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  • Published: 22 May 2013
  • ISBN: 9780141189802
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $39.99

Rub Out the Words

The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1959-1974




The Letters of William S. Burroughs, new to Penguin Modern Classics and in paperback edition

These letters cover the activities of Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac in the years that gave birth to the Beat Generation. Written mostly to Ginsberg or Kerouac, the letters provide a rare glimpse into Burroughs's psyche, revealing his struggle with drug addiction, his confusion over his sexual identity, and his search for a form fluid enough to mirror his mind and art.

  • Published: 22 May 2013
  • ISBN: 9780141189802
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $39.99

About the author

William S Burroughs

William S. Burroughs was born in 1914. His first published novel was the largely autobiographical Junky, which remains a classic depiction of the constant cycle of drug dependency, cures and relapses he was victim to for most of his life. In 1951, in a drunken William Tell stunt, he accidentally shot and killed his common-law wife. He is most famous for his use of the 'cut-up' technique of writing and the novel Naked Lunch. His other major works included Queer, Exterminator! The 'Nova Trilogy' (The Soft Machine, Nova Express and The Ticket That Exploded) and the 'Red Night Trilogy' (Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads and The Western Lands). He died in 1997.

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