Description
Published the year after William S. Burroughs’ death, Word Virus was the first comprehensive reader to gather more than half a century of his work into a single volume. James Grauerholz and Ira Silverberg arrange selections chronologically through Burroughs’ extraordinary evolution—from early writing and Junky and Queer through Naked Lunch, the cut-up period, The Wild Boys, Cities of the Red Night and his later essays and fiction. It also includes material from And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, the novel written with Jack Kerouac decades before its eventual standalone publication. Ann Douglas contributes the introduction, while Grauerholz supplies biographical essays placing the writing within Burroughs’ life and development.
The hardcover first edition was issued with a spoken-word CD bound into the rear, containing eight selections drawn from The Best of William Burroughs from Giorno Poetry Systems. The roughly 22-minute recording includes Burroughs reading pieces including “Twilight’s Last Gleamings,” “Roosevelt After Inauguration” and “The Last Words of Hassan Sabbah.” In this copy, importantly, that CD remains unopened in its original publisher’s sleeve. With Burroughs’ unmistakable voice preserved alongside a career-spanning selection of his writing, Word Virus is both an unusually good introduction to Burroughs and a satisfying object for an established collection.
Burroughs on the page and Burroughs in his own voice—a sharp, complete first edition with the original CD still unopened.
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