What ideas and impulses did Beat writer William S. Burroughs explore in correspondence with pals like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Timothy Leary, or with his son, Billy, during a transitional time in his life and career? In this revealing collection, editor Bill Morgan curates and contextualizes 300 of Burroughs' letters, written as the author branched out and began to experiment with a new creative process, his "cut-up" method.

Trace a chain of letters between one of the twentieth century's finest writers—Eudora Welty—and one of the period's best editors—William Maxwell of The New Yorker—and you'll reveal in time a structure as graceful and enduring as the Golden Gate Bridge. This collection of hundreds of letters exhanged over fifty years reveals professional acumen and personal intimacy in equal, eloquent measure.

This first published collection of correspondence between the two leading lights of the Beat Generation illuminates the inspirations of the legendary authors of On the Road and Howl, tracing their fortunes and friendship from 1944 until Kerouac's death in 1969. Read more...