The Art of Fiction
It’s mad but true that certain authors have had so many artists “repackage” their books that you sometimes have to wonder what the hell the publishers were thinking. One of my favourite authors of all time is William S. Burroughs, his disjointed drug-fuelled style isn’t an easy read, but damn did this blow my mind for at least several of my teen years He’s a writer you’ll either love or absolutely hate, the majority most likely the latter. The fact is the guy lived on another planet, well okay in an imaginary city called Interzone. He was a crazy homosexual addicted to heroin and if the books are to be believed, bug killer. He shot his wife in a re-enactment of William Tell, and created one of the greatest trilogies in science fiction every written. I prefer The Soft Machine from his Nova trilogy, however Hollywood made a movie based on another of his greats, The Naked Lunch, which makes my job of explaining Burrough’s bizarre fiction all that much easier.
Check out the trailer…
Like I say crazy, but the genius side of crazy all the same. Anyway, the point is that business and even commercial arts have trouble with the real renegades of creativity on this planet. Take a look at all these book covers for his most famous works.
Naked Lunch originally published with the title “The Naked Lunch” in Paris in July 1959 by Olympia Press. Because of US obscenity laws, a complete American edition (by Grove Press) did not appear until 1962. It was titled Naked Lunch and was substantially different from the Olympia Press edition, because it was based on an earlier 1958 manuscript in Allen Ginsberg’s possession.
Naked Lunch Book Covers
Junky is a semi-autobiographical novel originally published in 1953. It was Burroughs’ first published novel and has come to be considered a seminal text on the lifestyle of heroin addicts in the early 1950s. Burroughs’ working title for the text was Junk.
- Junky Book Covers
The Soft Machine was published in 1961 and was Burroughs’ first novel after the groundbreaking publication of Naked Lunch. It was originally composed using the cut-up and fold-in techniques from manuscripts belonging to The Word Hoard. It is part of The Nova Trilogy.
- The Soft Machine Book Covers
In case you’re wondering, no I didn’t spend all night collecting and collating William Burroughs’ book covers, I actually stumbled across some pages hidden away from the public and thought it was a little cultural gem to be shared. Here are a few more the mystery book cover collector has researched…
A wider selection of book covers for William S. Burroughs
A selection of of book covers for Jack Kerouac
I thought that graphic design was a dog eat dog world, looks like they fight to the death in the world of book covers :0
