Literary Outlaw: The Life
and Times of William S. Burroughs, by Ted Morgan – January 1,
1988 (Henry Holt and Co., 659 pp.)
“A comprehensive biography
of the Beat Generation icon, written by Ted Morgan. The book details
Burroughs's life, from his early years to his final days, covering his work,
his struggles with addiction, his relationships with fellow Beats like Allen
Ginsberg, and the infamous accidental shooting of his wife, which profoundly
impacted his life and writing. Morgan's work is considered the definitive
biography, capturing Burroughs's "destructive energy, his ferocious
pessimism, and the renegade brilliance of his style". – AI summation
It came yesterday, a day or
two before schedule. The order was $8.26. It is a softcover, which surprised
me; I was almost certain they had said hardcover but maybe I was being wishful
and overeager. Not insurmountably disappointing; it’s still a good price. What
was worse was the damage to the back cover: the last few pages rumpled and a
tear in the cover, which I am going to charitably assume happened during shipping, though
there was no outward sign on the packaging. I’m right now pressing the book to
minimize the crumpling and will patch it with tape later when I feel steadier.
Written and read while Burroughs was still alive (1988; he died in 1997), it proved an invaluable key, to me, both biographically and critically, to understanding much of his rather cryptic work. Morgan’s style (he is a Pulitzer Prize winner) is ‘almost indecently readable.’ Rather than borrowing the book from John for a reread I decided I needed my own copy for the Archives, and here it is. Now I’m interested in Morgan’s biography of Allen Ginsberg.
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