30 October (1959): William Burroughs to Allen Ginsberg

Below is another excerpt from a long and curious correspondence between William Burroughs and his dear friend (and renowned poet), Allen Ginsberg. The two men—along with contemporaries Jack Kerouac, Brion Gysin, Gregory Corso and others—comprised the Beat movement in fiction and poetry. Ever true to the form, Burroughs’ witty letters are inflected with erratic punctuation, stream-of-consciousness run-ons, and spelling “mistakes.”

In this letter, Burroughs responds to several questions Ginsberg has asked about his friend’s nascent career. This was written just several months after the publication of Naked Lunch.

Note: Brion Gysin was a seminal influence for Burroughs; he introduced the writer to an experimental writing technique derived of cutting up pieces of text and reassembling them in an arbitrary order to form word-collages. Poet Gregory Corso—also mentioned below—was then the youngest member of the Beat contingent in Paris.

WSB [Paris] to Allen Ginsberg [New York]

Oct 30, 1959
9 Rue Git-Le-Coeur
Paris 6

Dear Allen,

Thanks a million for the mescaline. Split it with Brion [Gysin] for a short trip home..

Yes, you did make me the most famous novelist Roumanian born of a better Tyrone Power up from a headline of penniless migrants..And believe me, Al, I won’t forget it. What’s this Elsee?? On the ice again..?? I’ll catch her this time..

I look all over and can’t find my Wyn contract follow me around for years through jungles and deserts and perilous unknown boy countries and couldn’t lose it and now..Well don’t get mad and cut off your left hand, I always say..But it seems to that the contract should be outlawed by now..I will look again for the contract but some Arab probably wiped his ass with it years ago and it blew away to return in hepatitis fall out..But I would like to latch onto that 2 Gs go to India most like..Gregory Corso lost all his money in the Venice casino..Oh God!! Quel infant of the Sunday Supplement..Bought a dinner jacket, too I hear..

And now the question panel: (1) Whatever they may be, the suppressors are not amateurs. Old Old Old pros and don’t ever forget it. Make you think you are winning when you are not, oldest trick in the industry and still works..Hannibal beat the Romans with it..Room for one more inside..MALRAUX?? He’s nothing but a public Latah for Crisakes!?

(2): I have had very practical contact with “these people” they are very practical people..Jack Stern was one of them..The book itself is not interesting all important teckniques [sic] classified..But name dropping is unchic and very poor hygiene..

Of course scientology attracts all the creeps of the cosmos..You see it works..

In closing I will tell you a little story that happened to a friend of mine calls himself Micheaux sometimes..

It seems that M. was hurrying home after swallowing his mescaline tablet with hot tea in a cafe – too cheap to support a hot plate you dig – and he met B [Burroughs] in the market and he had met B before but never seen him as hardly anyone does see him which is why he is known as El Hombre Invisible – So B. said “Ah Monsieur M..Sit down and have a coffee and watch the passing parade..” and M shook him off saying: “No! No! I must go home and see my visions” and he rushed home and closed the door and bolted it and drew the curtains and turns the lights out and got into bed and closed his eyes and there was Mr. B. and Mr. M, said, “What are you doing here in my vision?”

And B replied: “O I live here.”

love

william burroughs

PS. Yes Burroughs will do as a name to publish under..Its on the papers..I’ll be caught short with it one day.

From Rub Out the Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1959-1974. Edited by Bill Morgan. New York: Harper Collins, 2012.