Reviews

Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs by William S. Burroughs, Ted Morgan

robfarren's review against another edition

5.0

Excellent biography. I will note, however, that the author's interpretation of Lou Reed's lyrics is way off.

ste3ve_b1rd's review against another edition

5.0

This book changed my life, as did Camille Paglia's "Sexual Personae" when I first read it 19 years ago. "Literary Outlaw" is a great window onto the post-WWII-beatnik culture--specifically the friends & people constituting Burroughs' Columbia University / Times Square NYC / Mexico City / Tangiers / Paris / London and again and finally New York City communities--in the 40's and 50's & beyond. Thus this text provides necessary background info missing from "The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959" (which I also highly recommend). I also learned via "Literary Outlaw" that Burroughs was very interested in magic and/or black magic, of which he was often a practitioner. Subsequently, this interest in magic ties into the dream world / dream time origins (where morality is suspended) of Burroughs' writing. Ted Morgan deconstructs Burroughs with fantastic and fascinating insight--Morgan is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist & experienced biographer, having written 3 other biographies covering more mainstream public figures. PS--The chapter in "Literary Outlaw" dealing with the demise and slow suicide of Burrough's incredibly self-destructive son Billy was heartbreaking and heart-wrenching! It killed me! In fact, it was so heavy it that I could only deal with it in stages.

astroneatly's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

5.0