Photos of William Burroughs's belongings

In the 1970s, William S. Burroughs lived in New York City's Lower East Side in a former YMCA locker room, a windowless room affectionally referred to as The Bunker. Of course, Burroughs spent his later years in Lawrence, Kansas, but after his 1997 death, Burroughs's friend and landlord, avant-garde poet John Giorno kept the writer's Bunker bedroom intact. Photographer Peter Ross took a lovely series of photos of Uncle Bill's belongings. From an interview with Ross in The Morning News:

How did you choose what articles you wanted to photograph?

Most of the items just jumped out at me. How could I pull a book titled Medical Implications of Karate Blows out of a stack and not photograph it? Or the typewriter with his name on it? The blow darts and board that hang on the wall in his bedroom?

Well, how did you decide on the angle for each photograph--why the bottoms of the shoes, for example, instead of the tops?

I challenged myself to try and find what was unique to the items. I was looking for something historical and specific to their owner, and short of that I was pushing for an off-kilter angle or placement.

Shoes are just shoes, but only one man wore the holes into the bottoms of this pair. Just think of where these shoes have been, the conversations they have witnessed. These shoes likely have met many of my heroes of New York's 1970s and '80s culture.

"Burroughs" by Peter Ross (Thanks, Xeni!)

• [greengestalt]

  “Followers of obsolete unthinkable trades, doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, black marketeers of World War III, excisors of telepathic sensitivity, osteopaths of the spirit, investigators of infractions denounced by bland paranoid chess players, servers of fragmentary warrants taken down in hebephrenic shorthand charging unspeakable mutilations of the spirit, officials of unconstituted police states, brokers of exquisite dreams and nostalgias tested on the sensitized cells of junk sickness and bartered for raw materials of the will, drinkers of the Heavy Fluid sealed in translucent amber of dreams.”
  ———–

  Oh, wow!!!
  Love this all, esp the typewriter… Like it’s “Warning” dial for how much ribbon is left. A typewriter is in itself the ultamite “Transitory” tech which existed between huge gulfs of writing being pen and paper or printed special on paper and digital media. As the march of time goes on, these will be seen as symbols of a limited but profound time… (Or, maybe global civilizaition will collapse and there will be tons of retrofits and re-makes…)

  I totally love Burroughs! Platonically, of course, I’m straight, but live and let live.

  But this is kind of like seeing the first part of Croneburg’s “Naked Lunch” and having Burroughs in the 50′s diner/coffeshop with Ginsberg, Kerouac and others and just imagining what it represents. It’s also very ironic, in a way similar to Robert Crumb, how much influence they had on a “Counterculture” while now it is looked back on with nostalgia to the 50s of which they were not just “Rebels” from but “Vile Deviants”.

  Makes me want to run off to some third world country with a laptop, some books, a printer and ‘backup’ typewriter and just vegetate for years writing horrible, bizzare, sick stuff. I’d avoid heroin, but Hash once in a while on the other hand…

• [Anonymous]

  Burroughs was my neighbor in Lawrence, Kansas from 1995 until he died in 1997. I only met him once, but I would see him every night from my kitchen window out on the porch of his red bungalow, feeding his cats.

• [Levi’s Dad]

  EXCELLENT post on Burroughs!! The DUDE got it way before our time. The originals like him will live long after our ink dries. Enjoy this written by me and my 14 year old son. SHEEPLES WAKING UP INDEED!!! No offense if you are a non believer, but in trying times such as these, we choose to believe and WAKE SHEEPLE UP…UNITE for the GLOBAL STRIKE TAKEDOWN of all that is corrupt or die trying….WEEEE….

  ASSUME THE POSITION BY LEVI & DAVID POWELL 2/26/11

  TALK THE WALK. BORED OF THE BECK CHALK JUST USE A MIKE.
  EVERYDAY WE ALL GOT SOMETHING TO SAY LIKE
  STAND UP AND SHOUT TRUE THAT WHAT YOU BELIEVE
  COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS AND TRY NOT TO SELF DECEIVE
  LEAD, FOLLOW OR GET OUT OF THE WAY
  TRUTH IS PRICELESS ACKNOWLEDGE EVERYDAY
  OPEN OUR EYES. LOVE THOSE WE DESPISE
  YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE OLD TO BE WISE
  RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE OF HATE WITH LOVE
  MERCY AND GRACE TASTE BETTER AND FIT LIKE A GLOVE
  PEOPLE PUSHING PROBLEMS FIND IT EASIER TO FEAR AND BE MAD
  FORGIVE YOUR ENEMIES AND YOUR DAD TO REALLY BE GLAD
  IF YOU DON’T LIKE A QUOTE THEN GO BUILD YOUR OWN MOTE
  IT’S HARDER TO HEAR THE MUSIC WITH ROCKS IN OUR THROAT
  DEMONIZING THOSE THAT PROVIDE A SOLUTION
  EXACERBATES NEGLECT OF OUR CONSTITUTION
  CHOOSE THE LIGHT TO SPARK UP THE DARK
  DON’T FORGET TO TAKE YOUR KIDS TO THE PARK
  YOU WANT TO SAVE THE WORLD? REPENT, RECEIVE AND PRAISE
  NO JOB MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE CHILDREN WE RAISE
  WE BEAT OURSELVES UP HARDER THAN MOST
  BACON AND EGGS GO BETTER WITH TOAST
  LIVE, LAUGH AND WELCOME HIM WHO CAME TO SAVE
  LOVE IS A WEAPON THAT ADDS TIME FROM THE GRAVE
  CLICK CLACK THE SOUND OF ANGER, PAIN AND SHAME
  MISINFORMATION AND FEAR ARE NOT THE NAME OF THIS GAME
  READ BOOKS TO LEARN EVERYTHING IS AND DOES MATTER
  STATING THE OBVIOUS DON’T MINIMIZE THE CHATTER
  FREEDOM STARTS AT HOME. SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD
  CLICHÉ’S, SEMANTICS, AND OVERANALYSIS CAN’T STOP A FIRING SQUAD
  NEVER GIVE UP. ALL CORRUPTORS WILL PAY THIS WORLD BACK
  TURN OFF THE NEWS AND UNITE. FOR LOVE IS THE COUNTERATTACK
  WISDOM IS MORE VALUABLE THAN PROVING YOUR RIGHT
  FACEBOOK IS THE PLATFORM WHERE A PUNK CAN FINISH A FIGHT
  FREEDOM FROM TYRANNY, EVIL AND OPPRESSION
  LISTENING TO WISE COUNSEL CAN MINIMIZE DEPRESSION
  DO WHAT YOU LIKE. CINDY and I ENJOY A STROLL AT NIGHT
  MEDIA AND HATERZ SELL FEAR TO BLIND TRUE LIGHT.

  “Rise up! like lions after slumber.
  In invanquisable number.
  Shake your chains to earth like dew,
  which in your sleep had fallen on you.
  Ye are many – they are few!”
  Percy Shelley

  on a facebook fast until after Easter, but feel free add me as a friedn or join me and other TRUTH SEEKERS to UNITE THIS GLOBE one way or another…YEE HAW from DALLAS and thanks for your time!!

  facebook.com/levisdad

• [Anonymous]

  I used to live in Lawrence from 1995-2000. I’d see him at Hasting’s looking at gun magazines or gay porn. I had friends that worked at Red House recording studios where he’d come in to do spoken word things and such. He apparently liked to grab your sack when you weren’t looking…

  WB ruled.

• [Custody]

  How could I pull a book titled Medical Implications of Karate Blows out of a stack and not photograph it?

  Indeed. The fact that there is actually a book like this is, frankly, fascinating to me. It sounds like Burroughs belongings would make for a World-Class yard sale!

• [hungryjoe]

  I completely agree. This is just a caricature. Burroughs was more than a weapon-fetish. The photographer does address this in the interview, and I guess his goal was not to capture Burroughs’ essence in 16 photos of stuff.

  These are neat pictures, but this is a lost opportunity to learn more about who the man was.

  Was there a picture of Jane Bowles tucked into a mirror frame? Was there a letter from his son on the bedside table?

• [hungryjoe]

  I completely agree. This is just a caricature. Burroughs was more than a weapon-fetish. The photographer does address this in the interview, and I guess his goal was not to capture Burroughs’ essence in 16 photos of stuff.

  These are neat pictures, but this is a lost opportunity to learn more about who the man was.

  Was there a picture of Jane Bowles tucked into a mirror frame? Was there a letter from his son on the bedside table?

• [albalion]

  Physically sick? Hmmm…I don’t usually have the stomach for really gross stuff…and it has been a few years since I read Naked Lunch…but I don’t recall feeling anything like that when I read it. Were you sick because of the gross sexual content…or was it the repetition of phrases, paragraphs, or even whole pages? Or was it something else?

  I did like Naked Lunch…and Burroughs stuff in general…as a teenager. I’ve tried to re-read Naked Lunch as an adult and I just couldn’t be bothered to continue after a few dozen pages (as the repetition started to get noticeable). This is probably more of an indictment of my adult crustiness and rigidifying artistic sentiment than it has to do with work itself.

  I think you make an interesting point about the Burroughs/Gyson cutups prefiguring pop music mixing….I wonder though if that was something really new going on there….I suspect there was prior similar art. But, you may be right. I do know that I find mixing in music, and mashups in particular, very compelling. I can listen to mashups for hours. But I find cutups of the written word little more than novelty. I’ll read it for a few minutes and then move on. I guess the music is essential and creates non-verbal continuity.

  Did anyone else feel a little robbed having those objects photographed outside of their context? I’d love to see a few shots of the room they were in….with those things strewn about in their places.