Call Me Burroughs

Published to coincide with the centennial of his birth, this new release by acclaimed Beat historian Barry Miles is the first major biography of William S. Burroughs in more than 25 years.

Call Me Burroughs: A Life was written with the full support of the Burroughs estate and draws from interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Eugene Brooks, Lucien Carr, and Burroughs himself. The project was originally commissioned to James Grauerholz–Burroughs’s friend, companion and manager from 1974 until his death in 1997. But in 2010, family and medical issues lead Grauerholz to abandon the work and propose that Miles complete the biography.

Barry Miles is the author of many books on popular culture, including Paul McCartney: Many Years from NowGinsberg: A Biography; William Burroughs: El Hombre InvisibleJack Kerouac: King of the Beats; and The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Corso in Paris, 1957-1963. He also co-edited the revised text edition of Naked Lunch.

Recently, Call Me Burroughs has been reviewed by Henry Allen for The Wall Street Journal, and Matthew Gilbert for The Boston Globe.

Beth Golay

Beth is a reader, writer, marketer and Books & Whatnot founder. Even though she knows better, she's a sucker for a good book cover and will positively swoon if a book is set in appropriate type. @BethGolay