William S. Burroughs entertainment reading collection
Overview
This collection includes volumes in the entertainment reading collection of William Burroughs, a prominent writer and countercultural figure associated with the "Beats." These volumes tend to be science fiction, mass market non-fiction, and other popular genres including horror, thrillers, crime, etc. Many of the volumes are annotated by Burroughs. The donor has sometimes inserted paper slips at the front noting the location of the volume among Burroughs's bookshelves, and this information has been included in the finding aid.
Dates
- Creation: 20th century
Creator
- Burroughs, William S., 1914-1997 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
No access restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Spencer Library staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials. Researchers must seek the permission of the William S. Burroughs Trust to make scans of or publish Burroughs's annotations in these volumes.
Biographical / Historical
William S. Burroughs was an influential writer, artist, and countercultural figure. Burroughs was born in St. Louis, Missouri and attended Harvard.
While living in New York in the mid-1940s, he befriended a younger group of aspiring writers, including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who would come to be known as the Beats. Burroughs's fiction includes Junkie (as William Lee, 1953), Naked Lunch (1959), The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket that Exploded (1962), Nova Express (1964), The Wild Boys (1971), and Cities of the Red Night (1981).
Burroughs's writing is recognized for its technical experimentation (including the use of the cut-up method) and its explicit treatment of themes related to drugs, sexuality, and counterculture. After having spent time in Mexico City, Paris, Tangiers, London, and New York City, Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1981, where he resided until his death on August 2, 1997.
Full Extent
381 Volumes (381 volumes)
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
Volumes have been organized first alphabetically by author's surname and then alphabetically by volume, if needs be. When requesting a specific volume, please include the item number as the call number. For example, "Burroughs 25" must be used as the call number to view Blundell's The World's Greatest Crooks and Conmen. In the listing for each volume, the book's title is followed by "annotated" if Burroughs's annotations are present, the book's format (paperback or hardback), and the location among Burroughs's bookshelves, if known. The shelf locations are Mission Cabinet, Antique Secretary, D Prentice (pine), and 1820 Den. Additional information regarding inserted materials, inscriptions, and annotations may be included in the note below the volume.
Physical Location
Burroughs
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift, William S. Burroughs Trust, 2015.
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the William S. Burroughs Entertainment Reading Collection
- Subtitle
- William S. Burroughs entertainment reading collection
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by ojg, 205. Finding aid encoded by cmp, 2025.
- Date
- 2025-04-02
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Finding aid written in English.
- Finding aid permalink
- https://hdl.handle.net/10407/3020261512
- Preferred citation
-
William S. Burroughs entertainment reading collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.
Repository Details
Part of the University of Kansas. Kenneth Spencer Research Library Repository