Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S.Burroughs

Rating:
Summary: Burroughs decoded.
Review:
Burroughs writings are among the most fascinating in recent literary history, but also quite inaccessible (though few of his readers are willing to admit it). His themes are so personal and idiosyncratically formulated you'd have to be both psychic and a genius to understand what he's on about. This book explains it all. Read this, then go back and read any of his fiction work that happens to be on your shelf. I guarantee your understanding, and your enjoyment, will increase tremendously.

Rating:
Summary: The World of William Burroughs
Review: After a failed attempt to read "Naked Lunch" I turned to this book to gain some insight into William Burroughs that might aid me with future reading. I did not find that the book went into great detail about Burroughs ideas, except for ones that I find either trivial or even "wacky", like his interest in some aspects of Scientology and Reich's "Orgone Box". In fact, I might have given up on my plans of reading Burroughs after reading this biography; I could have easily concluded that Burroughs was a man who had led an interesting, albeit tragic, life but who, because of his heroin use and open homosexuality, had just become a "trendy" author. I might have concluded that he was a precursor to the cultural revolution of the 60s but of little importance today. Quite frankly I persist in my quest of getting to know Burroughs because of the importance attributed to him by one of my favorite philosophers, Gilles Deleuze, who claims that Burroughs has a lot to teach us about the "society of control". Only my future readings of Burroughs' novels will reveal rather I am right to persist in my study of him.

If this book failed in being an intellectual biography, it certainly succeeded in portraying the world of William Burroughs in an interesting fashion. Burroughs life seems for the most part
a series of tragedies. It appears as though he was molested as a youth and one is tempted - perhaps due to the saturation of "pop psychology" in our day- to conclude that somehow his future misfortunes (and brilliance) were rooted in that event. Subsequently driven from the United States, then Mexico (where he committed the infamous "William Tell" fatal shooing of his wife) he spends the greater part of his life wandering between Tangiers, Paris, London and New York. Oddly enough, he only seems to find some kind ofhappiness at the end of his life in Lawrence, Kansas.

His meeting with the other members of the "Beat Movement", Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, seemed fated, and unlike the others he did not become a "Beat Stereotype but remained authentically himself, behaving in many ways like a conservative midwesterner. Perhaps this authenticity is what appealed to his groupies who could not manage to retain their own identity separate from the various trends in which they participated.

Whether I will find anything intellectually stimulating in the works of Burroughs remains to be seen. Despite his many shortcoming, he was a key cultural force in undermining the foundation of the narrow, cocktail sipping, coutnry club 50s generation.

Rating:
Summary: The World of William Burroughs
Review: After a failed attempt to read "Naked Lunch" I turned to this book to gain some insight into William Burroughs that might aid me with future reading. I did not find that the book went into great detail about Burroughs ideas, except for ones that I find either trivial or even "wacky", like his interest in some aspects of Scientology and Reich's "Orgone Box". In fact, I might have given up on my plans of reading Burroughs after reading this biography; I could have easily concluded that Burroughs was a man who had led an interesting, albeit tragic, life but who, because of his heroin use and open homosexuality, had just become a "trendy" author. I might have concluded that he was a precursor to the cultural revolution of the 60s but of little importance today. Quite frankly I persist in my quest of getting to know Burroughs because of the importance attributed to him by one of my favorite philosophers, Gilles Deleuze, who claims that Burroughs has a lot to teach us about the "society of control". Only my future readings of Burroughs' novels will reveal rather I am right to persist in my study of him.

If this book failed in being an intellectual biography, it certainly succeeded in portraying the world of William Burroughs in an interesting fashion. Burroughs life seems for the most part
a series of tragedies. It appears as though he was molested as a youth and one is tempted - perhaps due to the saturation of "pop psychology" in our day- to conclude that somehow his future misfortunes (and brilliance) were rooted in that event. Subsequently driven from the United States, then Mexico (where he committed the infamous "William Tell" fatal shooing of his wife) he spends the greater part of his life wandering between Tangiers, Paris, London and New York. Oddly enough, he only seems to find some kind ofhappiness at the end of his life in Lawrence, Kansas.

His meeting with the other members of the "Beat Movement", Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, seemed fated, and unlike the others he did not become a "Beat Stereotype but remained authentically himself, behaving in many ways like a conservative midwesterner. Perhaps this authenticity is what appealed to his groupies who could not manage to retain their own identity separate from the various trends in which they participated.

Whether I will find anything intellectually stimulating in the works of Burroughs remains to be seen. Despite his many shortcoming, he was a key cultural force in undermining the foundation of the narrow, cocktail sipping, coutnry club 50s generation.

Rating:
Summary: best overall biography; best biography of a writer
Review: I have never written a review for amazon.com before but I had to add my two cents to the few reviews listed here. This book changed my life. I was already familiar with Burroughs' writing and had read several of his books before I found Morgan's excellent biography. I've read this lengthy tome several times, but I remember the feeling after I finished the first reading: I was inspired to write, write, write. The book cleared up my writer's block and has continued to do so every time I read it. His life really was as strange or stranger than his fiction, and it reminds me always to write what I know. I can't believe this is out of print. Highly recommended to all writers and all fans of biographies.

Rating:
Summary: engrossing biography
Review: I recently finished this biography and I must say it was one of the most interesting ones I have read. I, as well as the other two reviewers of this book, am amazed that such a detailed history of a cultural icon is out of print. This book starts with Burrough's Grandfather and ends with him in his life in Lawrence Kansas. In between, you will find a life that few people could claim to have led, and still be alive well into their 80's. The book also goes into great detail about the lives of the other Beat icons such as Kerouac, Ginsburg, and Cassady. This book is fairly graphic and does not paint a pretty picture of thier lives. If I had read "On the Road" after reading this book, I might have looked at it in a whole different way. If you can find it, I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Biography
Review: I was shocked to click on this page to find that this book was out of print and only had one other reviewer. This was not only one of the best literary biographies I've ever read but also one of the best biographies in general. I actually found this biography to be more interesting than William S. Burrough's writing. Not only does the book gives a detailed account of Burrough's life as well as the lives of other beat luminaries, but it also captures the era in which they created.

First rate writing- pick up this book if you can find it.

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Summary: The amazing life of a junkie genius
Review: The late William S. Burroughs was one of the most compelling and frustrating writers of our times. For every work of dryly humorous genius like Junky and Naked Lunch, there were dozens of frustrating, obscure works that seemed to be more the product of Burroughs' infamous heroin addiction than his own imagination. As others have stated, to truly understand much of Burroughs' work, one has to first understand the man himself and, to my knowledge, there is no better resource than Ted Morgan's long, detailed, but never boring biography. In Literary Outlaw, we get the details of Burroughs' seminal friendships with such future literary icons as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and we also explore the most controversial aspect of the man's life -- the shooting death of his wife, Joan. (After shooting her in the head, Burroughs claimed they were simply playing a game of "William Tell.")

If just for this information, this book would be a valuable resource but Morgan goes further. He details Burroughs' life after his fame as one of the original beat writers faded. He explains what was actually going on in Burroughs'head when he created the later works that left so many readers not only confused but often rather angry at this man they'd previously clutched to their own artistic souls (perhaps a bit too quickly, as Morgan reveals with an unflinching candor).

The Burroughs who emerges in this book is neither the decadent bohemian of the literary imagination nor the devil incarnate that so many of his critics imagined him to be. Instead, William S. Burroughs comes across as nothing less than the Forrest Gump of modern literature. Somehow, this quiet, rather reserved midwesterner manages to pop up at just about every important underground cultural event of recent history -- often, it seems, just by chance. In Literary Outlaw, Morgan not only gives us a revealing look at the usual suspects -- Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso, and the other Beats -- but also draws sharp portraits of figures ranging from Terry Southern to Dennis Hopper to James Baldwin to John Houston to thousands of others. Some are famous, some obscure, but all prove to be as fascinating as Burroughs himself.

This is an amazing book, a must for anyone with any interest in the Beats, American literature, world history, or who just wants a chance to relive a truly fascinating life. Be warned though -- Burroughs was both very open about his homosexuality and his drug addictions. Morgan, to his credit, doesn't shy away from detailing these aspects of Burroughs' life. Also to his credit, Morgan neither condemns nor celebrates. In short, prudes need not apply. For the rest of us though, this is a valuable book to be cherished.

Rating:
Summary: Burroughs Explained
Review: The only book of, or by, William Burroughs that I have read twice. His life was stranger than his fiction.

Rating:
Summary: FIND THIS BOOK!
Review: When I read this book in 1990, or thereabouts, I had only read William Burroughs' book Junky, and I had read nothing by Jack Kerouac or Allen Ginsberg.

After I finished reading Literary Outlaw, by Ted Morgan, I was so fascinated that I read all of Burroughs' novels, and several books by Kerouac and Ginsberg. I also read two more Burroughs biographies, just to get more information on this weird old guy.

Literary Outlaw is just that good.

There are newer biographies of Burroughs by Barry Miles and also Graham Caveney. Nevertheless, Literary Outlaw remains the definitive Burroughs biography written to date.

This is a fascinating biography that reads like a pageturning novel. Burroughs grew up in a privileged St. Louis family, spent some time at a rough ranch-style boarding school in New Mexico, attended Harvard, travelled in Europe, and lived in New York, Mexico, New Orleans, Texas, Tangier, London, New York (again), and finally Kansas. Along the way he became the most scandalous figure in modern letters. His adventures and misadventures are related in this marvelous book.

Literary Outlaw is more exhaustive than either Caveney's or Miles' biographies. Chapters with titles like "Tangier: 1954-1958" and "The London Years: 1966-1973" make for easy navigation. As the book's coverage ends in 1988, there is no information on Burroughs' life in the 1990s, but the essays in the book Word Virus (by James Grauerholz) act as a good supplement, for biographical information.

Morgan did a good job. He wrote a page-turning biography, but not at the expense of Burroughs' literary reputation. Burroughs' value as a writer is challenged throughout, and it holds up. Biographical detail is linked to popular criticism of the texts. There is an extensive section of notes. There is an index.

You can't go wrong with this biography. If you've never read a biography of William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, or Allen Ginsberg, I advise you to try Literary Outlaw. This book is very well written, and is probably the most fascinating biography I have ever read.

ken32