Junky
by William S. Burroughs, Oliver Harris · first published 1953
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A semi-autobiographical account, narrated in a matter-of-fact manner, of the author’s life as a drug addict. The story ranges from the backstreets of New York to a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kentucky, the bars of New Orleans and on to Mexico, recounting the difficulties of obtaining drugs, financial problems and homosexual encounters. Burroughs significantly stretched the boundaries of publishable material with his debut novel.
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William S. Burroughs' first work Junky came with a glossary like this. It was published as a trashy train station book rather than capital-A art, so it was necessary to explain words like "croaker" and "cool" to the commuter audience.
on “Raymond Chandler’s guide to street, hoodlum, and prison lingo” ↗…addicts. In jail, they can't leave to buy more junk, so they'll overcome withdrawals with a 100% success rate. The hard part is staying clean. Heroin use was popular in the Beatnik generation. In the book Junky, William Burroughs describes how had himself jailed voluntarily. Police stations where he was living at the time had a program similar to Gloucester's where users would bring in their "works" in exchange…
on “Massachusetts Chief’s Tack in Drug War: Steer Addicts to Rehab, Not Jail” ↗Is there an app on iOS that indexes ubuweb, I noticed Junky read by Burroughs there which would be a fascinating listen, but it comes in lots of pieces and consuming it on the run seems somewhat tricky
on “Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free” ↗