Rub Out the Words
The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1959-1974
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“Burroughs’s voice is hard, derisive, inventive, free, funny, serious, poetic, indelibly American.”
—Joan Didion
“Burroughs is the greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift.”
—Jack Kerouac
Carefully edited from more than 1000 of his personal correspondences, Rub Out the Words is a collection of 300 of the best letters of Naked Lunch author William S. Burroughs, written between 1959 and 1974. A truly remarkable compendium, it offers an eye-opening and insightful look into the artistic process and complex personal life of the legendary literary outlaw in the post-Beat era—providing a new understanding and appreciation of an author who stood alongside Paul Bowles and Charles Bukowski as one of the most creative and rebellious American artists of the 20th century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Playful, obscene, engrossing at times, these 300 letters by Burroughs, from 1959, when The Naked Lunch (before the definite article was dropped) was issued in Paris, to 1974 when he accepted a teaching position at the City College of New York, cast a light on the writer's eventful life. Edited by beat expert Bill Morgan (The Typewriter Is Holy), this volume picks up where 1993's The Letters of William Burroughs, vol. 1: 1945 1959 left off. Of special interest is Burroughs's work with surrealist painter and cutup artist Brion Gysin and the influence that visual method had on the writings. Through Burroughs, we catch glimpses of writers and figures as diverse as Anatole France, Timothy Leary, L. Ron Hubbard, Truman Capote, Carlos Castaneda, Frank Herbert, and Mario Puzo. Burroughs was no Scout Master, but in these letters, he comes across as reasonable and quite tame.
