These guys are not on your High School English teachers summer reading list.
Although they are some of the most prolific and influential 20th century American writers, they are also a bunch of degenerates and scum bags. They range from heroin addicts, alcoholics, criminals, murderers and pedophiles. One thing they all have in common is that they can out party any rockstar with their eyes closed, any day of the week!
1) William S. Burroughs
- William Seward Burroughs II (February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American novelist, essayist and painter.
- A primary member of the Beat Generation
- Burroughs was as an opiate addict for over 50 years.
- Arrested over 15 times throughout his lifetime.
- 1951 Burroughs shot and killed his common law wife Joan Vollmer, who also became an addict, her drug of choice was Benzedrine. She died in a drug fueled reenactment of “William Tell”, in which Burroughs pulled out a gun and shot her in the head. He only did 13 days in jail before his brother came to Mexico City and bribed lawyers and officials, which allowed Burroughs to be released on bail while he awaited trial for the killing. He never served any additional time.
- 1966 Naked Lunch was released and was also prosecuted as obscene by Massachusetts, followed by other states. The case against Burroughs’s novel still stands as the last obscenity trial against a work of literature that is, a work consisting of words only, and not including illustrations or photographs prosecuted in the United States.
- 1963 The Yage Letters are published, chronicling his adventures through the Amazon Rain Forest, and his adventures with Yage’ (Ayahuasca, Banisteriopsis caapi ) , a hallucinogenic with “telepathic” tendencies.
- 1974 Burroughs lived in NYC at “The Bunker”, which was frequented by the likes of Andy Warhol, John Giorno, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Dennis Hopper and Susan Sontag.
- 1981 William Burroughs Jr, son of Burroughs Sr and Volmer, is found dead of liver transplant complications on the side of a road in Florida by a stranger.
- 1984 Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
- 1997 Burroughs dies still on a methadone maintenance program and reportedly addicted to smack.
Films: Naked Lunch, Drugstore Cowboy
William Burroughs Videos
2) Jack Kerouac
- Jack Kerouac ( Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac) March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer and poet.
- A primary member of the Beat Generation.
- 1954 Kerouac discovered Buddhism at the San Jose Library and incorporated it into his writings going forward. His favorite Dharma text was The Diamond Sutra.
- 1957 Viking Press published On The Road.
- 1974 the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics was open in his honor by Allen Ginsberg at Naropa University in Boulder, Co.
- 2007 Kerouac was awarded a posthumous honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Jack Kerouac Videos
3) Charles Bukowski
Bibliography Biography Quotes TImeline
- Henry Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994), German-American poet and novelist.
- 1944 Bukowski was arrested by FBI agents in Philadelphia for draft evasion and was held for 17 days.
- 1948-1963 Arrested multiple times for “Public Intoxication“
- 1955 Bukowski was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer which was nearly fatal. When he left the hospital, he began to write poetry.
- 1962 His Ex Wife Barbara Frye reportedly dies under mysterious circumstances in India, decapitated by religious zealots belonging to an obscure cult.
- 1994 Bukowski died of leukemia in California at the age of 73, shortly after finishing his last novel, Pulp.
Some Films: Bar Fly, Tales of Ordinary Madness, Factotem
Charles Bukowski Videos
5) Henry Miller
Bibliography Biography Quotes More Links
- Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980), was an American writer and painter.
- He wrote novels that were banned in the United States on grounds of obscenity. Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring and Tropic of Capricorn had to be smuggled into the USA. His novels contained explicit accounts of his international sexual escapades, including detailing his love affair with Anaïs Nin who funded the first printing of Tropic of Cancer.
- 1929 He lived in Paris with his 2nd wife, June Miller. He was married 5 times until his last marriage in 1977 when he divorced Hiroko Tokuda.
- 1940 George Orwell called Miller “a sort of Whitman among the corpses”.
- 1949 - 1960 Miller published his major fiction in a trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion: Sexus (1949), Plexus (1953), and Nexus (1960).
Henry Miller Videos
