Burroughs, William S.

The Western Lands

ISBN: 0-670-81352-4
New York, NY: The Viking Press, 1987. First Edition. Hard Cover. In the first full-length biography of WSB, Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs, author Ted Morgan writes that The Western Lands " ...is another quest book, but this time the quest is not space travel or mutation, but some form of life after death...Western Lands is an account of a trip beyond death, a metaphor for the artist's longing for immortality..." (p. 616) This is the third, and in your devoted curator's opinion the most profound, work in WSB's great late-phase trilogy, preceded by Cities of the Red Night in 1981 and The Place of Dead Roads in 1983. A far look back and forward by a fully wised-up WSB, it is a summation of and meditation on many themes, including ancient Egyptian concepts of the afterlife, and the very limits of human artistry and understanding. This is the first edition of The Western Lands, followed by various softcover and foreign editions. Some of its most eminently quotable passages are read by WSB himself with wonderful musical accompaniment in the album Seven Souls by Material from 1989. Here is a beautiful, near-mint item that really must be owned and read by all WSB aficionados. With remainder mark across side edge & sticker over bar code on lower right rear dj. "You have to be in Hell to see Heaven. Glimpses from the Land of the Dead, flashes of serene timeless joy, a joy as old as suffering and despair. In Tangier the Parade Bar is closed. Shadows are falling on the Mountain. "Hurry up, please. It's time." " Near Mint / Near Mint [Item #1060]