Book Series Guide

William S. Burroughs

Author guide

William S. Burroughs Books in Order

William Seward Burroughs (1914–1997) was an American novelist, essayist, memoirist, poet, and visual and performance artist. His work combines surrealism, science fiction, satire, addiction memoir, queer literature, and experimental cut-up composition. His major works include Junky, Naked Lunch, the Nova trilogy, the Red Night trilogy, and My Education. He also produced collaborative books, artist books, plays, letters, journals, essay collections, and graphic works.

Beat literatureexperimental fictioncut-up fictionscience fictionsatirememoiressayspoetryplaysgraphic works

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

Naked Lunch

The central and most influential entry point to Burroughs's mature experimental fiction.

Cover of Junky

Junky

The clearest chronological starting point and an accessible introduction to his early autobiographical style.

Cover of The Cat Inside

The Cat Inside

A concise, comparatively approachable memoir showing his later prose outside the cut-up novels.

Read in order

Books by series

trilogy · complete

The Nova Trilogy

A triptych of cut-up novels depicting a mythic, conspiratorial, and technologically transformed space age.

Series guide →
  1. 1 Cover of The Soft Machine
    The Soft Machine

    Book 1 · novel · 1961

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  2. 2 Cover of The Ticket That Exploded
    The Ticket That Exploded

    Book 2 · novel · 1962

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  3. 3 Cover of Nova Express
    Nova Express

    Book 3 · novel · 1964

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trilogy · complete

The Red Night Trilogy

A late-career trilogy linking pirate utopias, revolutionary violence, the American West, and Egyptian mythology.

Series guide →
  1. 1 Cover of Cities of the Red Night
    Cities of the Red Night

    Book 1 · novel · 1981

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  2. 2 Cover of The Place of Dead Roads
    The Place of Dead Roads

    Book 2 · novel · 1983

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  3. 3 Cover of The Western Lands
    The Western Lands

    Book 3 · novel · 1987

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Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Novels (8)
  1. Cover of Junky
    Junky

    novel · 1953

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  2. Naked Lunch

    novel · 1959

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  3. Cover of Dead Fingers Talk
    Dead Fingers Talk

    novel · 1963

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  4. Cover of The Last Words of Dutch Schultz
    The Last Words of Dutch Schultz

    novel · 1969

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  5. Cover of The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead
    The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead

    novel · 1971

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  6. Cover of Port of Saints
    Port of Saints

    novel · 1973

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  7. Cover of Queer
    Queer

    novel · 1985

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  8. Cover of Ghost of Chance
    Ghost of Chance

    novella · 1991

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Nonfiction (5)
  1. The Retreat Diaries

    diary · 1976

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  2. Cover of The Cat Inside
    The Cat Inside

    memoir · 1986

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  3. Remembering Jack Kerouac

    memoir · 1994

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  4. Cover of My Education: A Book of Dreams
    My Education: A Book of Dreams

    memoir · 1995

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  5. Cover of Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs
    Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs

    diary · 2000

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Short fiction (16)
  1. Roosevelt After Inauguration and Other Atrocities

    short-fiction-collection · 1964

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  2. The Dead Star

    short-fiction · 1969

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  3. Ali's Smile

    short-fiction-collection · 1971

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  4. Mayfair Academy Series More or Less

    short-fiction-collection · 1973

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  5. White Subway

    short-fiction-collection · 1973

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  6. Cover of Exterminator!
    Exterminator!

    short-fiction-collection · 1973

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  7. Snack...

    short-fiction-collection · 1975

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  8. Cover of Cobble Stone Gardens
    Cobble Stone Gardens

    short-fiction-collection · 1976

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  9. Cover of Doctor Benway
    Doctor Benway

    short-fiction-collection · 1979

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  10. Cover of Early Routines
    Early Routines

    short-fiction-collection · 1981

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  11. Sinki's Sauna

    short-fiction · 1982

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  12. Ruski

    short-fiction · 1984

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  13. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

    short-fiction-collection · 1984

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  14. Cover of Tornado Alley
    Tornado Alley

    short-fiction-collection · 1989

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  15. Cover of Interzone
    Interzone

    short-fiction-collection · 1989

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  16. Pantopon Rose

    short-fiction · 1995

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Essays and speeches (5)
  1. Cover of The Electronic Revolution
    The Electronic Revolution

    essay · 1971

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  2. Cover of The Burroughs File
    The Burroughs File

    essay-collection · 1984

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  3. The Adding Machine: Collected Essays

    essay-collection · 1985

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  4. Words of Advice for Young People

    essay · 2001

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  5. The Revised Boy Scout Manual: An Electronic Revolution

    essay · 2018

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Plays (2)
  1. Cover of Blade Runner: A Movie
    Blade Runner: A Movie

    screenplay · 1979

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  2. The Valley

    screenplay · 1990

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Collaborations (15)
  1. Minutes to Go

    co-authored-collection · 1960

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  2. The Exterminator

    co-authored-collection · 1960

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  3. The Yage Letters

    co-authored-letters · 1963

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  4. So Who Owns Death TV?

    co-authored-graphic-work · 1967

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  5. Cover of The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs
    The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs

    co-authored-nonfiction · 1969

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  6. Jack Kerouac

    co-authored-graphic-work · 1970

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  7. Cover of Brion Gysin Let the Mice In
    Brion Gysin Let the Mice In

    co-authored-graphic-work · 1973

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  8. Sidetripping

    co-authored-graphic-work · 1975

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  9. Colloque de Tangier

    co-authored-graphic-work · 1976

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  10. Cover of The Third Mind
    The Third Mind

    co-authored-essay-collection · 1977

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  11. Colloque de Tangier, Volume 2

    co-authored-graphic-work · 1979

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  12. Cover of Apocalypse
    Apocalypse

    co-authored-graphic-work · 1988

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  13. The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets

    co-authored-play · 1989

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  14. Cover of And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks
    And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

    co-authored-novel · 2008

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  15. Cover of Rules of Duel
    Rules of Duel

    co-authored-novel · 2010

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Other (20)
  1. Valentine's Day Reading

    chapbook · 1965

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  2. Time

    chapbook · 1965

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  3. APO-33: A Metabolic Regulator

    chapbook · 1965

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  4. The Book of Breething

    graphic-work · 1974

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  5. Letters to Allen Ginsberg, 1953–1957

    letters · 1978

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  6. Ah Pook Is Here

    graphic-work · 1979

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  7. Wouldn't You Polish Pine Floors…

    chapbook · 1979

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  8. Mummies

    graphic-work · 1982

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  9. The Streets of Chance

    chapbook · 1981

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  10. From the Western Lands

    chapbook · 1987

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  11. Clause 27 Is Proposition 6 Is the Whole Tamale

    chapbook · 1989

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  12. Seven Deadly Sins

    graphic-work · 1991

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  13. X-Ray Man

    chapbook · 1991

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  14. Cover of Paper Cloud; Thick Pages
    Paper Cloud; Thick Pages

    graphic-work · 1992

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  15. Painting and Guns

    graphic-work · 1992

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  16. The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959

    letters · 1993

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  17. Concrete and Buckshot

    graphic-work · 1996

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  18. A Spiritual Exercise

    chapbook · 1998

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  19. Cover of Everything Lost: The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs
    Everything Lost: The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs

    notebook · 2007

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  20. Rub Out the Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1959–1974

    letters · 2012

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