Description
For sale: a Rare and Exceptional first UK edition, first printing hardcover copy of The Letters of William S. Burroughs: 1946 to 1959 edited by Oliver Harris in a new archival wrap. First UK Edition described, 1993 Picador. First Printing with full number line.
The book is in Near Fine condition with clean, bright boards, strong title ink on the straight spine, some smudges and spots on page blocks, tight binding, no spine tilt, lightly rolled spine ends, mild edge wear, and strong corners. The interior of the book is also in Near Fine condition with no marks or inscriptions. The end papers and the interior pages are clean and bright, making it an excellent addition to any collection. Appears unread.
The dust jacket is in Near Fine condition with UK price intact, mild surface and edge wear, and looks great in a new Brodart archival wrap.
This is the first in a two volume set of the collected letters of William S. Burroughs. The letters are entertaining and revealing, placing Burroughs’s work in the context of an extraordinary life, and Burroughs himself in the context of a decade and a half of momentous cultural change. Burroughs circle at the time was one of the principal players in the soon-to-be-realized Beat Movement – Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. Throughout this period writing letters was one of only two constant habits in Burroughs’s life, the other was heroin. Addiction was an abiding preoccupation, conferring an outsider status reinforced by his homosexuality (which was illegal in those days). From hipster to so-called Godfather of Punk, Burroughs has lived a controversial life as a leading member of the Beat Generation and a daring writer of psychedelic literary experiments.
Ships promptly in a corrugated mailer with book wrapped in both craft paper and multiple layers of bubble wrap.
