From Oliver Harris' 1-2-26 obituary for James Grauerholz, the executor of William S. Burroughs' literary estate:
James’ extensive and outstanding work as an editor has never been recognised. It started early: in his introduction to the revised edition of The Adding Machine, James noted how closely he was already working with Burroughs from the mid-1970s on his columns for Crawdaddy magazine. More substantively, he worked from the original manuscripts to edit Junky, Queer, Interzone, Naked Lunch: The Restored Text (with Miles), My Education: A Book of Dreams, Last Words, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. He also co-edited, with Ira Silverberg, Word Virus, a Burroughs anthology, and contributed his original research to Miles’ landmark 2014 biography.
James’ erudition was impressively wide-ranging. At times, when I felt my own inadequacy, he knew just how to be supportive. While re-editing Queer for my 2010 edition, I asked him to review my introduction, worrying that, as a straight guy who didn’t really know the field of gay literature or queer studies, I might well have missed what mattered most. He wrote back to say (I paraphrase): ‘You’ve never been an addict, either, but that didn’t stop you doing Junky…’ It was pragmatic advice that helped me know my place and get the work done.
James got a lot done in the Burroughs universe. For a good while, ‘William Burroughs Communications’, led by James and staffed by a wonderful crew of helpers, brought the creative best out of Burroughs and ensured his legacy. But there were times while Burroughs was alive and, in the years after his death, when James regretted what that cost him, what was left undone in his own name. James will not be remembered for his music or his writing. But he will be remembered, and rightly so, with love.
To read the entire obituary, click HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment