The Burroughs File

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The Burroughs File is a collection of short fiction and non-fiction writings by Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs covering a period of more than 20 years. The collection was first published in 1984.

The book incorporates several smaller collections that had previously been published separately: White Subway (1973), Die Alten Filme (The Old Movies) (1979) (most of the material in this book was published in English for the first time in The Burroughs File), The Retreat Diaries (1976) and Cobble Stone Gardens (1976). In addition, the book includes visual excerpts from Burroughs' scrapbooks and notebooks dating back to his early days as a writer.

The subject matter of the various stories and essays range wildly from material connected to his earlier works such as Naked Lunch, to autobiographical pieces. The Retreat Diaries is a collection of journal entries made by Burroughs during the summer of 1975. The book includes introductions by Paul Bowles and Alan Ansen.

v • d • e Works by William S. Burroughs Novels and Novellas: And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (unpublished) • Junkie • Queer • Naked Lunch • The Soft Machine • The Ticket That Exploded • Dead Fingers Talk • Nova Express • The Last Words of Dutch Schultz • The Wild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 • Blade Runner (a movie) • Cities of the Red Night • Ghost of Chance • The Place of Dead Roads • The Western Lands • My Education: A Book of Dreams • The Cat Inside Short story collections: Interzone • Exterminator! • Ali's Smile/Naked Scientology • Tornado Alley • The Burroughs File • The Third Mind Essay collections: The Electronic Revolution • The Third Mind • Ali's Smile/Naked Scientology• The Adding Machine: Collected Essays Non-fiction: The Yage Letters • The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs • Letters to Allen Ginsberg • The Burroughs File • Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs Recording: Dead City Radio Films: The Junky's Christmas • Ah Pook is Here • Naked Lunch