Another pic from Bellefontaine Cemetery. The writer William S. Burroughs, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs, is one of my cultural heroes. He was born here to great wealth - his grandfather had invented the adding machine and built a fortune on it. He went to Harvard, with degrees in English and anthropology, and later attended medical school in Vienna. Then he went on, with his pals Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, to revolutionize American writing through the course of his sordid life.
I remember reading Cities of the Red Night and The Western Lands when they were published during my 30's. The possibilities of prose would never seem the same to me. Some people left a few coins on the small grave stone in tribute. The fork has to be in honor of his infamous novel, Naked Lunch. The grave is not easy to find but for some of us is worth the effort.
You can find some audio clips on YouTube of Burroughs reading his work. Most of it is hilarious but not for the squeamish. I recommend a clip from Naked Lunch about Dr. Benway in surgery, https://youtu.be/7-MF6J9ZFB4 . Someone we know had cancer that required immediate surgery and he was assigned to a Washington University physician named Dr. Benway. We could have fainted.
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Next to Calvary Cemetery, where Tennessee Williams rests, is Bellefontaine Cemetery. The two of them contain the remains of many people of local note and a few of international stature. Williams and William S. Burroughs top the list.
Burroughs, a native St. Louisan, was a revolutionary writer. His 1959 novel, Naked Lunch, was the last written work prosecuted for obscenity in the U.S. Burroughs won. If you don't know him and are interested, the anthology Word Virus is a perfect introduction. My copy sits by my bedside. It also has a CD of the author reading his work, much of which is hilarious. His satire of Franklin Roosevelt's pre-war administration and battles with the Supreme Court is fall-out-of-your-chair funny and not for the kiddies.
Burroughs is a champion to me but I bet that many people picking up one of his books for the first time would think he's dangerously insane, flagrantly offensive, or both. Well, you pays your money and you takes tour choice. The Western Lands is the name of one of his best-known novels (I loved it), the title referring to the ancient Egyptian home of the dead west of the Nile. At least Bill made it west of the Mississippi.By the way, the object to the right of the stone is a decaying pumpkin with a couple of cigarette butts sticking out of it, probably left by a fan. Burroughs would approve.
WHAT I NEED TO FIGURE OUT REAL SOON: where the bleep did I put my remote shutter release?
TOMORROW: winter looking down, part 1.
