Call Me Burroughs: A Life

Summary

Fifty years ago Norman Mailer asserted, “William Burroughsis the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed bygenius.” Few since have taken such literary risks, developed such individualpolitical or spiritual ideas, or spanned such a wide range of media. Burroughswrote novels, memoirs, technical manuals, and poetry. He painted, madecollages, took thousands of photographs, produced hundreds of hours ofexperimental recordings, acted in movies, and recorded more CDs than most rockbands. Burroughs was the original cult figure of the beat movement, and withthe publication of his novel Naked Lunch, which was originallybanned for obscenity, he became a guru to the 60s youth counterculture. In CallMe Burroughs, biographer and beat historian Barry Miles presents thefirst full-length biography of Burroughs to be published in a quarter century—andthe first one to chronicle the last decade of Burroughs’ life and examine hislong-term cultural legacy.

Written with the full support of the Burroughs estate anddrawing from countless interviews with figures like Allen Ginsberg, LucienCarr, and Burroughs himself, Call Me Burroughs is a rigorouslyresearched biography that finally gets to the heart of its notoriouslymercurial subject.