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William S. Burroughs - A Life
William S. Burroughs - A Life follows Burroughs from his Midwestern origins in St Louis; to his foray into the pre-war Harvard gay scene; communal living that gave birth to the Beat movement at Columbia University; expatriate culture in Mexico City, Peru and Tangier; The Beat Hotel in Paris; and the punk scene in 1970's London, all while battling and balancing addiction.
Barry Miles presents the first full-lenght biography of Burroughs to be published in a quarter of a century - and the first to chronicle the last decade of Burroughs's life. Written with the full support of the Burroughs estate and drawing from countless interviews with figures like Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr and Burroughs himself.
Barry Miles presents the first full-lenght biography of Burroughs to be published in a quarter of a century - and the first to chronicle the last decade of Burroughs's life. Written with the full support of the Burroughs estate and drawing from countless interviews with figures like Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr and Burroughs himself.
718 pages, Hardcover
First published January 28, 2013
70 people are currently reading
1114 people want to read
About the author
Barry Miles
73 books152 followersBarry Miles is an English author best known for his deep involvement in the 1960s counterculture and for chronicling the era through his prolific writing. He played a key role in shaping and documenting the London underground scene, becoming a central figure among the poets, musicians, and artists who defined the decade’s rebellious spirit. A close associate of figures such as Allen Ginsberg and Paul McCartney, Miles not only witnessed the cultural revolution firsthand but also actively participated in it through ventures like the Indica Gallery and the alternative newspaper International Times.
In the early 1960s, Miles began working at Better Books in London, a progressive bookshop that became a hub for the avant-garde. While there, he was instrumental in organizing the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall in 1965, an event that marked the emergence of the British underground movement and featured prominent poets like Allen Ginsberg. The same year, Miles co-founded the Indica Bookshop and Gallery, which became a gathering place for creatives and countercultural icons. It was here that John Lennon first met Yoko Ono, at one of her art exhibitions.
Miles also played a role in launching International Times, one of the UK’s first underground newspapers, which Paul McCartney discreetly funded. Miles introduced McCartney to the people behind the project and facilitated many of his early connections with the underground scene. In 1967, he co-organized The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, a legendary multimedia event at Alexandra Palace featuring Pink Floyd, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon, among others.
Later in the decade, Miles took on the management of Zapple Records, an experimental subsidiary of Apple Records. During this time, he produced poetry albums, including one by Richard Brautigan. However, his personal relationship with Brautigan became strained after Miles became romantically involved with Brautigan’s partner, Valerie Estes. The fallout led to communication only through legal representatives. Although Zapple closed before releasing the Brautigan album, it was eventually issued by another label in 1970.
Miles also produced a recording of Allen Ginsberg’s musical interpretation of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, which was released in 1970. He briefly lived with Ginsberg in New York before returning to England following the breakdown of his first marriage. He later married travel writer Rosemary Bailey and continued to live and work in London.
In addition to his memoirs In the Sixties and In the Seventies, Miles has written definitive biographies of cultural icons such as Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now), Frank Zappa, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, and Allen Ginsberg. He is also the author of Hippie, a visual and narrative exploration of the 1960s counterculture. His writings often reflect a mix of personal experience and historical documentation, offering insight into the worlds of rock, literature, and art.
Miles is known not only for his historical accounts but also for his critical views, including pointed commentary on musicians like Rush and Frank Zappa, examining the political and commercial aspects of their work. With a career that spans over five decades, Barry Miles remains one of the most insightful chroniclers of the countercultural and musical revolutions of the 20th century.
In the early 1960s, Miles began working at Better Books in London, a progressive bookshop that became a hub for the avant-garde. While there, he was instrumental in organizing the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall in 1965, an event that marked the emergence of the British underground movement and featured prominent poets like Allen Ginsberg. The same year, Miles co-founded the Indica Bookshop and Gallery, which became a gathering place for creatives and countercultural icons. It was here that John Lennon first met Yoko Ono, at one of her art exhibitions.
Miles also played a role in launching International Times, one of the UK’s first underground newspapers, which Paul McCartney discreetly funded. Miles introduced McCartney to the people behind the project and facilitated many of his early connections with the underground scene. In 1967, he co-organized The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, a legendary multimedia event at Alexandra Palace featuring Pink Floyd, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon, among others.
Later in the decade, Miles took on the management of Zapple Records, an experimental subsidiary of Apple Records. During this time, he produced poetry albums, including one by Richard Brautigan. However, his personal relationship with Brautigan became strained after Miles became romantically involved with Brautigan’s partner, Valerie Estes. The fallout led to communication only through legal representatives. Although Zapple closed before releasing the Brautigan album, it was eventually issued by another label in 1970.
Miles also produced a recording of Allen Ginsberg’s musical interpretation of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, which was released in 1970. He briefly lived with Ginsberg in New York before returning to England following the breakdown of his first marriage. He later married travel writer Rosemary Bailey and continued to live and work in London.
In addition to his memoirs In the Sixties and In the Seventies, Miles has written definitive biographies of cultural icons such as Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now), Frank Zappa, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, and Allen Ginsberg. He is also the author of Hippie, a visual and narrative exploration of the 1960s counterculture. His writings often reflect a mix of personal experience and historical documentation, offering insight into the worlds of rock, literature, and art.
Miles is known not only for his historical accounts but also for his critical views, including pointed commentary on musicians like Rush and Frank Zappa, examining the political and commercial aspects of their work. With a career that spans over five decades, Barry Miles remains one of the most insightful chroniclers of the countercultural and musical revolutions of the 20th century.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
November 17, 2017
Here’s a first – I had to abandon this biography not because it’s a bad book but because I could no longer stand the person it’s about. And I have read biographies of HP Lovecraft (devout anti-Semite), Norman Mailer (megalomaniac), Paul Raymond (sleazeball), Francis Galton (inventor of eugenics) and… well, Heinrich Himmler!
Burroughs is now routinely revered as the last word in outlaw authors, the very definition of what is hip, with his heroin and his homosexuality and his cutups and his Beat generation. It seems that the paedophilia always gets left out of the story. People do remember that yes, he did shoot his wife dead, but hell, they were all drunk and even the cops agreed it was an accident. Maybe people wince a bit at the auto-erotic hanging games in Naked Lunch. So where I had to stop reading was on page 255. Burroughs is in Tangiers and he and his American buddy decide to pay a couple of young Arab boys to have sex with each other.
Here's Burroughs writing to Allen Ginsberg about the incident:
We demanded semen too, no half-assed screwing. So I asked Marv : “Do you think they will do it?” and he says “I think so. They are hungry”. They did it.
I was just about putting up with Burroughs’ rich white Southern family privilege, never getting a job and constant sponging off his dad until he was fifty, junkie monomania and general disregard for anyone else but you got to draw the line somewhere and paying boys to have sex for you is where I draw it.
3 stars for the book itself up to page 255, it's well enough written. No stars at all for its vile subject.
Burroughs is now routinely revered as the last word in outlaw authors, the very definition of what is hip, with his heroin and his homosexuality and his cutups and his Beat generation. It seems that the paedophilia always gets left out of the story. People do remember that yes, he did shoot his wife dead, but hell, they were all drunk and even the cops agreed it was an accident. Maybe people wince a bit at the auto-erotic hanging games in Naked Lunch. So where I had to stop reading was on page 255. Burroughs is in Tangiers and he and his American buddy decide to pay a couple of young Arab boys to have sex with each other.
Here's Burroughs writing to Allen Ginsberg about the incident:
We demanded semen too, no half-assed screwing. So I asked Marv : “Do you think they will do it?” and he says “I think so. They are hungry”. They did it.
I was just about putting up with Burroughs’ rich white Southern family privilege, never getting a job and constant sponging off his dad until he was fifty, junkie monomania and general disregard for anyone else but you got to draw the line somewhere and paying boys to have sex for you is where I draw it.
3 stars for the book itself up to page 255, it's well enough written. No stars at all for its vile subject.
July 1, 2014
Burroughs is not everybody's cup of tea, but he had an incandescent outlaw brilliance that at its high points was unlike anything anyone else has ever done.
You can see my review of his Naked Lunch here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The premise of the biography is that there was in a sense a demonic possession in Burroughs' personality, whether you take that literally or not, and that his entire life's work can be seen as a canvas upon which he struggled with it. In his writing he deliberately tried to maintain a rather sardonic authorial voice, cruel and without pity, but, just under the surface there always a pursuit of candor and a rage against cruelty and oppression. He was brilliant and paranoid, abused all manner of drugs and alcohol and attempted to live a very unconventional and open gay lifestyle at a time when such things were usually unspoken. Even when he bought boyfriends he tended to fall madly in love with them, even though they were supposed to be "just sex" arrangements.
The actual Burroughs, although thoroughly capable of cruelty and inexplicable and unwise actions, was also wracked with sentiment, empathy, fear, sorrow, loneliness, and longing to be loved. He tended to travel through, and tolerate, the most erratic and untrustworthy of companions and environments. He was not particularly good for people, but he blamed himself when things went awry as they often did,
The central mythological event was the accidental killing of his second wife, Joan. At a party where everyone was high and very drunk he played William Tell and attempted to shoot a shot glass off her head, apparently with her encouragement. When he sobered up and was confronted by police he could not believe his own stupidity. This haunted him for the rest of his life. Although he was not usually into women, he was very found of Joan, and they had a great deal in common (although she specialized in benzedrine, and he specialized in morphine) and I honestly believe there was no intent.
(I hadn't known until reading this book that his first wife was a Jewish woman that he married to get safely out of Europe.)
This death utterly shattered and haunted Burroughs.
he had always written, but after this he had to write.
This is a very large book and I cannot touch upon it but briefly here.
The total impact though, is surprise at every corner how incredibly much he accomplished and how he never gave up.
One would by all appearances have expected him to have met with an early death.
It is absolutely astounding he lived to 83.
You can see my review of his Naked Lunch here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The premise of the biography is that there was in a sense a demonic possession in Burroughs' personality, whether you take that literally or not, and that his entire life's work can be seen as a canvas upon which he struggled with it. In his writing he deliberately tried to maintain a rather sardonic authorial voice, cruel and without pity, but, just under the surface there always a pursuit of candor and a rage against cruelty and oppression. He was brilliant and paranoid, abused all manner of drugs and alcohol and attempted to live a very unconventional and open gay lifestyle at a time when such things were usually unspoken. Even when he bought boyfriends he tended to fall madly in love with them, even though they were supposed to be "just sex" arrangements.
The actual Burroughs, although thoroughly capable of cruelty and inexplicable and unwise actions, was also wracked with sentiment, empathy, fear, sorrow, loneliness, and longing to be loved. He tended to travel through, and tolerate, the most erratic and untrustworthy of companions and environments. He was not particularly good for people, but he blamed himself when things went awry as they often did,
The central mythological event was the accidental killing of his second wife, Joan. At a party where everyone was high and very drunk he played William Tell and attempted to shoot a shot glass off her head, apparently with her encouragement. When he sobered up and was confronted by police he could not believe his own stupidity. This haunted him for the rest of his life. Although he was not usually into women, he was very found of Joan, and they had a great deal in common (although she specialized in benzedrine, and he specialized in morphine) and I honestly believe there was no intent.
(I hadn't known until reading this book that his first wife was a Jewish woman that he married to get safely out of Europe.)
This death utterly shattered and haunted Burroughs.
he had always written, but after this he had to write.
This is a very large book and I cannot touch upon it but briefly here.
The total impact though, is surprise at every corner how incredibly much he accomplished and how he never gave up.
One would by all appearances have expected him to have met with an early death.
It is absolutely astounding he lived to 83.
January 24, 2014
Drugs, gun and cats. Yes, cats.
September 26, 2023
I once had an interaction with William S. Burroughs. He was doing a reading at Powell’s here in Portland and I didn’t find out about it til late. I ran up to Powell’s and grabbed two copies of Queer off the shelf and then, in a magical moment, caught him just as he was leaving the store. I asked him if he would sign the books and he said, “I’d be delighted,”in his inimitable voice. He was very kind and it’s a memory I treasure.
I also saw Burroughs at a speaking event. I don’t remember much about it except that he had local poet Walt Curtis open for him. He also showed a short film by then largely unknown filmmaker Gus Van Sant.
This audiobook was well done. The narrator seemed to try to imitate Burroughs’s voice and I’m not sure that was necessary. There was a lot of material to cover and the book seemed comprehensive and well accomplished.
I also saw Burroughs at a speaking event. I don’t remember much about it except that he had local poet Walt Curtis open for him. He also showed a short film by then largely unknown filmmaker Gus Van Sant.
This audiobook was well done. The narrator seemed to try to imitate Burroughs’s voice and I’m not sure that was necessary. There was a lot of material to cover and the book seemed comprehensive and well accomplished.
October 31, 2014
It took me a while to read this, but I have savoured every word, becoming totally immersed in the life of one of the great American writers. Barry Miles has written what will surely be the definitive biography of William Burroughs, packed full of detailed information gleaned from numerous interviews, personal recollections and interpretations of Burroughs's novels. The links between his life and work are given valuable space, but this is not a literary critique of his novels, it just points towards the inspiration and shows who and what incidents are reinterpreted in them.
Literary outlaw, invisible man, beat generation member, gay activist, godfather of punk, artist, actor, drug addict - Burroughs was all these and more. The book presents all these aspects of his life in great detail, along with his travels around the world, spending the majority of his adult life outside of the United States, along with the many counter-culture figures he was associated with. It certainly makes me want to revisit The Naked Lunch, The Wild Boys, Junky, and to seek out others that I have yet to read.
Literary outlaw, invisible man, beat generation member, gay activist, godfather of punk, artist, actor, drug addict - Burroughs was all these and more. The book presents all these aspects of his life in great detail, along with his travels around the world, spending the majority of his adult life outside of the United States, along with the many counter-culture figures he was associated with. It certainly makes me want to revisit The Naked Lunch, The Wild Boys, Junky, and to seek out others that I have yet to read.
March 2, 2014
In all likelihood, the definitive biography. Surpasses Morgan, Miles's earlier book, and with Caveney coming in a poor fourth. There's more to come but not, I think, in a single volume.
January 17, 2016
This is an exhaustive, yet intimate portrayal of our most incredibly "outsider" author- sometimes associated with the Beat Generation (although Burroughs clearly did not relish the link himself), eventually a forerunner and grandfather of the Punks. As a fellow writer, and reader of many of his books, my favorite sections are about his writing "process," of which there are less details. The parts of the book in which Burroughs got into cut-ups, collages, journaling, techniques that combined other arts with writing; or his "Ugly Spirit," and Burroughs' methods of daily subversion: these spoke the most to me. Overall, Burroughs seems very sad, even desperate, and perhaps this is truly the modern (post-modern?) American artist at his "work?" Still, I am a major fan, and so grateful for the impact of reading this American original with the cold, blue gaze. I do recommend this new massive, throughly researched biography, Call Me Burroughs.
February 3, 2022
He was a reprehensible man. While he seems to have shot through life asking nothing of the world, he took and took and took without giving much back. He shot his wife, abandoned his son, lived off his parents, and neglected people. He often couldn't be bothered. Then he'd feel guilt and use it for his work
I haven't read anything by Burroughs, so I can't write to that. I'm going to. But that is my biggest complaint about the bio. There was almost nothing of Burroughs' work given.
People sure took to him, though. Especially celebrities. I think it was mostly because he both played and looked cool and said outrageous things in a matter of fact way.
I haven't read anything by Burroughs, so I can't write to that. I'm going to. But that is my biggest complaint about the bio. There was almost nothing of Burroughs' work given.
People sure took to him, though. Especially celebrities. I think it was mostly because he both played and looked cool and said outrageous things in a matter of fact way.
May 1, 2020
Very readable, wealth of information. I'm always fascinated how much of Burroughs's books were group projects edited or compiled in collaboration with other writer and associates. The worst thing about this biography is that now I have to read WSB's books again.
August 7, 2017
Fantastic book. One of the best bios I've had the pleasure to read
August 6, 2018
I think Miles has written the definitive biography of Burroughs, that looks at his life warts and all but makes Burroughs come off as more human because of them. I also felt that Miles' framing of Burroughs' life-long battle with possession by the Ugly Spirit gave some of the events of his life much more meaning and affirms Burroughs' view of the magical world. Some may find this a cop-out and an excuse for Burroughs killing his second wife Joan Vollmer (even when there is several places in the book that Burroughs does take responsibility for the act and is genuinely remorseful). But one will need to read the full book to get the context. Due credit must also be given to Burroughs' long-time assistant and friend James Grauerholz for doing a bulk of the research that forms the basis of this book, and gives more detail about the least known aspects of Burroughs' early life up until his move to New York in the 40's. Overall a great read. As a side note, I feel that Miles' biography far surpasses Ted Morgan's "Literary Outlaw" and poking holes in the common image of Burroughs as the Gentleman Junkie that I felt that book helped to promote.
October 16, 2023
This is very thorough. He was an interesting artist, and not someone I think I would like.
May 7, 2014
Counterculture chronicler Barry Miles’ latest biography, Call Me Burroughs: A Life, is a very thorough account of one of the most interesting writers of the 20th century, not that his writing was the most interesting, at least at first. Burroughs kind of falls into the trade, much of his first three books reworked from recollections in letters to reluctant paramour Allen Ginsberg.
His best-known book, Naked Lunch, began as routines made up in an attempt to seduce Ginsberg as well as shock and entertain his constant cadre of artists, junkies, and fellow ne’er-do-wells surrounding him in Moroccan exile.
Anyone with the most cursory interest in the Beats (an appellation he never would acknowledge) knows the defining act of Burroughs’ early life is the accidental murder of his wife Joan. It is the struggle to understand what led him to such a horrible moment that finally gives him the courage/derangement to abandon straightforward narrative and jump into the literary deep end.
Although Miles does a good job of placing Burroughs’ cut-up experiments in context of the mid-century avant-garde art movements, he counts on readers having navigated those texts and doesn’t provide examples of what he struggles to describe. In depth.
In many ways, Burroughs was ahead of his time and really presaged the post-digital revolutionary world in which we now find ourselves buried neck deep. These days, someone would (or more probably, already has) make an app to chew through supplied texts, spitting out surprising combinations, juxtapositions, and a whole lot of bullshit at the push of a virtual button. Burroughs did it first. With scissors. Like a boss.
Junkies are not interesting in and of themselves. Of course, it was not surprising to learn the only thing that meant more to Burroughs than writing (and chasing Arab boys) was heroin but it did become tiresome and somewhat sad to think of all the work that could have been accomplished had he not spent so much time getting hooked, getting clean, getting hooked, getting clean … etc. Rather than going the rock star route and making the life seem glamorous, Miles’ extensive examination makes a great cautionary tale.
When all 600 pages were said and done, what really came through, and was surprising, was what a gentle, big heart Burroughs had underneath the ultra-cool exterior, barring his rampant misogyny. He often tried to do the right thing, other times did not and would later regret it, but in the end, the junk always won out.
To quote Neil Young from an equally dark place, “He tried to do his best, but could not.”
His best-known book, Naked Lunch, began as routines made up in an attempt to seduce Ginsberg as well as shock and entertain his constant cadre of artists, junkies, and fellow ne’er-do-wells surrounding him in Moroccan exile.
Anyone with the most cursory interest in the Beats (an appellation he never would acknowledge) knows the defining act of Burroughs’ early life is the accidental murder of his wife Joan. It is the struggle to understand what led him to such a horrible moment that finally gives him the courage/derangement to abandon straightforward narrative and jump into the literary deep end.
Although Miles does a good job of placing Burroughs’ cut-up experiments in context of the mid-century avant-garde art movements, he counts on readers having navigated those texts and doesn’t provide examples of what he struggles to describe. In depth.
In many ways, Burroughs was ahead of his time and really presaged the post-digital revolutionary world in which we now find ourselves buried neck deep. These days, someone would (or more probably, already has) make an app to chew through supplied texts, spitting out surprising combinations, juxtapositions, and a whole lot of bullshit at the push of a virtual button. Burroughs did it first. With scissors. Like a boss.
Junkies are not interesting in and of themselves. Of course, it was not surprising to learn the only thing that meant more to Burroughs than writing (and chasing Arab boys) was heroin but it did become tiresome and somewhat sad to think of all the work that could have been accomplished had he not spent so much time getting hooked, getting clean, getting hooked, getting clean … etc. Rather than going the rock star route and making the life seem glamorous, Miles’ extensive examination makes a great cautionary tale.
When all 600 pages were said and done, what really came through, and was surprising, was what a gentle, big heart Burroughs had underneath the ultra-cool exterior, barring his rampant misogyny. He often tried to do the right thing, other times did not and would later regret it, but in the end, the junk always won out.
To quote Neil Young from an equally dark place, “He tried to do his best, but could not.”
July 29, 2019
Three stars is an average, not an evaluation. 5 stars for content, 5 for thoroughness, 2 for writing style (many parts felt like transferred index card notations), 1 star for too much evidence of an annoying habit (in a book full of men, several mentioned in a paragraph, he uses the male third person pronoun with no clear path to the actual person to which he refers. Stopped me dead cold from reading as I had the track down the active referent) as well as 1 star for too many included references to people and events who were irrelevant.
Still, as annoyed as I was, and, as had others, I really disliked the person Burroughs, I read every word. One thing I was glad of, and that was his persistent pealing away of the layer of mythology surrounding Burroughs and gangs. I had a fleeting but valued acquaintance with Allen Ginsburg, visiting him three times in NYC and talking on the phone uncounted times, and never felt the awe that he, Burroughs and Kerouac mustered in others. They all were more or less children suffering from arrested development.
Would I recommend this book? Not really, unless someone asked me for an opinion on the man, the gangs, and the times. Speaking of the times, only the Tangier and Paris periods feel alive. Everything else felt recounted from, as I said, note cards. Yet I read every word.
By the way, I never referred to the end notes, because I didn't want to keep a finger place holding back of the book pages. Had they been footnotes, they may have been attended.
Still, as annoyed as I was, and, as had others, I really disliked the person Burroughs, I read every word. One thing I was glad of, and that was his persistent pealing away of the layer of mythology surrounding Burroughs and gangs. I had a fleeting but valued acquaintance with Allen Ginsburg, visiting him three times in NYC and talking on the phone uncounted times, and never felt the awe that he, Burroughs and Kerouac mustered in others. They all were more or less children suffering from arrested development.
Would I recommend this book? Not really, unless someone asked me for an opinion on the man, the gangs, and the times. Speaking of the times, only the Tangier and Paris periods feel alive. Everything else felt recounted from, as I said, note cards. Yet I read every word.
By the way, I never referred to the end notes, because I didn't want to keep a finger place holding back of the book pages. Had they been footnotes, they may have been attended.
February 1, 2019
Barry Miles, who was one of Burroughs UK publishers and a personal associate, has written what could be the ultimate bio. A Bible sized tome, it concentrates on the alomost daily minutae of Burroughs life, painting an often sad, but no less compelling Bohemian life. Ultimately it is a compassionate biography, Burroughs was a complex, tormented, spoiled man, but his courage and lust for life, despite the odds, is ultimately inspiring. The legacy and body of work he left behind is rich, complex and mesmerising. The greatest modernist /avant garde/radical artist of the 20th century. You either dig Burroughs or you don't. And if you don't yr a square.
October 12, 2018
Call me weary: another seven-hundred page bio on Bill. Check out the intro for a taste of the documented detail and perhaps you'll agree, this has got to be the final word (of course it won't be). Five stars for the research, but Ted Morgan "Literary Outlaw" is the more compelling writer; maybe I wasn't ready for Miles's book having read Morgan's less than a year ago. A tip of the hat to Barry Miles for tackling a massive project.
February 4, 2014
Exhaustive biography of William S. Burroughs. Despite its length, does move along briskly. If you are interested in the Beats or the punk era, this book puts you into the middle and will reveal some interesting facets of Burroughs and his contemporaries from Kerouac through Kurt Cobain. Material on Brion Gysin is especially developed.
February 21, 2014
The detailed story of the life of WSB. A fascinating read. I find that his life was more interesting than his writing. Difficult to read at points without passing judgment on his actions. As to a technicality of the book, footnotes would have been more efficient than endnotes, given the size of the book.
March 1, 2014
3,5 stars
For an introduction to Burroughs this is a quick read - despite its number of pages. For the 'real deal' do read the separate books with interviews and essays. I enjoyed The Third Mind and The Adding Machine very much so.
For an introduction to Burroughs this is a quick read - despite its number of pages. For the 'real deal' do read the separate books with interviews and essays. I enjoyed The Third Mind and The Adding Machine very much so.
September 14, 2018
I have long been what I have expressed as 'a serious fan of Burroughs'. Having read many of his books during my late 20s mainly, and also 30s. I had come to consider him a man who could stretch my mind into places I never knew before were possible. Add to this the steadfast integrity, by which I mean, that rare and precious thing of always meaning what he said and wrote and did, I was in awe of the man. For he found no value in the moralising and propriety given by society, though did generally seem, through his books, to try generally to be a decent chap. However, through reading his letter collections I found a sad soul, a tormented heart...Collections of letters bring to the fore a more personal side of any writer. It is where they show themselves for one, often bearing parts of themselves which is intended only for the recipient to witness. I have tried a fair few letters offerings of my favourite writers, and only Hunter S Thompson maintained my enthusiasm enough to go through every one and laugh and feel inspired to write and to find something of a role model, in some of his behaviour. Burroughs' letters are, however, saddening. And so I was prepared for a major opening up of his existence from birth to demise to sadden me more than bring joy and laughter to my life and times...
We turn away too easily from anything which is beyond the scripted, prescribed idea of existence. Which is not exclusively a Western problem, its an eastern and northern and southern problem. Each culture has its customs, its beliefs, its damn scripts. Yet it is those who speak beyond the scripts, who not exactly don't care of how confronting the script will cause unease, but feel strongly that for their own lives to mean something to them, they must blaze their own trail. This way of living, due to the script, due to the encouraged, directed, prescribed mode of safety and comfort in numbers, leads always to sadness...
The is by far the most powerful and engaging biography I will ever read. It delves deep. It goes not just into hideous at times detail of the expansive voyage of a man who had the opportunity and grasped at it fully, to live life focused on always learning, always trouncing on so called boundaries, always traveling, always seeking new experiences, but also into how such a man came to be.
Many will be disgusted. And likely put the tome down too soon. Would that bother William? Possibly. For he wrote of his horror, he wrote of his ugliness, and always always always played down, if even mentioned the beauty of his twisted soul. It was always others who noted this. Not him. He lived his pain and tried to own it, to fight it, to beat it. And clearly he took only pain from knowing and feeling he had hurt anyone.
Some will consider him a destructive, entitled white fiend of the lowest order. Yet I suspect those same people are the kind to always project a white as a doves back purity and moral superiority. Which doesn't render their opinion worthless, just less valuable. For those who live with masks of nowt but purity are unlikely to add anything to your own existence (their's in turn) other than that dead breeze of safety in numbers. Watch the adverts and comedy and laugh when you are supposed to. Speak to others in scripted bullshit knowing you never move beyond the pale and find comfort in this. To me this isn't living. For we are all beasts at heart and in spirit. There is not much difference between men and dogs. We are mainly eager for herding and far more deeply prone to tribal customs, without ever questioning not just the guidelines, but the Overseer.
He knew the power of words, and set out to find the source of their power. To do battle with everything he found in order to defeat the word virus././ Sounds silly. To some...Yet the reality is that our lives are more affected by words than anything else, and most words we hear do seem like a carefully engineered virus. Maybe he had a point with this avenue of investigation.
Burroughs was appalling, he was a drunk, he was a junkie, he hurt people, he upset people, he shot his wife, he was a terrible father who paid the ultimate cost of this(as did his son). He was also sincere, well intended, forgiving, charitable, of no interest of the limelight unless it could further his own investigations into what his constantly altered perceptions considered life. He delved into too many mysticisms and spiritual paths and philosophies to detail here and now. And could move from demanding nothing less than acceptance of these paths from all others around him, dogmatically. Yet he knew when he had done wrong, and always tried to right his wrongs. He couldnt. Yet at least he tried.
William Burroughs lived, deeply, truly, wonderfully, woefully, madly, passionately, and possessed an intellect that comes along once in a lifetime.
This book does his life some justice. It inspires as much as it causes discomfort if not total horror to believe that a man could live in such a way, to such a grand old age, with cats and guns and dressing gown to comfort him near his End.
Barry Miles has done a superb job of detailing an existence and the reasons for every turn and twist and straightening and mistake, with sympathy, with understanding, in such a way, that the only net result for me personally, when finishing the tome is...that I must raise my sails higher, catch even the slightest hint of a breeze to delve where my mind spirit and heart are tempted to delve...for this man, this Mr Burroughs, never stopped seeking to grow, to learn, to burn, to yearn, to try and always fail to love...to lose, to examine everything possible, to try everything possible and always to dream...
The best of the human scourge have no interest in calling themselves amazing.
Nothing is certain. Anything is possible...(William's finest lines I ever read)
He lived in the shadows as freely and openly and dangerously as he did in the light.
We turn away too easily from anything which is beyond the scripted, prescribed idea of existence. Which is not exclusively a Western problem, its an eastern and northern and southern problem. Each culture has its customs, its beliefs, its damn scripts. Yet it is those who speak beyond the scripts, who not exactly don't care of how confronting the script will cause unease, but feel strongly that for their own lives to mean something to them, they must blaze their own trail. This way of living, due to the script, due to the encouraged, directed, prescribed mode of safety and comfort in numbers, leads always to sadness...
The is by far the most powerful and engaging biography I will ever read. It delves deep. It goes not just into hideous at times detail of the expansive voyage of a man who had the opportunity and grasped at it fully, to live life focused on always learning, always trouncing on so called boundaries, always traveling, always seeking new experiences, but also into how such a man came to be.
Many will be disgusted. And likely put the tome down too soon. Would that bother William? Possibly. For he wrote of his horror, he wrote of his ugliness, and always always always played down, if even mentioned the beauty of his twisted soul. It was always others who noted this. Not him. He lived his pain and tried to own it, to fight it, to beat it. And clearly he took only pain from knowing and feeling he had hurt anyone.
Some will consider him a destructive, entitled white fiend of the lowest order. Yet I suspect those same people are the kind to always project a white as a doves back purity and moral superiority. Which doesn't render their opinion worthless, just less valuable. For those who live with masks of nowt but purity are unlikely to add anything to your own existence (their's in turn) other than that dead breeze of safety in numbers. Watch the adverts and comedy and laugh when you are supposed to. Speak to others in scripted bullshit knowing you never move beyond the pale and find comfort in this. To me this isn't living. For we are all beasts at heart and in spirit. There is not much difference between men and dogs. We are mainly eager for herding and far more deeply prone to tribal customs, without ever questioning not just the guidelines, but the Overseer.
He knew the power of words, and set out to find the source of their power. To do battle with everything he found in order to defeat the word virus././ Sounds silly. To some...Yet the reality is that our lives are more affected by words than anything else, and most words we hear do seem like a carefully engineered virus. Maybe he had a point with this avenue of investigation.
Burroughs was appalling, he was a drunk, he was a junkie, he hurt people, he upset people, he shot his wife, he was a terrible father who paid the ultimate cost of this(as did his son). He was also sincere, well intended, forgiving, charitable, of no interest of the limelight unless it could further his own investigations into what his constantly altered perceptions considered life. He delved into too many mysticisms and spiritual paths and philosophies to detail here and now. And could move from demanding nothing less than acceptance of these paths from all others around him, dogmatically. Yet he knew when he had done wrong, and always tried to right his wrongs. He couldnt. Yet at least he tried.
William Burroughs lived, deeply, truly, wonderfully, woefully, madly, passionately, and possessed an intellect that comes along once in a lifetime.
This book does his life some justice. It inspires as much as it causes discomfort if not total horror to believe that a man could live in such a way, to such a grand old age, with cats and guns and dressing gown to comfort him near his End.
Barry Miles has done a superb job of detailing an existence and the reasons for every turn and twist and straightening and mistake, with sympathy, with understanding, in such a way, that the only net result for me personally, when finishing the tome is...that I must raise my sails higher, catch even the slightest hint of a breeze to delve where my mind spirit and heart are tempted to delve...for this man, this Mr Burroughs, never stopped seeking to grow, to learn, to burn, to yearn, to try and always fail to love...to lose, to examine everything possible, to try everything possible and always to dream...
The best of the human scourge have no interest in calling themselves amazing.
Nothing is certain. Anything is possible...(William's finest lines I ever read)
He lived in the shadows as freely and openly and dangerously as he did in the light.
October 27, 2018
Barry Miles is the resident biographer of most of the beats. I read the shorter one he published about Burroughs years before he published this 637 page (text) tome. This one was probably published for Burroughs fanatics. Who are many.
I've read a few literary biographies. Usually because they help me understand the work. Richard Ellmann's biography of Joyce is a good example.
What I think is most valuable about Burroughs' biography -- besides the sheer entertainment value -- is it explains where he got many of the characters for his stories.
I got bored with the famous "cut-ups" style after reading "Naked Lunch" and "The Western Lands."
By the time Miles' biography was published I was done reading the novels. Occasionally I'd listen to one of the recordings. That's probably why it struck me while reading the biography that Burroughs' hilarious "routines" -- most of them derived from various novels -- had their origin in various odd places that Burroughs had lived. Like rural East Texas, where he sublet a small cotton farm, then bought his own property and started growing pot (along with other crops). Some days spent hunting down king-size scorpions and "rats as big as possums" or inviting his suspicious neighbors over to drink whiskey on the porch were no doubt fodder for the later harvest.
Like many chapters in his early adult life, that one ended with a sudden encounter with the law, in this case an infamously sadistic sheriff named Vail Ennis, who busted him for indecency off the side of the road somewhere between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, where Burroughs and his wife Joan decided to stop and fuck (being off heroin for a spell had jacked up his libido). "Someone drove past and reported them to the police, and the next thing Burroughs knew Sheriff Vail Ennis and his deputy were on the scene.." The next day Ennis told the local magistrate, "This here feller was disturbin' the peace while tryin' to get a piece."
With so many busts and encounters with criminals, quacks and myriad characters on the cultural fringes, it's no wonder Burroughs called his hilarious deadpan Vaudeville stories "routines."
I wonder if his parents hadn't bailed him out so often if he wouldn't have worked in more hardened criminals. Might have made his work even darker, more murderous.
I've read a few literary biographies. Usually because they help me understand the work. Richard Ellmann's biography of Joyce is a good example.
What I think is most valuable about Burroughs' biography -- besides the sheer entertainment value -- is it explains where he got many of the characters for his stories.
I got bored with the famous "cut-ups" style after reading "Naked Lunch" and "The Western Lands."
By the time Miles' biography was published I was done reading the novels. Occasionally I'd listen to one of the recordings. That's probably why it struck me while reading the biography that Burroughs' hilarious "routines" -- most of them derived from various novels -- had their origin in various odd places that Burroughs had lived. Like rural East Texas, where he sublet a small cotton farm, then bought his own property and started growing pot (along with other crops). Some days spent hunting down king-size scorpions and "rats as big as possums" or inviting his suspicious neighbors over to drink whiskey on the porch were no doubt fodder for the later harvest.
Like many chapters in his early adult life, that one ended with a sudden encounter with the law, in this case an infamously sadistic sheriff named Vail Ennis, who busted him for indecency off the side of the road somewhere between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, where Burroughs and his wife Joan decided to stop and fuck (being off heroin for a spell had jacked up his libido). "Someone drove past and reported them to the police, and the next thing Burroughs knew Sheriff Vail Ennis and his deputy were on the scene.." The next day Ennis told the local magistrate, "This here feller was disturbin' the peace while tryin' to get a piece."
With so many busts and encounters with criminals, quacks and myriad characters on the cultural fringes, it's no wonder Burroughs called his hilarious deadpan Vaudeville stories "routines."
I wonder if his parents hadn't bailed him out so often if he wouldn't have worked in more hardened criminals. Might have made his work even darker, more murderous.
March 4, 2025
It has been 62 years since Norman Mailer declared "I think that William (S.) Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." This assessment still holds true today. No other writer has taken risks in their writing, developing individual radical political ideas or spanned with such a wide range of media - Burroughs had written novels, memoirs, technical manuals and poetry, he had also painted, made collages, taken thousands of photographs, made visual scrapbooks, producing hundreds of hours of experimental tapes, acted in films and recorded more CDs than rock groups.
Made as a cult figure by the publication of Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs was a mentor to the 1960s youth culture. Underground papers would referred to him as "Uncle Bill" and was ranked alongside Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Buckminster Fuller and R.D. Laing as one of the "gurus" of the youth movement who might have the secret of the universe.
Based upon lots of extensive research, this biography paints a whole new portrait of William S. Burroughs by making him real to the reader and showing how he was perceived by his contemporaries in all his guises - from icily distant to voluble drunk. It shows how all of his writing was very much influenced by his life situation and by the people he had met on his travels around America and Europe. He was beneath it all, a man who was torn by emotions, his guilt at not visiting his doting mother, his despair at not responding to reconciliation attempts from his father, his distance from his brother, the huge void that had separated him from his son and the killing of his wife Joan Vollmer.
Made as a cult figure by the publication of Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs was a mentor to the 1960s youth culture. Underground papers would referred to him as "Uncle Bill" and was ranked alongside Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Buckminster Fuller and R.D. Laing as one of the "gurus" of the youth movement who might have the secret of the universe.
Based upon lots of extensive research, this biography paints a whole new portrait of William S. Burroughs by making him real to the reader and showing how he was perceived by his contemporaries in all his guises - from icily distant to voluble drunk. It shows how all of his writing was very much influenced by his life situation and by the people he had met on his travels around America and Europe. He was beneath it all, a man who was torn by emotions, his guilt at not visiting his doting mother, his despair at not responding to reconciliation attempts from his father, his distance from his brother, the huge void that had separated him from his son and the killing of his wife Joan Vollmer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 21, 2019
William S. Burroughs was a huge influence on my reading and interests as a teen and young adult, and par consequence, so were the other beats. This biography is thorough, exacting and at times exhausting--and an excellent summation of the failings of the beats, both as a movement and as people.
Through this biography one must learn to enjoy Burroughs (and Ginsberg, and Kerouac, and Carr, and Cassidy, ad nauseam) despite their personalities and actions, to truly love them for their art and their art alone. Mr. Miles, who knew Burroughs personally, does an exceptional job identifying how Burroughs' life and philosophy impact his writing, and how Burroughs' techniques revolutionized 20th century art and letters. Barry Miles avoids hagiography and contextualizes his actions and beliefs within the avant garde of the post war glorious trenteuse, all of whom leave much to be desired as people. Mr. Miles' intent is to highlight his flaws while keeping him human, which is an impressive feat and leaves the compassionate reader feeling rather drained.
Despite his many, many flaws, William S. Burroughs greatly influenced the beats, the yippies, the hippies, the punks, the post punks, and grunge, and his ideas are traceable through any piece of countercultural art produced in the past 60 years. It's a shame he was such a shit.
Through this biography one must learn to enjoy Burroughs (and Ginsberg, and Kerouac, and Carr, and Cassidy, ad nauseam) despite their personalities and actions, to truly love them for their art and their art alone. Mr. Miles, who knew Burroughs personally, does an exceptional job identifying how Burroughs' life and philosophy impact his writing, and how Burroughs' techniques revolutionized 20th century art and letters. Barry Miles avoids hagiography and contextualizes his actions and beliefs within the avant garde of the post war glorious trenteuse, all of whom leave much to be desired as people. Mr. Miles' intent is to highlight his flaws while keeping him human, which is an impressive feat and leaves the compassionate reader feeling rather drained.
Despite his many, many flaws, William S. Burroughs greatly influenced the beats, the yippies, the hippies, the punks, the post punks, and grunge, and his ideas are traceable through any piece of countercultural art produced in the past 60 years. It's a shame he was such a shit.
August 19, 2017
Comincia con lo Spirito del Male e continua con l'infanzia, i gatti, gli amori, il culo di Burroughs, i soldi di Burroughs, gli amici, gli editing folli di folli dotati per Burroughs e le droghe e le droghe e le armi e le armi di Burroughs, i viaggi e i traslochi di Burroughs, le ispirazioni, le persone deformate e poi deformate in personaggi di Burroughs, della mira di Burroughs e se si ha letto o si ha una vaga idea di quanto sia stato importante William Burroughs per la letteratura contemporanea beh, questa biografia è qualcosa che si deve avere e leggere.
Una stella in meno perché il biografo lascia perdere lo spirito guida e lo Spirito del Male a cui il grandissimo Burroughs avrebbe dato la caccia tutta la vita.
Una stella in meno perché il biografo lascia perdere lo spirito guida e lo Spirito del Male a cui il grandissimo Burroughs avrebbe dato la caccia tutta la vita.
September 12, 2017
Hugely enjoyable. Barry Miles's intimate portrait of Burroughs strips away the artsy associations and we are invited, momentarily, to peer into the human sides of El Hombre Invisible: gun toter, accidental artist, guileless boy, sensitive sweetheart, absurdly inappropriate humourist and ardent cat fan - alongside being the accidental murderer of wife Joan Vollmer and the absent dad of son William Jr. It's astonishing to see how reviled he was when he was just starting out, when you see the reverence he received on later. Goes to show how inconsequential and picky fame can be, I guess?
December 13, 2024
exhaustive and detailed, this book goes into what bill had for each meal of every day of his 83 years.
what do i think of burroughs? i think i might hate him? i guess that outs me as a card carrying member of the bourgeoisie. but the dude was a spoiled rich brat that treated his parents like crap, killed his wife in a drunken stunt, and never spent 4 seconds with his son, including as said son slowly killed himself with alcohol and drugs.
his eventual body of work has been influential but at what cost? he was a menace and a creep. and i'm a curmudgeon.
what do i think of burroughs? i think i might hate him? i guess that outs me as a card carrying member of the bourgeoisie. but the dude was a spoiled rich brat that treated his parents like crap, killed his wife in a drunken stunt, and never spent 4 seconds with his son, including as said son slowly killed himself with alcohol and drugs.
his eventual body of work has been influential but at what cost? he was a menace and a creep. and i'm a curmudgeon.
October 4, 2022
A well-written and exhaustively researched critical biography of a fascinating man of American letters. Having lived a life of endless intellectual curiosity suffused with drugs, guns, cynicism, boundless misogyny, deliberate cruelty to some and dependence on others, a fearful and chaotic worldview, and having lived through very real horrors (many of his own making and all chronicled in his works), were he alive today I believe Burroughs would be sitting in bemused judgment of what the world has become. It is ever more what he had warned us against.
December 18, 2023
Excellent biogrography from someone who knew Burroughs. Written with unjudgemental, unflinching detail, this is a great primer for someone like me who has never really read much Burroughs but wants to know what all the fuss is about. It takes in the countercultural history of America in the twentieth century, with walk on for everyone from Ginsberg to Tom Waits and Francis Bacon. Highly recommended.
March 4, 2017
Una biografia che si legge come un romanzo. Opera monumentale di Barry Miles che ripercorre la vita di uno dei più grandi scrittori americani di tutti i tempi: William "uomo invisibile" Burroughs. Stupefacente la meticolosità della ricostruzione dell'esistenza dello scrittore attraverso un'analisi approfondita della Beat Generation.
November 3, 2018
Well written book about a person no one should have wasted the effort on. Burroughs wrote some interesting stuff while flying on drugs but magnitudes more of crap. As a person he was self centered, heartless to others, and avoid any accountability for what he did. The man’s writings are now nearly forgotten. If it wasn’t for books like this, he would have vanished as well.
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