And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Author | Jack Kerouac & William S. Burroughs |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Mystery |
| Publisher | NA |
| Released | Unpublished; written 1945 |
| Media Type | Manuscript |
| ISBN | NA |
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks is an unpublished manuscript written in 1945 by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, several years before the two Beat Generation founders achieved notoriety with On the Road and Junkie, respectively.
Intended to be a mystery novel, Burroughs later (in the film What Happened to Kerouac?) dismissed it as "not a distinguished work." Kerouac and Burroughs were unable to get the book published and only fragments exist today, some of which were published in the Burroughs compilation Word Virus.
According to the book The Beat Generation in New York by Bill Morgan, the novel was based upon a real-life incident in which a man named David Kammerer became obsessed with another man named Lucien Carr. Carr stabbed Kammerer to death in a drunken fight and later confessed the crime to Burroughs and Kerouac, who did not immediately report it to the police; both writers were arrested for this, with Kerouac serving some jail time as a result (Burroughs being bailed out by a family member). The title itself comes from a news broadcast heard by Burroughs, covering a fire at the St Louis Zoo, and in which the announcer broke into hysterics on reading the line.
Excerpts from And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks were published for the first time in Word Virus: A William S. Burroughs Reader which was published after Burroughs' death.
[edit] Sources
- Website with quote from Beat Generation in New York describing the incident that inspired the novel.
| Books by Jack Kerouac |
| Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings • Visions of Gerard • Doctor Sax • The Town and the City • Maggie Cassidy • Vanity of Duluoz • On the Road • Visions of Cody • The Subterraneans • Tristessa • The Dharma Bums • Lonesome Traveler • Desolation Angels • Big Sur • Satori in Paris • Pic • Old Angel Midnight • Book of Dreams • Good Blonde & Others • Orpheus Emerged • Book of Sketches • And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (unpublished) |
| Works by William S. Burroughs |
|---|
| Novels: And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (unpublished) - Junkie - Queer - Naked Lunch - The Soft Machine - The Ticket That Exploded - Dead Fingers Talk - Nova Express - The Last Words of Dutch Schultz - The Wild Boys - Port of Saints - Cities of the Red Night - The Place of Dead Roads - The Western Lands - My Education: A Book of Dreams Short fiction : Interzone - Exterminator! - Ali's Smile/Naked Scientology - Blade Runner, a movie - Tornado Alley - Ghost of Chance Non-fiction: The Yage Letters - The Electronic Revolution - The Job - The Third Mind - Letters to Allen Ginsberg - The Burroughs File - The Adding Machine: Collected Essays - The Cat Inside - Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs - Evil River (announced 2007) Recordings : Dead City Radio Films: The Junky's Christmas - Ah Pook is Here - Naked Lunch |
