Last Words. William S. Burroughs
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Praise for Last Words:
“Burroughs considers his old age with a mix of wry humor, scattershot rancor, and intimate rue.... Precious to all Burroughs devotees.”—Publishers Weekly
“Burroughs’ claim to literary greatness is inextricably tied to the shocking inhumanity of his fiction, its quality of notes found in outer space.... If Last Words reveals Burroughs dreaming of the ’war,’ it also reveals a gentler, more intimate side.”—Salon
“This book helps transform a Beat icon into a human being.... In these pages he faces the deaths of friends, of beloved animal companions, and, finally, his own end. And he confronts it all with grace, although certainly not without heartache.”
—The Kansas City Star
“A curious bit of sweetness, coming from one of literature’s greatest misanthropes ... both courageous and heart-breaking.”
—The Stranger
“They called him the priest, but William S. Burroughs was so much more: guru, visionary, abhorred by the right-wing controlling elements of society against which he railed, and a literary seed-planter for the American countercultural movement. ... Last Words[shows] a deep appreciation for life and a profound sorrow almost beyond words. ... Reason enough for anyone ... to pay heed to the legacy that is Burroughs.”—In Pittsburgh
“As close to a Burroughs autobiography as we’re likely to see. He reconstructs his life in the form of a long and tangled dream.”
—New York Press
“Damned if the old gentleman didn’t make it sound beautifully macabre, right up until the end.”—San Francisco Reporter
“It might be hard to imagine what the tender, vulnerable side of William S. Burroughs ... would look like without the last work he left behind: his journals ... an entertainingly arch and ultimately poignant peek into the private life of one of the more mercurial American writers of the last century.”
—Washington Blade
“Burroughs’ unrelenting cry of defiance against the established order comes through loudly and clearly. ... Burroughs’ fans might very well take this account of the author’s ultimate journey on earth as a holy text of sorts, Burroughs’ Book of the Dead.”
—Express (Berkeley)
“If anyone doubted Burroughs’ humanity, there is ample proof of it in Last Words.”—The Washington Post Book World
“Last Words is filled with memories and reminiscences delivered in staccato poignancy.... In the journals, a full and vibrant life is described and evoked.”—The Scotsman (Edinburgh)
Last Words
Also by William S. Burroughs:
The Adding Machine:
Selected Essays
Ah Pook Is Here
and Other Texts
Blade Runner: A Movie
The Book of Breething (with Bob Gale)
The Burroughs File
The Cat Inside
Cities of the Red Night
Exterminator!
Ghost of Chance
Interzone
The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs
Junky
The Last Words of
Dutch Schultz: A Fiction in the Form of a Film Script
The Letters of William S. Burroughs
My Education: A Book of Dreams
Naked Lunch
Nova Express
Painting and Guns
The Place of Dead Roads
Port of Saints
Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader
Queer
A Report from the Bunker with Victor Bockris)
The Soft Machine
The Third Mind (With Brion Gysin)
The Ticket That Exploded
Tornado Alley (with S. Clay Wilson)
The Western Lands
The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead
The Yagé Letters (with Allen Ginsberg)
Last Words
The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs
Edited and with an Introduction by
James Grauerholz
Text copyright © 2000 by William S. Burroughs Trust
Introduction and notes copyright © 2000 by James Grauerholz
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 or [email protected].
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burroughs, William S., 1914-97
Last words : the final journals of William S. Burroughs, November 1996—July 1997 / edited and with an introduction by James Grauerholz.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8021-9723-8 (e-book)
1. Burroughs, William S., 1914-97 Diaries. 2. Novelists, American—20th century Diaries. I. Grauerholz, James. II. Title. PS3552.U75Z468 2000
818’.5403—dc21
[B]
99-44259
DESIGN BY LAURA HAMMOND HOUGH
Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
Distributed by Publishers Group West
Acknowledgments
William Burroughs’s closest friends often saw him scribbling in