This is the first volume of letters from William Burroughs, covering the years 1945-1959. The letters are entertaining and revealing, placing Burroughs' work in the context of an extraordinary life (J.G. Ballard once commented that Burroughs' life was more extreme than his writing) and Burroughs himself in the context of a decade and a half of momentous cultural change. Burroughs' circle at this time were the prime movers and shakers of the soon-to-be-realized Beat movement including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Brion Gysin. Throughout this period, writing letters was one of only two constant habits in Burroughs' life the other was heroin. Addiction was an abiding preoccupation, conferring an outsider status reinforced by his homosexuality (illegal in those days). Thus his life was one of constant movement - Texas, New Orleans, Mexico City, Tangiers and Paris. Letter writing was central to Burroughs' fictional process, it acted as a catalyst and he used his letters as an author notebook, much being cannibalized and used in his fiction. Many of his letters read like the "routines" which later appear in books such as "Naked Lunch". These letters are a key element to
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