Gentleman Junkie: The Life and Legacy of William S. Burroughs

by Graham Caveney

A portrait of the iconoclastic literary pioneer describes his early life and education, his growing addiction to heroin, his role in the Beat movement, his landmark works, and his influence on the late twentieth century arts

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Art, American

224 pages, Hardcover

First published June 22, 1998

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to find this bad boy at a used bookstore in Springfield, MO for only $3.50 US.

Although I really enjoyed this, I would say that it is more of a curiosity piece for those few twisted souls that want to own everything by and about Burroughs. If you are that interested, you have probably already read most of this material in 'The Adding Machine' and the Re/Search publications. It did tie together his work on CD's and movie cameos in the Nineties up to his death very nicely, however. Some of that later info I had yet to see in a chronological fashion.

What this book really had going for it was the design. I don't really know enough about graphic design to discuss it intelligently, but I feel that the Nineties will one day be looked at as a very innovative time in that field. This book is the perfect example of this. There are tons of pictures, many that I haven't seen in other publications about Burroughs, and the layout looks like someone raided a scrapbooking store and then sat down with a Hunter S. Thompson sized cache of drugs and went to work. I mean this in complementary way, of course.

[Michael Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a major disappointment. I wish the biographer had put the emphasis on the content of the book and not the grungy, annoying, scrapbook-from-hell approach he took to this biography of William S. Burroughs. I guess I am the kind of reader who expects to be able to actually READ the content of a book rather than have it printed black text on top of scribble black backgrounds or busy collages. By midway through the book I had lost my patience. I am a graphic designer, and this goes on my list of “top ten worst designed books of all time.” There are a few great photos I had never seen before, saving this from a one star rating. Oh, and some atrocious typos... such as “Shakespearian”

[Paul Bauer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good overview of Burroughs but the graphics and layout detract from the book. Overall, it seems more like a fanzine piece than an attempt at serious biography.

[John Opalenik · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very stylish looking book.

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Burroughs's visit with Allen Ginsberg in New York proved to be a poisoned chalice."

"Like some pact between Narcissus and Midas, everything that Burroughs touched turned into himself. It made him as much of a virus as the language that he saw contaminating us."

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good quick biography of William S. Burroughs

[loitering outside 711 · Rating 4 out of 5]

My takeaway - Heroin makes you live forever

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've only read one book by Burroughs and that was Nova Express. I thought it was 80% indecipherable and 20% brilliant. It wasn't a fun read, but I like the idea of people being experimental, trying new things, pushing the envelope, etc... so I never thought of it as just trash. I found this book "about" Burroughs much more interesting and it's kind of ironic because that seemed to be what the author was saying. Burroughs was an author, but more importantly he was Burroughs, or at least he created a "Burroughs" that was extremely appealing to many people. I guess my biggest problem with him is that as a father he was a piece of shit. Being a father myself, I have a hard time respecting anyone who takes the job lightly. Also I have no respect for drug addicts of any kind. I have empathy for their plight, but refuse to glorify their life-destroying choices.

I did appreciate that while the author spoke in an artsy/intellectual jargon I often understood what he was saying. One bad thing was that the art in the background made it hard to read sometimes, and it's really a shame that the last words of the book were printed over a black so dark that you can't read them at all, even with a magnifying glass and bright light. Anyone happen to know those last words? (before the epilogue)

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography of William S. Burroughs, one of the beat writers. He was a scion of the Burroughs family of computer fame, a lifelong heroin addict, lover of cats, gay, and writer of very provocative literature. He was one of the Beat writers with Kerouac and Ginsberg. Later he hung out with the Andy Warhol Factory. He wrote Naked Lunch and Soft Machine--two of the most difficult books I have read in my life. One of the tricks he used in writing was a "cut-up" technique. He would write sections on notebook cards and randomly select them and put that section in his story. You can see some of this in Soft Machine, where essentially the same sections keep repeating over and over again.

The biography was a little weird, not like a conventional book. The paper was a heavy bond, every page was coloured, not much white space. There were lots of pictures and sometimes the text would go right over the pictures. There were small sections that were virtually unreadable. Overall, I liked the book, but still find Burroughs, while interesting, a little repellent.

[Randy Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting look into the lives of my favorite Beat, and one of my favorite authors. This book is more of a scrapbook than a traditional book, which would have suited WSB perfectly. There are many photos and reproductions of items throughout the book, giving us a little more texture to the images we form of WSB as we read about his life on the pages. If you are a fan, I highly recommend this coffee table book for your collection!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

stumbled across this book while browsing around in my local library. it's artwork and photography is beautiful. i may buy it after all. a well-written biography of a fascinatingly frustrating individual.

[Ben Lovegrove · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got the paperback version of this, it's rather odd as it's so brief and the artwork takes up too much space that could have been used for text. It's not even Burroughs' artwork, just collages and photos of people like Kurt Cobain. Barry Miles' biography is much more worthwhile.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly flash and little substance.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this poorly researched, badly written and ultimately unnescary given the other books about Burroughs life.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full color collage layout. Burroughs gets the coffee-table bk money behind him. Lovingly done. Burroughs has moved alotof people in profund ways. Me included.