Oral history interview with William S. Burroughs, 1981

Biographical Note

William S. Burroughs was born on February 5, 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri. He received his bachelor's degree in English from Harvard University. He served in the army for a brief period in 1942. After that, he moved to New York City's Greenwich Village where he became acquainted with the likes of Jack Keroac and Allen Ginsberg, who would come to underpin the Beat Generation literary movement. He first began using morphine around 1946, and had a lifelong addiction to narcotics including, also, opium and heroin. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Burroughs traveled in Morocco, France, and England. Burroughs is the author of eighteen novels and novellas including "Junkie," "Queer," "The Soft Machine," and "Naked Lunch." William S. Burroughs was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived

Scope and Contents

In this interview, William S. Burroughs discusses his life and career, focusing on his drug addiction. He reviews the autobiographical details of his novel "Junkie." He reviews his drug history, including his use of heroin, morphine, opium, and methadone, and explains his cycles of abstinence and relapse. Burroughs describes how heroin affected his creativity. He recalls his experience detoxing from drugs through Dr. John Y. Dent's apomorphine therapy. He describes how a narcotic craving feels, and discusses secondary abstinence syndrome. He discusses the statistics of alcohol abuse among recovering narcotic addicts, and describes his own drinking habits both on and off of narcotics. Burroughs discusses the idea of drug maintenance, and describes his self-maintenance on a steady dose of opium, and compares that to the methadone maintenance program. Burroughs discusses American narcotic policies, and how they've changed since the popularization of methadone in the 1960s. He breaks down the involvement of both Jewish and Italian crime syndicates in the New York City drug trade, and how each group's leadership affected the price and quality of the drugs being trafficked. He discusses his excursions in Morocco, France, and England, and discusses how he was able to obtain drugs in those various countries. He recalls changes he observed in the New York City drug scene between the late 1940s just before he left the country, and the early 1970s when he returned from abroad

Subjects

• Authors--Interviews.
• Burroughs, William S., 1914-1997--Interviews.
• Courtwright, David T., 1952- interviewer.
• Crime--New York (State)--New York.
• Drug abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States.
• Drug addicts--United States.
• Drug control--United States--History--20th century.
• Drug traffic--United States--History--20th century.
• Heroin abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Interviews.
• Joseph, Herman, 1931- interviewer.
• Methadone maintenance--United States--History--20th century.
• Oral histories (literary works)

Access Conditions

Copyright by David Courtwright