The Yage Letters

by Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs

Book Overview

The definitive edition of Burroughs' seminal epistolary novel about seeking hallucinogenic Yage in South America. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872860043
• ISBN13: 9780872860049
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: City Lights Books
• Length: 72 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.0"

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!!!