#joanburroughs

[ginzyblog]

Aug 1951 Mexico City.  Allen’s note on back reads: “Spent several weeks with Joan Burroughs. Lucien's dog Potchkie.”  Photo by Ppublic photographer.  A few weeks later, Allen wrote this letter to Neal Cassady: Dear Neal:

Claude [Lucien] and I went to Mexico and returned to the U.S. a few days ago. Bill was in South America on some expedition. We took Joan and kids riding all over to Guadalajara and Mazatlan – Mex Pacific Coast.

Car broke down near Houston. I spending week in Galveston on beach, Claude flew to New York. He returns in 4 days by plane to pick up me and car and dog.

Note in newspaper I saw tonight says that Bill killed Joan in accident with gun last night. "An American tourist trying to imitate Wm. Tell killed his wife while attempting to shoot a glass of champagne from her head with a pistol, police said today.” "Police arrested Wm. Seward Burroughs, 37, of St. Louis, Mo., last nite after his wife Joan, 27 died in a hospital of a bullet wound in her forehead received an hour earlier." That's all I know.

I am sitting in a broken down shack across the street from the Gulf of Mexico. I have spoken to no one since I've been here, slept much, bathed a lot, walked around town, have an icebox.

Kells Elvins is in Mexico City. He is a great man, and on the scene so there is someone around to help Bill and take care of kids. Claude and J. played games of chance with drunken driving, egging each other on suicidally at times while we were there. I left with him from N.Y. at last moment after Jack [Kerouac] dropped out to go to hospital for leg and finish book.

-- Allen Ginsberg [Galveston, TX] to Neal Cassady [San Francisco, CA]  September 7, 1951  from:   Allen Ginsberg,  The Letters, DaCapo Press 2018.

[ginzyblog]

Joan Vollmer (Burroughs), Morningside Heights, just off the Columbia College Campus, New York City, Winter 1945.

It was in the apartment that Joan shared with Edie Parker, near where this photo was taken, that Allen first met Jack Kerouac. Before long Edie would mary Jack. and Joan would meet William S Burroughs, and they too would be married. Allen often referred to Joan as William’s female counterpart, their wits and intelligence were so matched, & the two could practically communicate telepathically they were so kindred. 


[ginzyblog]

Aug 1951 Mexico City. “Spent several weeks with Joan Burroughs. Lucien’s dog Potchkie.” Public photographer. A few weeks later, Allen wrote this letter to Neal Cassady:

Dear Neal:
Claude [Lucien] and I went to Mexico and returned to the U.S. a few days ago. Bill was in South America on some expedition. We took Joan and kids riding all over to Guadalajara and Mazatlan – Mex Pacific Coast.

Car broke down near Houston. I spending week in Galveston on beach, Claude flew to New York. He returns in 4 days by plane to pick up me and car and dog.

Note in newspaper I saw tonight says that Bill killed Joan in accident with gun last night. “An American tourist trying to imitate Wm. Tell killed his wife while attempting to shoot a glass of champagne from her head with a pistol, police said today.” 
"Police arrested Wm. Seward Burroughs, 37, of St. Louis, Mo., last nite after his wife Joan, 27 died in a hospital of a bullet wound in her forehead received an hour earlier.”
That’s all I know.

I am sitting in a broken down shack across the street from the Gulf of Mexico. I have spoken to no one since I’ve been here, slept much, bathed a lot, walked around town, have an icebox.
Kells Elvins is in Mexico City. He is a great man, and on the scene so there is someone around to help Bill and take care of kids.


Claude and J. played games of chance with drunken driving, egging each other on suicidally at times while we were there. I left with him from N.Y. at last moment after Jack dropped out to go to hospital for leg and finish book.

[ginzyblog]

William,  and Joan (Vollmer) Burroughs with newborn Billy Jr in her arms, at their farm, New Waverly Texas, August 1947, where they'd lived since the beginning of the year with Joan's 2 year old daughter Julie, and soon after joined by Herbert Huncke.    The previous summer, William had had a moderately successful stint at cotton farming with his friend Kells Elvins, along the Rio Grande River 'valley'  in Pharr, Texas, & felt ready to try his hand at pot farming.  The wide open spaces of south Texas flatlands weren't private enough for that purpose,  so he went north & east where the thickly forested land offered considerable seclusion, and settled on this plot of 99 acres 50 miles north of Houston. These  areas were rife with characters, grifters, con-men, diviners, sherifs, and other colorful sorts that naturally found their way into Queer, Junky, and Naked Lunch.   (photo snapped by Allen Ginsberg shortly after arriving from Denver with Neal Cassady)   #williamsburroughs #joanburroughs #joanvollmer #williamsburroughsjr #waverlytexas #nealcassady #allenginsberg #herberthuncke #beatgeneration #nakedlunch #queer #junkie #writersofinstagram #writers #poetsofinstagram #poetrycommunity #texas (at New Waverly, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/CG5rq_5htB4/?igshid=pgwcmwtiokc8

[ginzyblog]

Allen with Lucien Carr’s dog Potchkie, on a trip to Mexico City 1951. Since William Burroughs was still in South America, Allen and Lucien spent the time with Joan Burroughs, just several months before her tragic death. (Tourist photographer, courtesy Stanford University Libraries/ Allen Ginsberg Estate) #allenginsberg #luciencarr #mexicocity #joanburroughs #joanvollmer #beatgeneration (at Mexico City, Mexico) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwurNx2BaYU/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=120nkscot24zf