The New York Public Library’s Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature has purchased an important collection of William Burroughs’ papers:
In Folio 110 of a meticulously constructed, voluminous personal archive, William S. Burroughs offers a fanciful autobiographical sketch that is part “Junky,” part “Naked Lunch.”
“As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous,” he wrote in an unpublished essay that serves as a sort of cornerstone for the archive. “They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow ponge silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hasiesh and languidly caressing a pet gazelle. …”
The New York Public Library is expected to announce today that it has purchased the Burroughs archive for its Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. The acquisition will make the Berg Collection, which also includes Kerouac’s literary and personal archive, perhaps the premier institution for the study of the Beats.
Complete story from the New York Times (registration required).
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