Cows Are Freaky When They Look at You: An Oral History of the Kaw Valley Hemp Pickers

by William S. Burroughs (Foreword), David Ohle (Editor), Roger Martin (Editor)

Book by

Genres: Nonfiction, History

157 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1991

About the author

William Seward Burroughs II, (also known by his pen name William Lee) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he dropped out and became afflicted with the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation.
Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift", a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".
Burroughs had one child, William Seward Burroughs III (1947-1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. Vollmer died in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer's death, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997.

Reviews

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is amazing and weird and deeply addictive and not at all what I expected. Ohle and Martin collected interviews from some of the most notorious members of the 1960s and 1970s hippie community in Lawrence, Kansas, and the results are sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying, and often surprising.

I expected page after page of goofy druggie stories, but mostly I was a little frightened by the darkness of some of what happened in Lawrence during those years. The stories tend to go like this: "Oh, yeah, we really loved that guy. He was so enlightened and lighthearted and gentle. But he had sex with his sister a few times and eventually threw a dog tied to a cinder block into the Kaw and then they found his body under a tree a year later because all the K-Pot had made him too paranoid to leave the woods. But, damn, he threw a good party. Except for when his kid peed in the beans, which he did sometimes when we were all distracted by the orgy in the sauna."

This is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of Lawrence and a really-ought-to-read for anyone who likes crazy stories that stretch your ideas about the kind of lives people lead. Also, if you're a fan of colorful names (Za, Buzzy Flashback, Wood Rose, etc.), this is a treasure trove.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that portions of this book were written by some of my best friends' parents makes it that much more enjoyable...and hilarious. This book not only has some really wild stories dealing with the sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll of the time, but I feel as though it does give you an accurate portrayal of the atmosphere and personality of Lawrence itself...and to a certain extent, it shows the roots of how Lawrence has developed into the liberal college town it (still) is today. After reading, it is blatantly apparent that hippies in Lawrence were definitely not the San Francisco flower children we think of when we usually think of the younger generation of that time, but definitely unique.

[Sarah Burton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t do drugs, boys and girls.

This book was stories of crazy hippie times that would probably be most enjoyed by peers who were there.

[Keri Ault · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful oral history of a group of folks living in Lawrence Kansas in the 1960's. I'll never think that my college days were wild again! This book doesn't just include tales of rampant drug use...there is rampant sex, subversive politics, communes, and yes...more drugs.

[HeavyReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a informative and funny history of hippies and pot smokers in the Lawrence, KS area in the late 60s and early 70s. It was an enjoyable read.