BURROUGHS WILLIAM S.: (1914-1997) American writer, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation. A signed printed copy of an extract from Burroughs's Junky, comprising eight 4to pages neatly removed from a copy of Christopher Street magazine, c.1977. Signed ('William S. Burroughs') by Burroughs immediately above his printed name and title to the first page. The pages are neatly joined together with a single staple to the centre of the upper edge. Accompanied by an original unsigned 5 x 3.5 photograph of Burroughs seated in a head and shoulders pose with poet and author Allen Ginsberg and poet Philip Whalen standing immediately behind in three-quarter length poses. Annotated in fountain pen ink in an unidentified hand to the lower border and again annotated to the verso with the name and address of Pamela Sanderson at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. VG, 2

 

Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict was Burroughs's first published work and is semi-autobiographical, focusing on the writer's life as a drug user and dealer. It was initially published in 1953 under the pseudonym of William Lee. Penguin Books published a complete edition of the original text under the title Junky in 1977, with an introduction by Allen Ginsberg.