The Yage Letters Redux

By Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs

Book Overview

In January 1953, William Burroughs began a seven-month expedition into the jungles of South America, ostensibly to find yage, the fabled hallucinogen of the Amazon. But Burroughs also cast his anthropological-satiric eye over the local regimes to record trademark vignettes of political and psychic malaise. From the notebooks he kept and the letters he wrote home to Allen Ginsberg, Burroughs composed a narrative of his adventures that appeared ten years later as "In Search of Yage" within The Yage Letters.

That book, published by City Lights in 1963, was completed by the addition of Ginsberg's account of his own experiences with yage as he traveled through South America in 1960, and by the addition of other Burroughs letters and texts.

For this new edition, Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris has gone back to the original manuscripts to untangle the history of the text, telling the fascinating story of its genesis and cultural importance in his wide-ranging introduction. Also included in this edition are extensive materials, never before published, by both Burroughs and Ginsberg that shed new light on their adventures in exploration and writing

"A complete understanding of the literary legacy of William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg is impossible without reading this amazing collection of letters and documents centered on yage, the fabled hallucinogen of the Amazon. . . . These crucial texts go beyond simple curiosity about mind-changing drugs to set the foundation of what would later become a literary movement that changed American literature."--Bloomsbury Review

"Burroughs' book about his search for the 'ultimate fix', The Yage Letters, possesses an equally strange and secret history. Published in 1963 but written a decade earlier, it has long been seen as a fascinating curio in the Burroughs canon, yet a new edition of the book, edited by Oliver Harris, places it more centrally in the list of key Burroughs texts. . . . The Yage Letters marks the point when Burroughs moved full-time into his own, fully realised universe."--The Independent UK

William Burroughs is widely recognized as one of the most influential and innovative writers of the twentieth century. His books include: Junky, Naked Lunch, Queer, The Wild Boys and The Place of Dead Roads.

Oliver Harris is a professor in literature and film in the School of American Studies at Keele University. He is the editor of The Letters of William S, Burroughs (Penguin) and the 50th anniversary edition of Junky (Penguin).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872864480
• ISBN13: 9780872864481
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: City Lights Books
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 7.1"

Customer Reviews

The Real Bill

I've been a long time fan of WSB and this is another great insight into the man. Yage Letters is a must for the Beat reader! Pure, raw and brief glimpses of a person in pursuit of knowledge.

Autonomous Thinkers in a Bourgeois World

A great piece of history by the avant garde writers, in this case some letters, of autonomous thinkers (and doers) that depart from the mediocre bourgeois and robotic, patriotic, mind-melted citizen. Reading this book and I'm not sure if I should frown on Burrough's way of life or envy it. I don't favor much of his drug use and his tastes and sexual preferences, but at the same time, neither do I endorse our societal neurotic phobias and radical attacks under their Augustinian mentality. This is a culture under repression. Despite Burrough's rough edges (depravity or art?), there is that amazing element of spontaneity, of dangerous living, of freedom from the protective rational securities that so many of us weak Westerners so much rely on. Reading his accounts from town to town, from boy, pervert, hoar, food, social spots and Yage encounters, kind of puts you both there and in the mind of Burroughs to an extent. Everyone sees reality interpreted through their perceptional lenses and this is definitely colored glasses looking at the time, place and people. Since these are mostly personal letters to Ginsberg, they aren't the cut up collage style you'd find in Naked Lunch, however he does mention this in one of his letters and does a little of it in a poem and maybe his last statement aimed at all humanity. Written 7 years later, there are a few letters from Ginsberg, questioning his experience with Yage and asking for Burrough's advise. He had a deeper and scarier experience than LSD and was afraid of entering deeper and deeper into the realm he was heading. And wrote some good poetic thoughts in his confusion. Apparently all went well with a later 1963 letter showing strength again and experiential confidence.

Fruit of the (Yage) Vine

This is the best collection of letters I have ever read, next to The Letters of William S. Burroughs. Bill's letters to Allen really TAKE YOU THERE, as he once said about Colette. Bill rants against the U.S. Point Four agrarian bureaucracy, missionaries living "the life of Riley", Peruvian boys who roll him for his money, eyeglasses, etc.; however, Bill said to Allen that he "shared with the late Father Flanigan - he of Boys Town - the deep conviction that there is no such thing as a bad boy." Overall, good reading and a good record of South America in the early 1950's.

ACTUALLY HE WAS "HIGH"

He was under the influence of Yage...not drunk.......that is what the book is about....YAGE!!!!!!bURROUGHS WAS A TRUE GENIUS

I WOULD LIKE TO EXPIERENCE THE " VINE "

THE YAGE LETTERS IS BY FAR ONE OF THE BEST ENTRIES BY WLLIAM BURROUGHS AND THE ENTIRE BEAT GENERATION. I'VE READ MANY OF BURROUGHS BOOKS INCLUDING, JUNKY, MY EDUCATION, THE WILD BOYS, AND SOME OF NAKED LUNCH. BUT, THE YAGE LETTERS HAD ME SAYING, I WOULD LIKE TO EXPIERENCE THE " VINE "!!! IT'S DEFINATELY A 5 STAR BOOK!!!