The Spoken Word: William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin

The latest release in the British Library’s highly acclaimed Spoken Word series of authors in their own words, The Spoken Word: William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin is a rare collection of recordings featuring the American writer William S. Burroughs (1914–97) and the British-born artist Brion Gysin (1916–86), the man Burroughs credited with the invention of the “cut-up” literary technique. The centerpiece of the collection is a complete, previously unissued recording of Burroughs reading live in Liverpool in 1982. The disc also includes performances by Gysin of a selection of his “permutated poems,” as well as previously unheard home recordings made by the pair in Paris in 1970, all taken from tapes in the British Library collection.