William S. Burroughs

Phil Baker’s previous books include a critical study of Samuel Beckett and a cultural history of absinthe. He lives in London and walks everywhere.

• 1 St Louis Blues 2 The Hidden Antagonist 3 New York, New York 4 Go South, Young Man 5 A Slip of the Gun 6 Tangier and the Naked Lunch 7 Paris: Cut-ups at the Beat Hotel 8 Burroughs 1960-65: Undesirable Alien 9 Swinging London, 1966-73 10 Holding the Bunker 11 Kansas 1981-97: Adios Muchachos References Bibliography Acknowledgements

Baker's vivid critical study of the Beat novelist Burroughs zings with the same energy and humour as his subject's fiction. Judiciously matching the biography to the books, Baker follows Burroughs's peregrinations from his relationship with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in New York, to Mexico, where he accidentally shot dead his wife, and eventually to Tangier, where he wrote his best-known work, The Naked Lunch. A literary life that is as entertaining as it is indispensable as a guide to Burroughs's writing. - Sunday Timeslucid and readable . . . manages to pick its through way through most of Burroughs's major motivations and curious obsessions, and serves as a good introductory text for general readers, as well as a model of concision for Beat aficionados. Repeatedly, in various ways, it asks: just what possessed Burroughs? - Times Literary SupplementBaker's book is an excellent introduction. - Stride MagazineBaker has made extensive use of Burroughs' letters, and from these, extrapolates Burroughs' perspective on events within the context of his biography. It sounds such an obvious approach, but it does add a new dimension to the Burroughs story and provides a fascinating insight by working from this angle. What's more . . . there is a greater sense of the way in which the writing and the living were intertwined. The other biographies not only separate the two (and thus compartmentalise the writing as secondary), but also seem to focus so much on the non-literary biographical events that one could come to believe that Burroughs simply conjured books out of thin air . . . - Christopher NosniborObviously researched with some thoroughness, Baker's finely cut biography of Burroughs hits the spot as well as Burroughs once did in an infamous episode he was involved with down in Mexico City . . . For all the often nightmarish twists of events in Burroughs' life, he is a biographer's dream. This biography comes up trumps where grander, better placed ones have come up short. The precise, condensed style makes for a fast moving read. - Beat Scene