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      Praise for Last Words:

      “Burroughs considers his old age with a mix of wry humor, scattershot rancor, and intimate rue.... Precious to all Burroughs devotees.”—Publishers Weekly

      “Burroughs’ claim to literary greatness is inextricably tied to the shocking inhumanity of his fiction, its quality of notes found in outer space.... If Last Words reveals Burroughs dreaming of the ’war,’ it also reveals a gentler, more intimate side.”—Salon

      “This book helps transform a Beat icon into a human being.... In these pages he faces the deaths of friends, of beloved animal companions, and, finally, his own end. And he confronts it all with grace, although certainly not without heartache.”

       —The Kansas City Star

      “A curious bit of sweetness, coming from one of literature’s greatest misanthropes ... both courageous and heart-breaking.”

       —The Stranger

      “They called him the priest, but William S. Burroughs was so much more: guru, visionary, abhorred by the right-wing controlling elements of society against which he railed, and a literary seed-planter for the American countercultural movement. ... Last Words[shows] a deep appreciation for life and a profound sorrow almost beyond words. ... Reason enough for anyone ... to pay heed to the legacy that is Burroughs.”—In Pittsburgh

      “As close to a Burroughs autobiography as we’re likely to see. He reconstructs his life in the form of a long and tangled dream.”

       —New York Press

      “Damned if the old gentleman didn’t make it sound beautifully macabre, right up until the end.”—San Francisco Reporter

      “It might be hard to imagine what the tender, vulnerable side of William S. Burroughs ... would look like without the last work he left behind: his journals ... an entertainingly arch and ultimately poignant peek into the private life of one of the more mercurial American writers of the last century.”

       —Washington Blade

      “Burroughs’ unrelenting cry of defiance against the established order comes through loudly and clearly. ... Burroughs’ fans might very well take this account of the author’s ultimate journey on earth as a holy text of sorts, Burroughs’ Book of the Dead.”

      —Express (Berkeley)

      “If anyone doubted Burroughs’ humanity, there is ample proof of it in Last Words.”—The Washington Post Book World

      “Last Words is filled with memories and reminiscences delivered in staccato poignancy.... In the journals, a full and vibrant life is described and evoked.”—The Scotsman (Edinburgh)

       Last Words

      Also by William S. Burroughs:

       The Adding Machine:

       Selected Essays

       Ah Pook Is Here

       and Other Texts

       Blade Runner: A Movie

      The Book of Breething (with Bob Gale)

       The Burroughs File

       The Cat Inside

       Cities of the Red Night

       Exterminator!

       Ghost of Chance

       Interzone

       The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs

       Junky

       The Last Words of

       Dutch Schultz: A Fiction in the Form of a Film Script

       The Letters of William S. Burroughs

       My Education: A Book of Dreams

       Naked Lunch

       Nova Express

       Painting and Guns

       The Place of Dead Roads

       Port of Saints

       Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader

       Queer

      A Report from the Bunker with Victor Bockris)

       The Soft Machine

      The Third Mind (With Brion Gysin)

       The Ticket That Exploded

      Tornado Alley (with S. Clay Wilson)

       The Western Lands

       The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead

      The Yagé Letters (with Allen Ginsberg)

       Last Words

       The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs

      Edited and with an Introduction by

      James Grauerholz

      Text copyright © 2000 by William S. Burroughs Trust

      Introduction and notes copyright © 2000 by James Grauerholz

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 or [email protected].

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Burroughs, William S., 1914-97

      Last words : the final journals of William S. Burroughs, November 1996—July 1997 / edited and with an introduction by James Grauerholz.

      p. cm.

      ISBN 978-0-8021-9723-8 (e-book)

      1. Burroughs, William S., 1914-97 Diaries. 2. Novelists, American—20th century Diaries. I. Grauerholz, James. II. Title. PS3552.U75Z468 2000

      818’.5403—dc21

      [B]

      99-44259

      DESIGN BY LAURA HAMMOND HOUGH

      Grove Press

      an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

      841 Broadway

      New York, NY 10003

      Distributed by Publishers Group West

      www.groveatlantic.com

      Acknowledgments

      William Burroughs’s closest friends often saw him scribbling in

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