Along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, William S.Burroughs is an iconic figure of the Beat generation. In William S.Burroughs, Phil Baker investigates this cult writer"s life and work - from small-town Kansas to New York in the "40s, Mexico and the South American jungle, to Tangier and the writing of Naked Lunch, to Paris and the Beat Hotel, and "60s London - alongside Burrough"s self-portrayal as an explorer of inner space, reporting back from the frontiers of experience. After accidentally shooting his wife in 1951, Burroughs felt his destiny as a writer was bound up with a struggle to come to terms with the "Ugly Spirit" that had possessed him. In this fascinating biography, Baker explores how Burroughs"s early absorption in psychoanalysis shifted through Scientology, demonology, and Native American mysticism, eventually leading Burroughs to believe that he lived in an increasingly magical universe, where he sent curses and operated a "wishing machine". His lifelong...