This book changed my life, as did Camille Paglia's "Sexual Personae" when I first read it 19 years ago. "Literary Outlaw" is a great window onto the post-WWII-beatnik culture--specifically the friends & people constituting Burroughs' Columbia University / Times Square NYC / Mexico City / Tangiers / Paris / London and again and finally New York City communities--in the 40's and 50's & beyond. Thus this text provides necessary background info missing from "The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959" (which I also highly recommend). I also learned via "Literary Outlaw" that Burroughs was very interested in magic and/or black magic, of which he was often a practitioner. Subsequently, this interest in magic ties into the dream world / dream time origins (where morality is suspended) of Burroughs' writing. Ted Morgan deconstructs Burroughs with fantastic and fascinating insight--Morgan is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist & experienced biographer, having written 3 other biographies covering more mainstream public figures. PS--The chapter in "Literary Outlaw" dealing with the demise and slow suicide of Burrough's incredibly self-destructive son Billy was heartbreaking and heart-wrenching! It killed me! In fact, it was so heavy it that I could only deal with it in stages. ( )

Fascinated by the criminal underworld and wanting to become a part of it, Burroughs leaves his family and their fortune to experience life more fully. He is driven by two things: his homosexuality, and his use of drugs. He meets Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac who are both younger than him, and also more advanced in their respective writing careers. During a fateful party in Mexico, Burroughs accidentally shoots and kills his wife Joan during their "William Tell routine." Burroughs manages to escape any serious punishment for this, but the guilt of it haunts him forever. It also sets him on the path to becoming a writer. With a great deal of help from Ginsberg, Burroughs publishes his first book, "Junky," but it fails to make much of an impression on the world at large. ( )

One of the best biographies I've read. Superb. A really heavyweight treatment for a heavyweight character. ( )