Burroughs, William S.

Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict

New York, NY: Ace Books, Inc., 1953. First Edition. Softcover. "I have seen life measured out in eyedroppers of morphine solution. I experienced the agonizing deprivation of junk sickness, and the pleasure of relief when junk-thirsty cells drank from the needle. Perhaps all pleasure is relief. I have learned the cellular stoicism that junk teaches the user. I have seen a cell full of sick junkies silent and immobile in separate misery. They knew the pointlessness of complaining or moving. They knew that basically no one can help anyone else. There is no key, no secret someone else has that he can give you. I have learned the junk equation. Junk is not, like alcohol or weed, a means to increased enjoyment of life. Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life." (conclusion of author's Preface, pg. 10) The first published work of William S. Burroughs, Founding Father of the Beat Generation & Beyond; among the greatest, most influential literary & cultural figures of all time; the Patron Saint-Demon of our very enterprise. We proudly offer the very first edition, first printing of this foundational WSB classic, the famously lurid-covered pulp paperback published under the name of "William Lee" & "...sixty-nined, so to speak..."(as Allen Ginsberg put it in an introduction to a later edition) with the forgettable, exemplary Narcotic Agent (1941) by Maurice Helbrandt. Mass market-format softcover, with all points in Maynard & Miles, A1(a), pgs. 1-2; Shoaf, Section 1, No. 1, pg. 15; Schottlaender, A1(A), pg. 2. First in all WSB bibliographies as just above, & with utmost pride of place in all serious WSB collections. In relatively near-fine condition for such an aged & notoriously fragile icon: Mild-to-moderate rubbing, creasing, scratching & a few spots to front, back covers & spine; mild-to-moderate wear, tiny bumps & creases at edges & corners of same with minimal loss of surface paper; mild rubbing, fading & scratching to orange-dyed edges of text block. Interior (again relatively) fine with inevitable moderate browning of pulp-quality page leaves; mild, sparse rubbing to blank white inner covers; small, faint creases & tiny bumps at corners of some leaves; slight waving at blank margins/ side edges of some of same (all within Helbrant's section). Near Fine. [Item #4716]

Price: $950.00