Erases the words

Letters 1959 - 1974

Summary:
On February 5, 2014, Burroughs, who shaped the subculture in the USA for decades, would have turned 100 years old. The letters from his time in exile reveal many previously unknown aspects of his biography. The writer became a central figure in a new circle of artists who had only a loose connection to the Beat Generation. It did not yet seem that his experimental works would ever see the light of day. In addition to the struggle for recognition, the letters provide fascinating insights into his obsessive search for the perfect text. They also reveal how closely the radical nature of his writings is linked to that of the private individual Burroughs.

Authors: Burroughs, William S.; Morgan, Bill (ed.); Kellner, Michael (trans. from the author):
William S. Burroughs was born in 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, and died in 1997 in Lawrence, Kansas. He studied at Harvard and met Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg in New York in 1944/1945 - together they formed the nucleus of the Beat Generation. In 1946, Burroughs married Joan Vollmer in his second marriage, whom he accidentally shot in Mexico City during a "William Tell game" in 1951. In the following years, he lived in Tangier and wrote his major work Naked Lunch. The novel subsequently became the bible of the American counterculture, of which Burroughs remained a leading figure throughout his life. Burroughs lived in Paris and London before moving back to the USA in the mid-seventies. He collaborated with artists such as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Kurt Cobain, David Cronenberg, and Bob Wilson. Burroughs was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.