The Naked Library

Written by:Ben Granger.

At last the weird and frightening thoughts of one of the 20th century’s most starkly distinct authors are laid bare as the New York Library gets madman Burroughs’ complete personal letters.

It also includes Burroughs’ meditations on the place of the writer. “As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous,” he wrote in an unpublished essay included in the archive. “They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow ponge silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hasiesh and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.”

Nice “gazelle” touch.

Posted on March 3rd, 2006.

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