Dimensions
126 x 198 x 18mm
Iconoclast; visionary; homosexual crusader; drug advocate; teacher and elder statesman to Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and the Beats; anti-hero guru to each successive counter-culture generation: William Burroughs remains one of the most complex and controversial American writers of the twentieth century.
A longtime heroin addict, Burroughs preferred to live abroad, away from America's Draconian drug laws. After killing his wife in a bizarre shooting accident, he moved to Tangier where he lived in a male brothel and wrote his celebrated bestseller Naked Lunch - in Newsweek's words 'A masterpiece. A cry from Hell' - as a series of letters to Allen Ginsberg.
He lived at the Beat Hotel in Paris and spent a decade in London before returning as a prodigal son to New York in 1974 after 25 years of self-imposed exile.
Following his death in August 1997, Barry Miles has completely updated his riveting, highly readable and unconventional biography of this legendary provocateur and all-round thorn in the side of the establishment.
