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Tornado Alley
stories, w/graphic comic art by S. Clay Wilson
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
3 people are currently reading
278 people want to read
About the author
William S. Burroughs
449 books7,018 followersWilliam 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 18, 2013
Decent collection of short fiction. Possibly the driest language I've read in any Burroughs work. Though some of the more nightmarish, quasi-sci fi elements of his better known work pop up, much of this deals far more with conventional reality, lashing out at the world's hypocrisies and oppressions. Not a bad work, but recommended more for Burroughs completists.
August 4, 2018
my first burroughs! i liked it. very brief but i love the sparseness of his language and the freewheeling nature of these stories. the poem at the beginning was a little hackneyed but that's okay. looking forward to reading something of his that's a bit more substantial.
April 1, 2024
My first taste of Burroughs and it was a real trip! A couple of the stories were perfect and disgusting, and some were a little too esoteric to really get into, but over I enjoyed it. The first store hits so hard and hard to beat it in the absurdity but poignance at the same time. In only in like three pages it sets up so much style and feeling it makes me wanna get more into him soon.
October 23, 2020
Sette pillole fulminanti che fanno esplodere il cervello. Burroughs utilizza l'eccessivo, il rivoltante e il paradossale per scagliarsi contro il perbenismo ipocrita, il razzismo, il sessismo e la violenza cieca della polizia.
March 31, 2014
This was my first Burroughs book, and I'm unsure what to make of it. A very brief short story collection. I don't know if this is Burroughs' typical writing style, but a lot of the stories were hard to follow. The characters weren't named and it was easy to get lost in the pronouns. There were a few I liked, and I have an essay collection on my To Read list that I still intend to try, so it wasn't a major turn-off, just nothing noteworthy.
July 30, 2012
Gli autori della Beat Generation scrivono unicamente fatti, tra le parole manca un fondamentale requisito, le sensazioni.Il libricino consta di 7 racconti, l'unico che mi annoiata con minore intensità è stato "Un fetido vicolo cieco".
Scaricabile gratuitamente su: http://www.pedro.it/webs/millelireonl...
Scaricabile gratuitamente su: http://www.pedro.it/webs/millelireonl...
August 8, 2010
Rehash of himself, only gets the second star because I really like Burroughs' writing, but this is kind of embarassing (and the illustrations don't help). You're better off downloading his Thanksgiving Prayer somewhere.
March 9, 2014
An excellent collection of short fiction by Burroughs, and a rare one that I hadn't been able to find until just recently, though I have heard several parts of it on some of his CDs.
Definitely recommended as on of the last great American authors.
Definitely recommended as on of the last great American authors.
July 11, 2008
I don't know what this book is about. People called "FUs", police shooting everyone and...I'm not sure what.
May 17, 2016
Ho provato per la seconda volta a leggere Burroughs, non riesco... troppo splatter.
L'unico autore che non riesco a leggere tra i grandi della Beat Generation
L'unico autore che non riesco a leggere tra i grandi della Beat Generation
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews