Rub Out the Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1959-1974

Presenting a rare glimpse into the private life of the highly misunderstood writer, this collection of letters follows William S. Burroughs through the 1960s and early 1970s, bearing witness to an era in which he became an influential artistic and cultural leader beyond the literary world. 20,000 first printing.

William S. Burroughs was one of the twentieth century s most iconoclastic literary and artistic figures, an inimitable writer whose groundbreaking work in novels such asJunky and Naked Lunch forever altered the shape of American culture. Now, in this long anticipated collection, editor Bill Morgan takes readers through Burroughs correspondence from the early sixties through the mid-seventies, in more than three hundred letters that document Burroughs steady drift away from the Beat circle and that witness an era in which he became the center of a new coterie of creative people who would establish his reputation as an influential artistic and cultural leader beyond the literary world, toward multimedia.

Written to recipients such as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, Timothy Leary, and Burroughs son, Billy Burroughs Jr., these letters shed new light on the writer s controversial artistic process and literary experimentation, as well as his complex personal life. Here are letters to new friends in North Africa and Eur-ope partners in Burroughs expatriate life including Paul Bowles, Ian Sommerville, Michael Portman, Alex Trocchi, and the surrealist artist Brion Gysin, who became a close confidant and whose cut-up method would deeply influence Burroughs writing.

An intimate glimpse into the private life of an often misunderstood artist, Rub Out the Words is also an unforgettable portrait of one of the twentieth century s most uncompromising literary personalities.