The New York Public Library Acquires Archive of Beat Writer William S. Burroughs

Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs
(AP Photo/HO/First Run Features)








"The New York Public Library has acquired the personal archive of William S. Burroughs, one of the Beat Generation writers who challenged the standards of 1950s America.The archive includes draft versions of his most famous work, Naked Lunch, a hallucinogenic journey of an addict descending into hell, which was banned in Boston and eventually won a landmark obscenity ruling.The archive will become part of the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature which already holds Jack Kerouac's literary and personal archive."






Photo: The New York Public Library



"The archive's correspondence includes hundreds of unpublished letters to Burroughs, often accompanied by carbon copies of Burroughs' replies, from scores of writers and artists, including Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Terry Southern, Timothy Leary, J.G. Ballard, Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka), the French sound poet Henri Chopin, and especially numerous examples from Allen Ginsberg and Paul Bowles. Unpublished letters to Burroughs include letters from Kerouac, Leary, Ginsberg, Leroi Jones, Chopin, Corso, Ferlinghetti, Bowles, and Southern." NYPL