The sometimes raunchy, often legally dubious New York and 
Mexican exploits of William S. Burroughs, one of the godfathers of 
the "Beat" generation, are well known. Less familiar are his 
experiences in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, where 
for several years he was a cotton farmer (while avoiding the law in 
New York). This intriguing chapter in the famous author's life is 
thoroughly recounted for the first time in Rob Johnson's new book.

    From 1946 to 1949 Bill Burroughs prepared himself for the writing 
of his first books by, among other pursuits, raising marijuana and 
opium poppies and entertaining Beat visitors such as Allen Ginsberg 
and Neal Cassady at his farm in New Waverly, Texas. Less known, 
though, are stories about his other farm, a "serious" fifty-acre spread, 
in the Valley near Edinburg, described in the 1977 edition of Junky. 
Here he raised legal crops such as cotton, carrots, and peas. Other 
Beat writers move casually in and out of the narrative, which includes 
the "William Tell" episode in Mexico in which Burroughs fatally shot 
his wife, who had placed a drink glass on her head as a target.

    As a setting in Burroughs's work, the Valley is central in Junky 
(1953), "Tiger in the Valley" (an unpublished 1955 short story), and, 
to a lesser extent, Queer (1985). But the Valley recurs as a setting 
in almost all of his books, in some form or another.

    Rob Johnson conducted over forty hours of interviews with people 
in South Texas and Mexico who knew Burroughs, his business 
partner Kells Elvins, and other "South Texas Beats." Johnson paints 
a picture of a fascinating place, time, and people: South Texas and 
Northern Mexico in the post–World War II period and the Anglos, 
Mexican Americans, and Mexicans who lived there.

_________________________________________________________

ROB JOHNSON is an associate professor of English at the 
University of Texas–Pan American. With a Ph.D. from the 
University of Southern California, he specializes in the study of 
Mexican American writers, the Beat Generation, and Southern 
writers.


Number Twenty-one: Tarleton State University Southwestern Studies 
in the Humanities


What people are saying about this book

"In this well-researched, clearly written study of Burrough's 'lost 
years' in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Johnson makes a robust 
contribution to a field in which it is becoming increasingly difficult 
to say anything new . . . Summing up: Highly recommended."
—CHOICE, March 2007

"Johnson's book proves that Burroughs' brief Rio Grande Valley 
days were exceedingly rich in the kind of anecdotes and characters 
that flavored his whole life."—Southwestern American Literature, 
January 2007

"Rob Johnson has done a tremendous job of digging up previously 
unknown details about an obscure period in the life of William S. 
Burroughs—the South Texas years. This book will be snapped up by 
everybody interested in Burroughs and by Texans (and others) who 
appreciate the complexity and sheer weirdness of South Texas."
—Don Graham, University of Texas at Austin

". . . loaded with original and never-before-published information. 
Unlike most literary studies, the voice that speaks to the reader is 
informal. . . . [This book] will certainly be useful to scholars of this 
unique niche of American literature. A very impressive work."—Tom 
Pilkington, Tarleton State University