Who's going to write the first proper biography of William S. Burroughs? El Hombre Invisible died in 1997. Eleven years later there exists no classical biography. Ted Hughes and Victor Bockris both knew their subjects in private life. I don't have a problem with people who write about a living person talking to him/her. In Fred Kaplan's case, when writing his earnest respectable doorstop Gore Vidal, it was undoubtedly a legal necessity. ( I do have a problem with people writing bios of non-dead subjects but that's a different entry. Hello Mr. Hamilton.)
I've read part of an online extract by James Grauerholz, WSB's Boswell and Jeeves, of an investigation into what really happened in Mexico the day Joan Vollmer Burroughs was shot. Verrry interesting but True Crime not Biography. This entry may be in vain. Perhaps one of my readers - or both of them - will comment.Who knows?
3 comments:
The only Burroughs book I've read is Cities of the Red Night. I am not embarrassed to admit that but it is shameful. I have too many other things on my shame list and my embarrassment list so that will have to wait, or maybe by the time I can fit it in I will have read more. Anyway I liked it and I named my blog after it, but more for the phrase than the content of the book, which I have forgotten. I forget everything I read, and quickly. I remember nothing. Wait, I did read Naked Lunch in high school. Actually I have since renamed my blog but Cities of the Red Night is still in the address, which I guess is confusing. Maybe not since I think that's pretty common but I'm not sure.
Victor Brockis Warhol bio has been my fave for years. I think he is the right man to do a Burrough bio.
Bockris did a book about WSB's days in NYC during the early 80s when he got strung out again and Grauerholz decided to better preserve his meal ticket by relocating to Kansas.
Mr. sublethal I was a bit confused by the difference between titles but confusion is our bread and butter these days. Junky / Queer ( it was meant to be one book but the people at Ace got nervous)is really good especially if you like James M. Cain type hardboiled prose. Every time I open any late WSB book I wonder how much of the damn thing he really wrote.
Bockris also wrote a Lou Reed biography. I couldn't read it. More dirt and dish than I could stomach. I never thought the guy was a moral or ethical paragon but geez...
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