctor administered the apomorphine treatment to
Burroughs during the sixties. The treatment as well as the use of apomorphine was discussed
in great detail by Burroughs in his fiction and non-fiction.
On apomorphine &/or Dent's book:
“Apomorphine combats parasite invasion by stimulating the regulating centers to normalize metabolism- A powerful variation of this drug could deactivate all verbal units and blanket the earth in silence, disconnecting the entire heat syndrome.” NE, p. 39. APO-33 devoted to
apomorphine and Dr. Dent’s treatment.
TJ, pp. 122, 132-34, 152-3. NE, pp. 6, 8, 48, 49-50. BF, p. 195. AM, p. 11. TTM, pp. 43, 50.
BG, p. 33.
Derrida, Jacques. French philosopher and post-modern deconstructionist. Robin Lydenberg in her Word Cultures, attempts to put Burroughs in the tradition of Derrida, Deleuze and Guittari. Timothy Murphy refutes this in his Wising Up the Marks. There is no evidence that Burroughs ever read or took an interest in Derrida. The quote from The Third Mind which sounds very similar to Burroughs and Gysin’s cut-up method is in a section written by Brion Gysin.TTM, p. 20. (F)
Didion, Joan. (G) Joan Didion (1934- ) American journalist, essayist, and novelist. Married John Gregory Dunne in 1964. Author of numerous books including Slouching Toward Bethlehem, The White Album, and A Book of Common Prayer. Burroughs never made a published statement on Joan Didion. Victor Bokris claims however that Burroughs respected her work and Word Virus The William S. Burroughs Reader boasts a Joan Didion blurb on the dust jacket. (11)
Doctor X. Intern. NY: Harper & Row, 1965. (H)
One of the best books WSB read in 1982. “New York Times Book Review,” Dec. 5, 1982.
Doctor X was the pen name for science-fiction writer and medical doctor, Alan E. Nourse.
Nourse was also the author of Bladerunner, the book which Burroughs based his screenplay:
Blade Runner: A Movie.
Dos Passos, John. USA. I. The 42ND Parallel. II. Nineteen Nineteen. III. The Big Money. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1960. John Roderigo Dos Passos (1896-1970) American writer. Author of A
Pushcart at the Curb, the USA novels, and others. Dos Passos was important to Burroughs and Brion Gysin for his literary technique (similar to the cut-ups) used in the “camera eye” sections of the USA novels.
Used in cut-ups. TTM, p. 3.
“The Camera Eye” sections can be found throughout the three novels comprising USA (see
note 90, on this section.)
(7, 90)
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. NY: Signet, 1957. Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
Russian novelist. Author of The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The
Possessed, Notes From Underground, and others. Burroughs never expressed an interest in
Dostoevsky, necessarily but did made comparisons like the one to follow which did suggest he had read his work.
"Benway is emerging as a figurable comparable to the Grand Inquisitor in Brothers Karamazov." LWSB, p. 374.
From an interview with Allen Ginsberg in The Beat Generation and the Russian New Wave:
“We meaning Kerouac, myself, and Burroughs, all read a lot of Russian literature, Dostoevsky
particularly.” (p.27)
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. NY: Bantam, 1981. (84)
Dozois, Gardner & George Alec Effinger. Nightmare Blue. NY: Berkley Medallion, 1975. A mysterious
“ghost list” apparently exists listing Burroughs favorite science-fiction novels. I have not
seen this list but according to two sources (one being an internet site in France, and another
a bookdealer in Austin, Texas who claims to know Gardner Dozois) includes this book. Dozois
is a popular sf anthologist while George Alec Effinger wrote many popular sf novels including
a tv novelization of one of the Planet of the Apes series, and When Gravity Fails.
Drimmer, Frederick. Until You Are Dead. NY: Pinnacle, 1992. Mass market paperback. (H) (46)
Dryden, John. "Absalom and Achitophel". Dryden Poems and Fables. London: Oxford University Press, 1969. John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet. “Absalom and Achitophel” appears on
p. 190, line 4. “I am tired of monogamy with Kiki, Dryden speaks of the Gold Age, ‘Ere one to one was cursedly confined.’ Let’s get on back to that Golden Age. Like the song say, ‘A boy’s will is the wind’s will.’” (“’Absalom and Achitophel’, line 4.” - Dryden reference. “Longfellow: ‘A boy’s will is the wind’s will/ And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts’ - from ‘My Lost Youth’”) From Harris footnote. LWSB, p. 292.
Dryden, John. "Upon the Death of Lord Hastings." Dryden Poems and Fables. London: Oxford University Press, 1969. p. 2, lines 59-60. (41, 87)
Dunne, J. W. An Experiment With Time. London: Faber and Faber, 1943. (G)
J. W. Dunne was a British soldier, ontologist, and philosopher. Burroughs was very interested
in his theories on time. His ideas can be seen put to use by WSB in Cities of the Red Night
where Burroughs intersects storylines and timelines throughout.
AM, p. 36. BL, pp. 628, 634, 731. WWB, p. 140.
Mentioned in Sidetripping, with Charles Gatewood.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
Dunne, J. W. . The Serial Universe. NY: Faber & Faber, 1944. (G)
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
Dunsany, Lord. A Night At An Inn. London: Putnam, 1933. (A) Born in 1878, 18th Baron, Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, known as Lord Dunsany was an Irish poet and dramatist. His most well know play being A Night At An Inn.
“Actually I have had some acting experience. I played the Toff in A Night At The Inn by Dunsany. That’s an old high school show. I was the principal part, my dear, I was the leeeaad. That was at Los Alamos. (...) It’s a corny old thing, you can’t read it.” WWB, p. 117.
Durrell, Lawrence. (F) Lawrence Durrell is best known for his Alexandria Quartet (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea) and The Black Book.
He was associated with Henry Miller and Anais Nin. Durrell was a favorite of Burroughs during
the sixties and his work was used throughout the cut-up period.
Used in cut-ups. TTM, p. 95. As cut-up source. LO, p. 322. (51)
Durrell, Lawrence. Clea. NY: Dutton, 1960. (F) (31)
Dyer, Wayne W. Your Erroneous Zones. NY: Morrow/Avon, 1993. (H)
One of the bestsellers mentioned by WSB in The Adding Machine, pp. 25-6.
Eberhardt, Isabelle. (G) Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) Explorer and writer who lived and traveled extensively throughout North Africa. She was influenced by the Arab lifestyle. According
to Victor Bokris Burroughs was an admirer of her work which he was probably introduced to
by Paul Bowles during his time in Tangier. (11)
Echanis, Michael D. Basic Stick Fighting For Combat. Burbank, CA: Ohara Publications, 1978. (H) (86)
The Egyptian Book of the Dead. The Book of Going Forth By Day. Translation by Dr. Raymond Faulkner. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1994.
BL, pp. 276-7. AM, p. 195. This Chronicle Books edition of The Egyptian Book of the Dead sat
on a table next to the door at Burroughs’ house in Lawrence.
Eliot, T. S. (B) T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) Born in St. Louis, Missouri, T. S. Eliot, poet and critic, is
most well known for his The Waste Land. Burroughs and Eliot shared a hometown and WSB
attended the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard while Eliot was lecturing on the Romantics. Burroughs called The Waste Land the first cut-up poem.
"If a writer has a pretentious literary style, it is generally because he has not read enough books." Unknown Eliot quote from AM, pp. 33, 157. Used in fold-in method. TTM, p. 97.
Used in cut-ups. TTM, pp. 3, 6-7. Used in cut-ups. WSB, p. 158.
Burroughs compares David Bowie's lyrics with the poetry of T. S. Eliot. BL, p. 234.
"After such knowledge, what forgiveness?" ME, p. 181. (8, 9, 51, 83, 88, 89)
Eliot, T. S. The Cocktail Party. T. S. Eliot The Complete Poems And Plays 1909-1950. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1980. The Cocktail Party, pp. 295-388. (D) (70)
Eliot, T. S. The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press,
1933. (B)
This book collects the Charles Eliot Norton lectures which Eliot gave at Harvard. Burroughs
attended the lecture on the romantic poets. (57)
Eliot, T. S. “The Waste Land.” T. S. Eliot The Complete Poems and Plays 1909-1950. (B)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1980. The Waste Land, pp. 37-55.
"Hurry up please," & "Who is the third that walks beside you." Both from SM, p. 37.
“I will show you fear on walls and windows people and sky- Wo Wrilest du? - Hurry up please it’s accounts- Empty is the third who walks beside you.” NE, p. 115. Obvious Eliot cut-ups from page 115 to 117.
"Hurry Up Please It's Time." TWL, beginning and end. Used for cut-up source.
"Of course, when you think of it, The Waste Land was the first great cut-up collage." WWB, p. 93. "Who is the third who walks beside you?" TTM.
"Eliot does cut ups. The Waste Land is a cut up." CWSB, p. 92.
(21, 31, 90, 91)
Elliot, David. Listen to the Silence. NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Proof copy. WSB says on TP: 'Used in cut-ups'. Signed WSB. Vg. WSB, p. 334. (F)
Engely, Dr. Bernard. (F) ASNS, pp. 74-5. Fancher, Hampton and David Peoples. Blade Runner: A Screenplay. Item #70 From the library of WSB. Sold at auction. AG&F. (H) The screenplay for the film by Ridley Scott based on the book by
Philip K. Dick. Burroughs was given credit for the title of the film in the 1991Director’s Cut of Blade Runner.
Farson, Daniel. The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon. London: Vintage, 1994. (H)
“Reading a bio of Francis Bacon by Dan Farson. Years ago (Farson) organized a tv show for me and Alex Trocchi. Francis calls attention to some graffiti, and I claim the all time best from one of these outdoor pissoirs in Paris: ‘J’aime ces types vicieux qu’ici montrent la bite.’ ‘I like the vicious types who show the cock here.’ ‘Oh oh, whoo hoo, me too!’ Quote from an out-of-mind gay novel. I heard the writer killed himself. It was very good. Can’t even recall the title or the writer’s name. It was [McGary] or something vaguely Irish.
Another lost ms. scenes of the novel pass through my screen, the little ‘woohoo’ queen. Another twisted nasty queer who worked in a government seamen’s employment agency. Another: ‘He had never seen a youth as aware of his blood, and -’” LW, p. 48.
LW p. 53.
Faulkner, William. American novelist, author of Absolom Absolom, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary, Light In August, and others. Burroughs never expressed admiration for Faulkner and Burroughs writing style does not indicate that he was a serious influence. This brief reference in Last Words is included simply because it was there. LW, p. 134
Federn, Paul. (B) Mention of Professor Federn in LW, pp. 8, 11. Federn was one of Burroughs' psychotherapists.
Field, Rick (Ed.). LOKA II. NY: Anchor Press, 1976. (G) See the WSB lecture on Cut-ups. One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall 1976, by WSB. Burroughs is a contributor to this book.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American novelist. Author of
The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, Taps at Reveille, The
Love of the Last Tycoon, and others including short story collections. Many consider Fitzgerald
the great American novelist. Burroughs was a great reader of Fitzgerald and considered The
Great Gatsby to be one of the finest pieces of American literature. He was fond of quoting the
final passage.
Used in fold-in method. TTM, p. 97.
Jeff Shero: “A lot of writers never did break with the past. Look at Fitzgerald, he kind of fell apart.
WSB: Well, excuse me, Fitzgerald was a great writer, but he was completely tied up in the 1920’s. I’m not associated with any period. But Fitzgerald was the 1920’s. What a writer he was.” BL, p. 105.
“Fitzgerald wrote the jazz age, all the sad young men, firefly evenings, winter dreams. He wrote it and brought it back for a generation to read, but he never found his own way back.” LOKA, p. 115.
"the lonely street road of adolescents is from a story by F. S. Fitzgerald." WSB, p. 162.
(7, 88, 92, 93)
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. All The Sad Young Men. NY: Scribners, 1926. In Cities of the Red Night we see the Audrey character sitting at a typewriter. One of the books that Burroughs lists that can be seen in Audrey’s bookcase is All the Sad Young Men. All the Sad Young Men was a Fitzgerald title published originally in 1926. The other books listed in the stack highlight Audrey’s personality as well as his interests. Burroughs has listed only books that came out in the 1920’s or were commonly read in the 1920’s and all titles that could be considered coming of age or timepieces. By transferring his own knowledge to Audrey he has limited the character to a certain mind set but also gave him a personality, and set his childhood in a certain time zone within 2 sentences. (6)
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. London: Bloomsbury, 1994.
AM, pp. 38, 49, 66, 71, 73. CWWB, p. 159. Used in cut-ups. WSB, p. 163.
BOL2 lists The Great Gatsby as being Burroughs’ tenth favorite novel of all time (see note 124 for context.)
(37, 73, 94, 95, 108)
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Taps At Revielle. NY: Scribners, 1935.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "A Diamond As Big As The Ritz.” The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. A New Collection. Edited and with a preface by Matthew J. Bruccoli. NY: Scribners, 1989. “A Diamond As Big as the Ritz” appears on pp. 182-216. (31)
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "A Short Trip Home". The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. A New Collection. Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli. NY: Scribners, 1989. “A Short Trip Home,” pp. 372-389. “Been working intensive on new novel. Just applying last touches to sketch of my dear friend Hal: ‘His face showed the ravages of the death process, the inroads of decay in flesh cut off from the living charge of contact. He had aged without experiencing life like a piece of meat rotting on a pantry shelf. Moor (Hal’s nom de plume) was literally kept alive and moving by hate, but there was no passion no violence in Moor’s hate. His hate was a slow steady push, weak but infinitely persistent, waiting to take advantage of weakness in another.’” (“ The lines appear almost verbatim in Queer, p. 6. Compare the description of Joe Varland’s eyes in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1927 short story ‘A Short Trip Home’: ‘They were helpless yet brutal, unhopeful yet confident. It was as if they felt themselves powerless to originate activity, but infinitely capable of profiting by a single gesture of weakness in another.’)”
On the subject of plagiarism: ‘In a moment of hasy misjudgement a whole paragraph of description was lifted out of this tale where it originated, and properly belongs, and applied to quite a different character in a novel of mine. I have ventured none the less to leave it here, even at the risk of seeming to serve warmed-over fare. - F. Scott Fitzgerald.’ In Bernice Bobs
Her Hair (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), pp. 109, 106.”) From Oliver Harris footnote.
EX, p. 15. Section takes the name of this short story.
One of the stories on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
WSB, pp. 149-50.
Forster, E. M. A Passage To India. NY: Harcourt Brace & World, 1952. Edward Morgan Forster (1879- 1970) British novelist. Author of A Passage to India, A Room With a View, Howard’s End, and others. Forster was a member of the Bloomsbury group.
“Ah yes... Find some old dream notes in Jaguar Woman by Lynn Andrews. The supervisor is connected to, or perhaps is, Fielding from A Passage To India, one of those very decent English types with a dim view of life and death.
Anything after death?
‘I’m afraid not!’ Fielding says.” ME, p. 27.
Forsyth, Frederick. Frederick Forsyth (1938- ) British novelist. Best-selling author of The Dogs of War, The Odessa File, The Fist of God, The Day of the Jackal, and others. Burroughs considered Forsyth to be one of the best authors of what he called “airplane reading.” (27, 96)
Forsyth, Frederick. The Day of the Jackal. NY: Bantam, 1971. (G) One of the bestsellers mentioned by WSB in The Adding Machine, pp. 25-6.
BL, pp. 438, 481. WWB, p. 167. (84, 97)
Forsyth, Frederick. The Dogs of War. NY: Bantam, 1974. (G) (97)
Forsyth, Frederick. The Odessa File. NY: Bantam, 1972. (G) (97)
Fortune, Dion. Psychic Self Defense. Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1994. (G) Dion Fortune (1890-1946) Born Violet Mary Firth in North Wales. A member of the Golden Dawn she later helped form The Society of the Inner Light. She was the author of many books including Psychic Self Defense, her most well known which is still in print.
“Their most articulate spokeswoman, Dion Fortune, who was a leading member of the London- based psychic Society of Inner Light, identifies the succubus in her book Psychic Self Defense (1930): ‘The psychic is of the opinion that the lustful imaginings of men’s hearts do indeed produce artificial elementals and have an objective etheric existence?’ Now, although she was an adept explorer into the occult and wrote at great length about it through her adult life, Dion Fortune’s attitudes toward sex were still bound by the period she lived in, so she was always outraged by the lewd sexual approach of these creatures.” WWB, pp. 186-7. (78)
Foster, Alan Dean. (G) Alan Dean Foster (1946- )American Science-Fiction writer. Author of many sf
books including Orphan Star, Alien, and Blood Hype. He was also the ghost writer of Star Wars
for George Lucas. Burroughs had a copy of Orphan Star in the archive at OSU and expressed
his admiration for some of Foster’s works.
“...I can just name the few good science-fiction books that I have read - there are not very many. (...) Alan Dean Foster does a good one every once in a while. Some of them are at least entertaining.” CWWB, p. 119.
Foster, Alan Dean. Blood Hype. NY: Ballantine, 1981. (G) Chosen by Audrey in "Light Reading" from the The Adding Machine, pp. 196-201 to be read in space.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
Fowkes, Aubrey. Nineteen: A Last Diary of the Teens By A Boy. Fortune Press, 1952. (F) First scrapbook contains “...story by H. G. Wells about a gentle ghost. There is also material from something called, “A Diary of the Teens”, from which derives the name Audrey. This so-called diary in a number of volumes, was about a queer boy in the 1920’s at Oxford or was it Cambridge and on his vacations in France. I had only the final Teen Diary when Audrey was nineteen.” WSB, p. 205.
Fowles, John. The Magus. NY: Dell, 1978. (G) John Fowles (1926- ) British novelist. Author of The
Magus, The Collector, Daniel Martin, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, and others. This is the
only recorded reference by Burroughs to Fowles. COTRN, p. 43.
France, Anatole. (A) Anatole France pseudonym for Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault (1844-1924.)
French novelist, poet, critic, and playwright. An early influence for Burroughs. He read France,
Oscar Wilde, and Remy de Gourmont as a young man at Los Alamos. (98, 99)
Freud, Sigmund. (B) Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis.
Burroughs was not a Freudian and criticized psychoanalysis on more than several occasions.
He did however undergo psychoanalysis and tried his hand at lay psychoanalysis on Jack
Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg at Columbia.
"I have read practically everything that Freud ever wrote.' About twelve volumes. So I'm very well acquainted with this whole theory." WWB, pp. 138-9.
AM, p. 88.
Gaddis, William. William Gaddis (1922-1928) American born author. Attended Harvard. Experimental
writer and author of The Recognitions, JR, A Frolic of His Own, and others. Burroughs only
mentioned Gaddis once to my knowledge and it was only in passing trying to figure out who
the great American novelist mentioned in Puzo’s The Last Don was. His mention of Gaddis
puts him at the top of the game but then says that Gaddis or no other writer of the late 20th
century even comes close to Faulkner, Genet, etc. “damning with faint praise” as he said
of Patrick McGrath when comparing him to John Le Carre.
(119)
Garavaglia, Louis A. & Charles G. Worman. Firearms of the American West 1803-1865. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1984. (H) (86)
Garret, Eileen. (F) Eileen Garret (1893-1970) Irish born medium and psychic. Author of Adventures in the Supernormal; Telepathy; Awareness; The Sense and Nonsense of Prophecy; Life is the Healer; and Many Voices. Garret was a well known psychic and medium. She is probably most well known for her channeling of Lieutenant H. C. Irwin, Captain of the R101 airship two days after it crashed. Garret claimed to have communicated with Irwin and proceeded to give a highly technical account of how the airship crashed. According to the experts who were in charge of the investigation her account was accurate in every way. E. F. Spanner, in his book the Tragedy of the R101 concurs with all of Garret’s statements. Brion Gysin knew Garret and was very interested in her work. Burroughs became interested as a result of Brion’s knowledge in this field. Gysin’s book Here To Go: Planet R101 was inspired by the incident. MKA, p. 30.
Genet, Jean. Jean Genet (1910-1986) French novelist, playwright, poet, and activist. Genet was the
author of several plays, a collection of poetry, and many novels including Miracle of the Rose,
The Thief’s Journal, Funeral Rites, Our Lady of the Flowers, Querelle, and Prisoner of Love.
Burroughs consistently listed Genet among his favorite writers and on several occasions
said that Genet and Samuel Beckett were his favorite authors. He called him a great story-
teller and a wonderful writer, but didn’t consider him a verbal innovator like Fitzgerald or
Eliot. Burroughs and Genet along with Terry Southern and Allen Ginsberg covered the
Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968. This was their only meeting and according to
Burroughs they got along very well even though WSB’s French was bad and Genet’s English
was non-existant.
AM, pp. 33, 49, 194. Used in cut-ups. TTM, pp. 6-7. Used in cut-ups. WSB, p. 163.
BL, pp. 432, 437. CWWB, pp. 101-2. LW, p. 134. WB, p. 149. WWB, pp. 1, 14. AWG, pp. 43-4.
EX, pp. 93-4 (Genet on Chicago.) p. 95-"It is time for writers to support the rebellion of youth not only with their words but with their presence as well."
“Jean Genet once said that he started to write at birth. I think that is true of any writer.” LIW, p. 15
WSB to Ed de Grazia on Jean Genet in 1965: “Burroughs said that the difference between them was that Genet was fond of prison while he was not.” LO, pp. 343-4.
“He (WSB) remembered what Jean Genet had said: ‘There was the French language and there was me and I put one into the other and now it’s finished- C’est fini.’ For him, it was the same- C’est fini. LO, p. 612.
From WSB’s praise of Robert Gluck’s Jack The Modernist on the back of Margert Kemp: Gluck reminds one of Genet and the transmutation of sex into something beyond sex. Not since Genet have we seen such pure love of the body and soul-seen as one palpable flesh.”
WSB in praise of Gary Indiana’s Horse Crazy: “Fascinating to every man, no matter what his sexual tastes- like the characters in Genet.”
Jeff Shero: “Why do you think Genet is the only one who has taken responsibility for his characters? What about Kesey? You know Kesey’s book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?
WSB: Sure. It was simply that Genet was one of the first ones to state this. (...)
Genet recognized it, yes, possibly before I did.”
BL, pp. 104-5.
(7, 13, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 39, 53, 70)
Genet, Jean. The Miracle of the Rose. NY: Grove Press, 1966. Found book: “The Miracle of the Rose”. From description not Genet, but obviously inspired. Appears in The Wild Boys, p. 73. According to Eric Mottram in his Algebra of Need, a “transformation of Jean Genet material.”
“J. E. Rivers: You called a section of The Wild Boys ‘The Miracle of the Rose’. Is that an allusion to Genet’s novel of the same name?
WSB: Yes. I thought The Miracle of the Rose was a great book. All of Genet’s books are great.” CWWB, p. 101.
Genet, Jean. Prisoner of Love. London: Picador, 1989. (H)
“Thoughts that arise palpable as a haze from the pages of Jean Genet’s Prisoner of Love.
I have never felt close to any cause or people, so I envy from a distance of incomprehension those who speak of ‘my people’. Jews, blacks, Palestinians, Chinese... But to affiliate myself with any such aggregate would be an act of brazen dilettantism that I could not begin to carry off.(...)
Genet is concerned with betrayal, to me a meaningless concept, like patriotism. I have nothing and nobody to betray and in consequence I am incorrigibly honest.” ME, p. 6.
“Genet is concerned with betrayal. I have nothing and nobody to betray, moi. In Prisoner of Love a perceptive black officer from Sudan named Mubarak says to Genet: ‘The Israeli soldiers are young. Would you be glad to be with them? I expect they would be very nice to you.’” ME, p. 8.
“ ‘Like other leaders he stood up the instant a fedayeen came into Arafat’s office. The fighter, bringing in a newspaper, a telegram, a cup of coffee, or a pack of cigarettes, was bound to know what it meant: If you’re a hero you are as good as dead so we render to you a funeral tribute. We’ve got springs under our seats and as soon as a hero comes in, we are ejected into mourning.’
What a writer and what a meaning sensitive observer. ‘I grovel in admiration.’ This phrase I lift from a book where some behind-the-lines scotch-drinking PLO speaks of a girl who will ride a donkey loaded with explosives into Israeli lines. It occurred to me that prostrate groveling would be a wise procedure for anyone in the vicinity of this admirable act.(...)
Genet returns to the story of the cid who kissed the leper. Now leprosy is one of the least contagious of diseases, so the saintly cid was in no danger of infection. Bring me a leper and I will kiss it. (...)
Genet continues: ‘There are still two or three hospitals that look after lepers. But do they really look after them? Perhaps experts inject people with the virus so that future cids can show what heroism and charity an Arab is capable of.” ME, p. 11.
"That's quite a fascinating book." -BL, p. 774.
WSB compares My Education to Prisoner of Love: “It’s very much in that line in that it has no central theme. It goes, just like he goes, off on tangents and this and that. This is the same format, though not the same content.” MILES, p. 246.
Genet, Jean. Querelle. NY: Grove Press, 1974.
BOL2 lists Querelle as being Burroughs’ eighth favorite novel of all time (see note 124 for context.)
Genet, Jean. The Thief’s Journal. NY: Grove Press, 1964. (100)
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
WSB from the foreword to the Herbert Huncke Reader (p.ix): "In The Thief’s Journal, Genet says there are very few people who have earned the right to think."
(19)
Gibson, William. (H) William Gibson (1948- ) American born science-fiction author living in Canada. Gibson is the author of Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling), Burning Chrome, and others. He is considered the father of the cyberpunk movement and anticipated the internet in his fiction. Gibson cites Burroughs as his biggest influence and WSB claimed to like his work. He also gave a dj blurb for the hardback edition of Neuromancer. stating that Gibson was saying what he had been trying to say for years.
BL, p. 752.
Gide, Andre. (B) Gide (1869-1951) French poet and novelist. (B) Gide was the author of many books
and critical studies including The Counterfeiters and Madeleine. Burroughs read Gide at an
early age but didn’t seem to be influenced greatly by his work.
1936: WSB quotes Gide on communism: “...Andre Gide had visited the Soviet Union and pronounced it ‘the God that failed.’” LO, p. 63.
(58)
Gide, Andre. The Counterfeiters. NY: Knopf, 1952. (C)
“With Hal Chase, Burroughs and Kerouac acted out scenes from Andre Gide’s novel The Counterfeiters, the story of a motiveless murder...” LO, p. 97.
Glob, P. V. The Bog People. NY: Cornell University Press, 1970. (G)
COTRN, p. 86.
On hanging and orgasm: “It’s a very old image. You find it in the whole concept of the Liebestod. It is very much a Nordic image. You find the actual practice of sacrificial hanging described in The Bog People by Professor Glob. I believe that was his name.” CWWB, p.107.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. “Blissful Longing”. The Eternal Feminine. NY: Ungar, 1980.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) German poet. Author of Faust.
“Blissful Longing”, p. 135, lines 17-20. "When you don't have this dying and becoming, You are only a sad guest on the dark Earth." TWL, p. 4.
From The Eternal Feminine: “Till this thought has you possessed: Die and be reborn!/
You are but a dreary guest On this earth forlorn.” Translation by D. G. Wright.
Gogol, Nikolai. Dead Souls. NY: Modern Library, 1936. (C) Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) Russian writer.
Author of Dead Souls, Revizor, and Cossack Tales. According to Allen Ginsberg Burroughs also
had the Nabakov biography of Gogol in his library when they first met.
(1)
Golding, William. (F) William Golding (1911-1993) English novelist. Author of Lord of the Flies, Pincher
Martin and others.
Used in fold-in method. TTM, p. 97.
Goodman, Felicitas D. How About Demons? Possession and Exorcism in the Modern World. Indiana University Press, 1988. (H) "Reading Demons, Etc. by Felicitas D. Goodman (...) The syndrome of demonic possession is (as) clearly delineated as any illness. (...)
"In the name of the Father and Jesus and the Holy Ghost, I command you to leave the body and soul of William Seward Burroughs II.” LW, p. 209-10.
Gourmont, Remy de. “Les Fevilles Mortes.” (A) Remy de Gourmont (1858-1915) French writer.
An early influence for Burroughs. He read Remy de Gourmont, Oscar Wilde, and Remy de Gourmont as a young man at Los Alamos. (98, 99)
“Favorite quotes:
‘J’aime ces types vicieux qu’ici montrent la bite.’
On wall of outdoor pissoir in Paris.
‘Simon, aime tule bruit des pas surles fevilles mortes?’ - Reme de Gourmont...” LW, p. 49.
“Simone, do you like the sound of stepping on dead leaves?”
(98, 99)
Goyen, William. The House of Breath. London: Serpent’s Tail, 1990. William Goyen (1915-1983)
American writer.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
Graham, Alistair and Peter Beard. Eyelids of Morning: The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1973. (G) WWB, p. 135.
Green, Julian. Julian Green (1901-1998) Prolific French writer. Author of Leviathan, The Closed
Garden, If I Were You, The Pilgrim of the Earth, The Other Sleep, and others. Burroughs
was a great reader of Julian Green and mentioned four of his books on the Naropa list
of neglected works. He claimed to like his supernatural themes and refuted Genet’s statement that Julian Green was not a writer. (40)
Green, Julian. The Closed Garden. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1928.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
Green, Julian. If I Were You. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1949.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
“(the) evil old transfer artist in If I Were You, by Julian Greene: ‘My God, what a face! What a filthy face. Marked by age, extreme experience, and wickedness.’” LW, p. 228.
Green, Julian. The Other Sleep. London: Pushkin, 2002.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
Green, Julian. The Pilgrim of the Earth. London: Blackamore Press, 1929.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990.
Greene, Graham. Graham Greene (1904-1991) British novelist. Author of The Man Within, Brighton
Rock, The End of the Affair, The Heart of the Matter, Our Man In Havana, The Power and the
Glory and many others. Graham Greene was a favorite of Burroughs. The only published
negative criticism of Greene by Burroughs was his emphasized irritation for Travels With
My Aunt. He was still hailing The Power and the Glory as a “great book” in his final journals published in Last Words.
"Graham Greene", entire essay devoted to Greene. AM, P. 187. AM, p. 66. Used in cut-ups. TTM, pp. 6-7.
On the police officer who arrested WSB for drunken driving and public indecency: “’He saw at once,’ Burroughs recalls, ‘that I was not a member of what Graham Greene calls the torturable classes.’” LO, p. 148.
(7, 40, 42, 61, 63, 64, 75)
Greene, Graham. Brighton Rock. NY: Everyman’s Library, Knopf, 1993.
“It’s a good book. It’s got a strange shape. He’s suddenly saying you’re a bad Catholic. That’s a very good book. (...) It’s about boys -seventeen year-old boooooooiiiiiyyyysss. With razor blades strapped on their fingertips or something. I never got into that razor blade thing exactly...” WWB, p.12.
Used in cut-ins, WSB, p. 240.
Greene, Graham. The End of the Affair. Middlesex: Penguin, 1962. (F)
"What hope feels like is from Graham Greene 'The End of the Affair'." WSB, p. 162.
Used in cut-ups. WSB, p.163.
Greene, Graham. The Heart of the Matter. NY: Viking, 1948. (D) “’Greene’ in The Heart of the Matter, lists three types can be happy: (1.) The Unaware. Don’t see. Won’t see - some insulated with $$$. (2.) The Coarse. Hard, evil, like Bugsy Siegel - looks pretty well satisfied with himself, and a horrid sight it is, the ugliness bursting through-” LW, p. 33.
In a Scientology auditing session WSB got a release point during a “reading”: “...Scobie, the character in the Graham Greene novel The Heart of the Matter, with his rusty handcuffs on the wall.” LO, p. 441.
“The Heart of the Matter is the Graham Greene book most closely related to my story, ‘The Health Officer’.” ROCF, p. 7.
Essay from ROCF (pp. 4-8) (65)
Greene, Graham. The Human Factor. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1978. (G) (96)
Greene, Graham. The Man Within. NY: Bantam, 1948. (F) Quoted in WSB, p. 163.
Greene, Graham. Our Man In Havana. NY: Bantam, 1960. (E) WWB, p. 196.
Greene, Graham. The Power and the Glory. NY: Viking, 1990. (C)
One of the books included in the Granta Anthology project Table of Contents. Passages from WSB’s favorite books were chosen and compiled to be published as Granta 52: Granta Anthology of Deathless Prose, 1990. (39)
Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. NY: Viking Penguin, 1991. (E)
“Now I remember Graham Greene wrote The Quiet American, a great book. I hadn’t read it before, but I got to the point of the milk bar (...) You know the explosion in the milk bar. He’s looking around in this milk bar, and I said wait a minute, time to hit the floor. I knew when the explosion was going to take place. I hadn’t read it yet. And that was about two years before the same explosion happened in the milk bar in Algiers. (...) Wow! Graham Greene had written that.” BL, p. 104. BF, pp. 75-6. WWB, p. 12. (70)
Groddeck, Georg. The Book of the It. NY: Vision Press, 1949. (F) DE and The IT. See Groddeck book. "A built in self-desctructive mechanism," "Hubbard calls it the Reactive Mind." EX, p. 66.
BOB, p. 89.
Guilliard, Kate. Parody. Grossman Publishers. Dutch Schultz transcript included in this item. No more information is known. BL, p. 304.
Gysin, Brion. The Process. Paladin. 1988. Quartet Books. 1985. Brion Gysin (1916-1986) U.S. citizen
born in England. Educated in Canada and England. Painter, writer, poet, and co-developer of
the dreammachine (with Ian Sommerville.) Brion Gysin and William Burroughs were first
introduced while Burroughs was living in Tangier although they didn’t become close friends
and collaborators until the 1950’s while Gysin and Burroughs were both living at 9 rue Git-le
Coeur (the Beat Hotel.) Gysin discovered the cut-up method during this time and Burroughs
ran with it. They collaborated on many books including Minutes To Go, The Exterminator,
Brion Gysin Let the Mice In, The Third Mind, and the original limited edition of The Cat Inside. Gysin’s calligraphic art style inspired much of Burroughs art from his earliest work for the cover of the first Olympia edition of The Naked Lunch to his later work with painting in the eighties and nineties. Gysin died of cancer in 1986.
Burroughs said that Gysin was the only man he ever respected and he didn’t begin painting
as a career until he died. More on Gysin can be found in the book edited by Terry Wilson
called Here To Go: Planet R101, and Back In No Time by Andrew McKenzie.
Book review of The Process in ASML, p. 67.
One of the books on the Naropa list of neglected works; suggested for Naropa Workshop, Fall
1976, by WSB.
BOL2 lists The Process as being Burroughs all time favorite novel (see note 124 for context.)
See also the sections on blurbs and introductions in this book.
Haldeman-Julius, E. (Editor). Little Blue Books. (A)
Series of little blue books reprinting classic literature, medicine, and others.
TWL, p. 257. BL, p. 684. (6, 99, 101)
Hammett, Dashiell. (C) Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) American writer of “hard-boiled” detective
literature. Author of The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, and many others. Burroughs claimed
to have been influenced by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett to an extent. He said
that this type of fiction could only go so far although he was a big reader of the genre. His
and Kerouac’s unpublished collaborative effort entitled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their
Tanks was very much under the influence and Chandler and Hammett’s writing style.
AM, p. 9. MKA, p. 23. (30, 55)
Haring, Keith and Brion Gysin. Fault Lines. Item #192. WSB's copy. AG&F. (H) Keith Haring (1958- 1990) American artist. Haring’s pop culture status was rivaled only by Andy Warhol during
the nineteen-eighties. His sexual, comical, and sometimes violent, but always loving dancing
figures, morphing clones, and barking dogs are known by everyone living in America today
whether they are aware of Keith Haring or not. Two of his major influences were Brion Gysin
and William Burroughs. Burroughs was very taken with Haring’s art. They collaborated on
more than one project, the most famous Apocalypse, complete with Burroughs text and Haring
art. This copy of Fault Lines (Gysin and Haring) was Burroughs copy and was given to the Allen Ginsberg auction at Sotheby’s by the Burroughs estate in 1999.
Harris, Frank. (A) Frank Harris (1854-1931) Irish born author of My Life and Loves, The Bomb,
a biography of Oscar Wilde, and many others. Burroughs was familiar with Harris from an
early age however I don’t see any reason to say that he was influenced by his work.
“Was it Frank Harris said he never saw an ugly woman till he was thirty? It was, as a matter of fact.... Let’s go back to the hotel to have a drink.” Queer, p. 80.
Heinlein, Robert A. Stranger in a Strange Land. NY: Berkley, 1961. (F)
“I’m not happy with the book either. You know, science fiction has not been very successful.”
WSB from the David Bowie/William S. Burroughs interview with Craig Copetas. Rolling Stone Feb. 28, 1974.
Helbrandt, Maurice. Narcotic Agent. NY: Ace, 1953. (D) Originally bound with Junkie by WSB under the name William Lee."Narcotic Agent not so bad as I expected it would be. He does not sound like an overly obnoxious character." LWSB, p. 187.
WSB Confesses that his cat Smoky was named after the narc in Narcotic Agent. TCI, p. 29.
Hemingway, Ernest. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer. Author of Across the River
and Into The Trees, Death in the Afternoon, Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Old
Man and the Sea, and many others. Hemingway worked as an ambulance driver during the first
world war. He later went on to write some of the greatest novels in American history.
Burroughs’ interest in Hemingway’s work was certainly two-fold. His love/hate relationship
with his literary output and his lifestyle ranged from his absolute praise of “The Snows of
Kilimanjaro” calling it one of the greatest stories in the English language to his scorn of books
like Green Hills of Africa and Death in the Afternoon. He believed that the early work was
full of potential and that later in life Hemingway was too influenced by his image and the
perception of himself as “poppa Hemingway.” However, despite his consistent criticism
Burroughs was quoting Hemingway and discussing his work up until his final journals.
AM, pp. 39, 49, 66. LW, p. 134. WWB, p. 1.
"'What is it in a man's blood make him like that?' - Hemingway." LW, p. 213.
"Remember buck-toothed Eleanor Roosevelt and her 'MY DAY'. As Hemingway said: 'She had great charm.' What is charm? Something sincere, outgoing, and pleasant to see. Some folks get sincere, and something unsightly emerges." LW, p. 119.
From Carlos Baker’s Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story. NY: Scribners, 1969: “Ernest liked...
Eleanor Roosevelt, whom he later described as enormously tall, thoroughly charming, and deaf
as a post.” p. 315.
(14, 39, 93, 102,119)
Hemingway, Ernest. Across The River and Into the Trees. NY: Scribners, 1950. (D) (102, 103)
Hemingway, Ernest. Death In the Afternoon. NY: Scribners, 1950. (D) "It is very dangerous to be a man and few survive it." APIH, p. 38.
From Death In the Afternoon: “Old Lady: It must be most dangerous then to be a man.
It is indeed, Madame, and but few survive it.” p. 103. (102)
Hemingway, Ernest. Farewell To Arms. NY: Scribners, 1995. AM, p. 41.
Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls. NY: Scribners, 1940. “Smell of death.”APIH, p. 28.
From For Whom The Bell Tolls: “He had a gray face from heart trouble and gypsies said that
he carried death with him but that he could flick it away with a cape as you might dust a table.
Yet he, who was no gypsy, smelled death on Joselito when he fought at Talavera. (...) And I tell
you that I smelled death on your colleague who was here. (...) In the last season of Ignaci
Sanchez Mejies he smelled so strongly of death that many refused to sit with him in the cafe.”
P. 253. The discussion on the smell of death occurs on pages 253-257.
Hemingway, Ernest. Green Hills of Africa. NY: Scribners, 1963. (102, 103)
Hemingway, Ernest. Old Man and the Sea. NY: Scribners, 1952. (D) "It's good from a mythological point of view. All this talk about the noble fish and all that crap..." BL, p. 812.
Hemingway, Ernest. Winner Take Nothing. London: Granada, 1977. "A Natural History of the Dead".
“I am now settled in my own house in the Native Quarter which is so close to Paul Bowles’ house I could lean out the window and spit on his roof if I was a long range spitter and I wanted to spit there.”
(“Burroughs’ phrasing here reworks Hemingway’s ‘A Natural History of the Dead’: ‘...and a hole in back you could put your fist in, if it was a small fist and you wanted to put it there...’ In Ernest Hemingway, Winner Take Nothing (London: Granada, 1977), p. 126”) From Harris footnote. LWSB, p. 265. (87)
Hemingway, Ernest. “The Killers.” The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. NY: Scribners, 1966. “The Killers” appears on pp. 279-89. (104)
Hemingway, Ernest. "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. NY: Scribners, 1966. “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” appears on pp. 3-37. (71, 94, 105)
Hemingway, Ernest. "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. NY: Scribners, 1966. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” appears on pp. 52-77.
“Certainly the best if not the only writing Hemingway ever did.” AM, p. 40.
BL, p. 580. (55, 92, 103, 104, 106)
Herbert, David. The Jonah. NY: Signet, 1981. (H) “Reading about a flood when here is a newscast of helicopter crashing into the Hudson because of the thunderstorm. It was named the Mickey Mouse. The helicopter was hit by lightening. All this in my book, accompanied by a tidal wave that wiped out a town. In The Jonah by David Herbert.” ME, p. 127.
Herbert, Frank. Dune. NY: Ace, 1990. (F) Frank Herbert (1920-1986) American science-fiction and
fantasy writer. Author of Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, Soul Catcher, Hellstrom’s
Hive, and many more. The Dune series is one of the most well known and respected series
in the science-fiction genre rivaled only by Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. Brion Gysin
expressed interest in this book in the sixties upon it’s publication. Burroughs made one
positive reference to the book throughout his career and claimed to have used the book in his
cut-up experiments. Burroughs also owned at least two other Herbert books in his personal library.
Used in cut-ups, WSB, p. 307. (2)
Hergesheimer, Joseph. Joseph Hergesheimer (1880-1954) American novelist. His first noted novel
which helped him achieve literary distinction was The Three Black Pennys (1917.) A prolific
author, he was very well known and achieved best-seller status. His works are not well known
today, and you would be hard pressed to find a soul out there who even knows who he was.
Larry McMurtry called him a waste of time and a great bore. Burroughs states he was one of
his favorite authors, but only made this statement in print one time. Hergesheimer is the author
of Swords and Roses, Java Head, Linda Condon, and many many others.
(7)
Herman, Lewis. A Practical Manual of Screen Playwriting for Theater and Television. Cleveland:
World Pub. Co., 1963. (G)
“The flashback and flash forward. Consider Lewis Herman. He’s pretty hardcore. His rules
are hard and dogmatic and apply strictly to commercial films. ‘Realism is often killed’ he says,
‘with still another popular device, the flashback... the flashback impedes motion... Flashbacks
fritter suspense.’ (Herman, pp. 66-7) You see, the audience wants to know what happens next,
not what happened before. According to Herman, ‘It is the motion picture’s task to create...
the illusion... that the shadows... on the screen are real people undergoing real experiences,
in the immediate present.’ (ibid, p. 67) In other words, the audience has to believe what they
know to be untrue. They must maintain this illusion to maintain their interest in the film. And
the flashback, he adds, does not occur in real life. Well, as I’ve said, it certainly does occur in
real life. Herman doesn’t even consider the flash-forward, which, I suppose, he would think
further violates the illusion of immediacy.” DP, p. 297.
Herodotus. The Histories. NY: Penguin, 1955. Herodotus of Halicarnassus (5th century B.C.) Greek
historian. The “father of history.” The Histories by Herodotus, his great work is a history of
Greco-Persian wars from 500 to 479 B.C.
Chosen by Audrey in "Light Reading" from the The Adding Machine, pp. 196-201 to be read in space.
Hill, Napoleon. Think and Grow Rich. CA: Wilshire, 1966. Napoleon Hill is one of the most popular
authors of self-improvement books ever. His Think and Grow Rich opened the door to hundreds
of thousands of imitations and basically created the self-help movement. Burroughs and Gysin
used a line from this book saying when you put two minds together a third always emerges.
This and the passage from T. S. Eliot&#