Oral history interview with William S. Burroughs, 1981

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Name: Burroughs, William S., 1914-1997 (Interviewee); Courtwright, David T., 1952- (Interviewer); Joseph, Herman, 1931- (Interviewer)
Title: Oral history interview with William S. Burroughs, 1981
Other Titles: Reminiscences of William S. Burroughs, 1981
Abstract: 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 fro m 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
Collection Name: Addicts Who Survived oral history collection
Subjects: Authors; Drug addicts--United States; Drug abuse--History--20th century.--United States; Drug traffic--History--20th century.--United States; Drug control--History--20th century.--United States; Heroin abuse--History--20th century.--United States; Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States; Methadone maintenance--History--20th century.--United States; Crime--New York (State); Burroughs, William S., 1914-1997
Format: oral histories
Genre: Interviews
Date: 1981
Physical Description: 63 pages

Note (Biographical): 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
Note (Funding): Digital reproduction funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Note: Interviewed by David Courtwright and Herman Joseph on January 27, 1981; Digitized by Safe Sound Archive, Philadelphia, 2010; Service copy (44 kHz, 16 bit) and rendered version (96 kHz, 24 bit) of sound file derived from a digital preservation master digitized at 96 kHz, 24 bit
Note (Provenance): David Courtwright, Herman Joseph, and Don Des Jarlais, Gift, 1988
Language: English
Library Location: Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University
Browse Location’s Digital Content
Catalog Record: 7233417
Also In: Oral History Archives at Columbia; Time-Based Media; Time-Based Media
Persistent URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8-dtfr-yf10
Related URLs: Available digital content for this interview.