“Last Words” was therefore a last-minute addition to Burroughs’ first draft manuscript and a paratext rather than part of the text proper—just as it had been in Evergreen Review, where it precedes and is distinguished from actual “episodes” of his novel. Burroughs had originally sent “Last Words” to Rosset from New York in September 1961 as he began work on Nova Express, and gave a brief account of both the circumstances of its original composition and its current purpose, enclosing “the testament of Hassan i Sabbah which came to me under mescaline over a year ago and which I consider to be a final statement of what I am doing in Naked Lunch and The Soft Machine and the novel now in progress entitled The Novia Express. ‘Play it all play it all play it all back. For all to see.’ I hope you can include this statement in The Naked Lunch” (Burroughs to Rosset, September 27, 1961; SU). Since Burroughs had just arrived in New York following a disastrous visit to Timothy Leary, his identification of “Last Words” as mescaline-inspired is almost as revealing as his intention to publish the text in Grove’s forthcoming edition of Naked Lunch. As Burroughs indicates, its origins go back another year, to spring 1960.
Writing from London, on June 21, 1960, Burroughs mailed an early version to Allen Ginsberg, then in Pucallpa, Peru, in response to his friend’s plea for help after taking the drug yagé (“write, fast, please”), and the letter published three years later in The Yage Letters includes most of the opening and closing lines of “Last Words” as published in Nova Express (Burroughs and Ginsberg, The Yage Letters Redux [San Francisco: City Lights, 2006], 65). The letter also demonstrates the essential formal feature of Burroughs’ text in the many drafts he would compose during mid to late 1960, beginning: “LISTEN TO MY LAST WORDS ANY WORLD” (70). The setting of the text in block capitals, which declares its urgency in visual terms, goes back to the earliest manuscript, dated by Burroughs “May 20, 1960 Past Time” (CU; Ginsberg Collection). On this date he wrote to Dave Haselwood that “these LAST WORDS OF HASSAN SABBAH might be used as a Post Script to The Exterminator,” the pamphlet he was then co-authoring with Brion Gysin (Burroughs to Haselwood, May 20, 1960; The Outsider Magazine Collection, Northwestern University). Before it appeared in Nova Express, therefore, “Last Words” had not only appeared complete in one publication (Evergreen Review) and partially in another (The Yage Letters) but had also been proposed to appear in two others (the Grove Press Naked Lunch and The Exterminator).
In May 1960 Burroughs had sent a “final version” to Haselwood: “The first version was flaked out here and there so that Mr K came off better than he deserves. I think it is all said now” (Burroughs to Haselwood, May 22, 1960; Auerhahn Press records, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley). Two variant early drafts from 1960 have survived that identify the mysterious “Mr K,” who is the clue to a very different “Last Words” than the version published in Nova Express. One typescript begins: “AND YOU MR K MR KRUSHEV WHO THOUGHT TO MONOPOLIZE SPACE UNDER THE NAME OF HASSAN SABBAH” (ASU 7). The other draft names the Soviet leader in a context that mixes political, media and business figures, and is indicative of the range of explicit reference that characterized many of Burroughs’ early drafts of “Last Words” material, elaborating on the generic phrasing “boards, syndicates, and governments of the earth”: “YOU WANT HASSAN SABBAH TO EXPLAIN THAT? TO TIDY THAT UP . . . YOU HAVE THE WRONG NAME AND THE WRONG NUMBER MR LUCE GETTY ROCKEFELLER ANSLINGER KRUSHEV” (Berg 49.1).
Other drafts of “Last Words” include racist and sexist invective, signs of an ugly anti-Semitism and misogyny that went unchecked during Burroughs’ early, messianic period. Sometimes, he would edit this out: “Deleted [Ezra] Poundish Anti-Semitism” he told Gysin, referring to similar materials intended for their proposed sequel to The Exterminator (Burroughs to Gysin, August 30, 1960; Berg). Other times, he would address it openly, asking, “WHY DO THE JEWS ALWAYS MANOEVER ONE INTO ANTI-SEMITISM?” or seek to transcend it by identifying everyone as a victim of the same anti-human conspiracy: “I HAVE PULLED THE BIG CON HEY RUBE SWITCH. MARKS OF THE WORLD WOMEN JEWS COMMUNISTS ALL ALL ALL. WE HAVE ALL BEEN TAKEN. [. . .] DON’T KILL THE JEWS AND THE WOMEN. RUB OUT THEIR WORDS” (Berg, 48.22).
Although the fit seems perfect—Hassan i Sabbah is invoked far more in Nova Express than in The Soft Machine or The Ticket—the “Last Words” section was therefore drawn from a very large body of alternative, overlapping and expanded drafts composed from mid-1960 onward. Above all, these earlier forms reveal the specifically political investment of Burroughs with the text. The material was also formally distinctive, the text always typed in block capitals, at least until summer 1961 when Burroughs cut up “Last Words” and experimented with variations similar in layout to the spaced lines that would appear in the “Uranian Willy” section (Berg 26.13).
1 “Listen to my last words anywhere”: before this line, a post-September 1962 version has: “You may call Hassan i Sabbah to write for you. You will stay to write for Hassan i Sabbah: Last words of Hassan i Sabbah” (ASU 7).
2 “Listen: I call you all”: before this phrase, one draft headed “THE TESTAMENT OF HASSAN I SABBAH” has: “‘These things take time and that’s my business—’ / As usual?” (Berg 12.4).
2 “Play it all play it all play it all back”: corrects NEX 4 (“Play it all pay it all”), which reproduced an error made in the October 1962 MS; all other manuscript witnesses and recorded versions confirm the typographical error.
2 “In Times Square. In Piccadilly”: one 1960 typescript has a variant that changes the order and adds Paris to New York and London: “IN PICCADILLY IN TIMES SQUARE IN PLACE DE LA CONCORDE” (Berg 48.22). The Parisian reference also appears in the 1960/61 spoken-word version of “Last Words” recorded by Ian Sommerville, which features on Nothing Here Now but the Recordings (1981).
2 “Alien Word ‘the’: one draft continues: “‘The’ Golden Word of Alien Enemy that exists only where no life is. [. . .] I Hassan i Sabbah rub out The Golden Word forever” (Berg 11.15).
3 “And the words of Hassan i Sabbah as also cancel”: what appears to be a typographical error occurs in all witnesses from the earliest drafts to final galleys, and in the first, 1961 edition of The Soft Machine, where these lines also appear.
3 “writing of Brion Gysin Hassan i Sabbah”: one early draft continues with a fragment from The Tempest; “leave not a wrack behind” (Berg 12.4); while another, much later draft, continues; “/////////////////////////////////” (Berg 12.8).
3 “September 17, 1899 over New York”: the section’s final phrase was only inserted onto the galleys in July 1964, at which time it was also added onto the last page of the book. The date and place recur across a mass of short texts in the mid-1960s, some clarifying that what was being recycled were fragments from the front page of the September 17, 1899 New York Times. The page itself, copies of which Burroughs asked Richard Seaver to send him in October 1963, is unremarkable except for a reference to “the Bradley-Martins.”
PRISONERS, COME OUT
As for “Last Words,” Burroughs asked Barney Rosset to add this section to the March 1962 manuscript of Nova Express as part of a “preface.” The section was clearly written later than “Last Words,” and its central warning against hallucinogens echoes in tone and substance Burroughs’ May 6, 1961 letter to Timothy Leary describing recent bad trips on DMT: “I would like to sound a word of urgent warning with regard to the hallucinogen drugs with special reference to Dimethyl-tryptamine” (ROW, 73). The section was most likely composed in September 1961, in the wake of Burroughs’ acrimonious split with Leary that month, when he also delivered a paper to the American Psychological Symposium promoting nonchemical alternatives to drugs such as DMT. Burroughs told Ginsberg the section “expressed quite clearly” what he thought “about Leary and his project” (ROW, 98). Compounding Burroughs’ antipathy was Leary’s indirect connection to Henry Luce and his wife Clare Boothe Luce, whose enthusiasm for L
SD was reflected in the drug’s remarkably extensive and positive coverage in Time and Life.
The section appeared in Evergreen in January 1962 with only minor differences under its original title: “OPEN LETTER TO MY CONSTITUENTS AND CO-WORKERS IF ANY REMAIN FOR THE END OF IT.”
3 “And love love love in slop buckets”: one draft, titled like the version in Evergreen Review, has an alternative line: “Sacred mushrooms and mescaline for the asking. And something better than that. Hash and junk in one shot” (Berg 11.15).
3 “and history is fiction”: several typescripts add “—toute ca c’est invention—” (Berg 11.15, ASU 7), anticipating the phrase, used correctly, in “A Distant Thank You.”
3 “Bring together state of news—Inquire onward from state to doer”: the surprising textual origins of this opening line of Inspector Lee’s address on behalf of Hassan i Sabbah, which had previously appeared in The Exterminator along with other parts of this passage, are revealed in a draft typescript: “I swear by the night and all that it brings together / that you shall march onwards from state to state / if an evil doer brings you a piece of news inquire first into its truth” (Berg 58.28). Reference is to Book 49 Al-Hujurat (“The Chambers”) and Book 84 Inshiqaq (“The Rending”) of The Koran.
4 “Naked Lunch and The Soft Machine”: corrects NEX 6 (“and Soft Machine”). Due to a change made by the copyeditor in the final long galleys (OSU 5.12), the 1964 edition introduced a confusion in the titles of Burroughs’ books by dropping the definite article in order to impose an incorrect consistency.
4 “hallucinogen drugs”: in a sign of how new the term was, the copyeditor notes “check spelling” besides “hallucigen,” which was how Burroughs spelled the word on his typescript (OSU 4.10) and how it appeared in Evergreen Review.
4 “blow the place up behind them”: closing speech marks have been added here, and cut before “And what does my program,” undoing changes made by the copyeditor in keeping with manuscripts (OSU 4.9, ASU 7) and Evergreen Review.
5 “I order total resistance directed against The Nova Conspiracy and all those engaged in it”: an early draft (no date, but not later than early 1962) has the most substantive variant on these and following lines: “I order total resistance to The Novia Conspiracy. Rub out their words and images forever.
A narcotics agent infiltrated the beatniks by writing bad poetry. WE are not bad writers but our purpose is ultimately the same: to expose and arrest Novia Criminals. In The Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine and The Novia Express i have shown who they are and what they are doing and what they will do if they are not arrested. These books were written to expose and arrest criminals. Minutes to go. This is war to extermination” (ASU 7).
5 “engaged in it”: closing speech marks have been added here, and cut from before “The purpose” and from around “Signed . . . Police,” in keeping with both manuscripts (OSU 4.9, ASU 7) and Evergreen Review.
5 “prisoners of the earth to come out”: the “to” is not in any manuscript witnesses or Evergreen Review but the apparent error was allowed to stand in the galleys.
5 “(Signed)”: one typescript and Evergreen Review have: “Signed The Regulator Interstellar Board of Health” (Berg 11.18). The original made more sense of what follows in the text, which is “Post Script Of The Regulator,” while the use of the term “Post Script” and the signature confirm the original titling of “Prisoner, Come Out” as an “OPEN LETTER.”
6 “Apomorphine is made from morphine”: underscoring the centrality of the drug to his book, the note was an addition Burroughs made in October 1963.
PRY YOURSELF LOOSE AND LISTEN
This section appeared in neither the March or October 1962 manuscripts, but was composed in spring 1963 (note its reference to Newsweek March 4, 1963). That it was added to the manuscript at this time—as a five-page typescript on legal-sized paper (ASU 4.3 and OSU 4.9)—can be inferred from Burroughs’ letter to Rosset of March 15: “Enclose another chapter for Nova Express. This chapter to be inserted immediately after ‘Prisoners, Come Out’. I think it makes the following section (‘Pack Your Ermines, Mary’) considerably clearer” (ROW, 120). The section was published incomplete (ending “You have to move fast on this job”), with minor differences, in Gnaoua 1 (Spring 1964). Brilliantly capturing its terrific vitriol, Burroughs’ live recording of the section is one of the standout tracks on The Best of William Burroughs (1998).
6 “We were on the nod”: the first draft of this line is both more and less precise astronomically: “We were on the nod in Uranus after a rumble in a remote galaxy” (Berg 15.46).
6 “theatre [. . .] theatre”: corrects NEX 8 (“theater”). Although on the galleys (OSU 5.11) Burroughs specifically asked to respect his choice of British spelling, the copyeditor preferred the American spelling for “theatre” and “amphitheatre.” Burroughs wrote to Seaver: “As I have noted on your letter ‘grey’ ‘theatre’ should remain English” (October 24, 1963; SU). The one instance of “gray” (in NEX 115) has been corrected to “grey” for this edition (p. 121).
8 “The Intolerable Kid and your reporter”: the first draft continues: “He’s a great guy is I&I or at least he’s big—But Jesus Christ I hate him—Everyone does that of course being his profession—” (Berg 15.46).
8 “And I&I is fast”: heavily canceled on the typescripts is the original name before “I&I” was inserted; “Percussion Paul” (OSU 4.9, ASU 4.3).
11 “split this whistle stop wide open tomorrow”: one long early draft continues: “And he rips into action—I mean he jumps right onto board and they are in a car three hundred miles an hour across solid ice—The Board Director at the wheel with the Kid clamped on him shoving his foot right down to the floor—‘All right you board gooks—You called me—You want action—I’ll by God show you action—faster! Faster! Faster! Faster and uglier’—And The Board is shitting and pissing themselves as they begin to see just who they have called and just how much of a shit he cares what happens to them in the blow up—The whole fucking machine in a long fast skid for nova— [. . .]
“And I had to laugh till I pissed seeing those two-bit welching board bastards getting the nigger gook errand boy routine back with compound interest—Then I dig The Kid is wising up the marks and I say ‘What’s with you? You wig already?’
“He just looks at me and says—‘Maybe I got a new angle—Sheets are empty many years.’
“‘Well,’ I says, ‘It’s about time—The old angle is worn down to a white dwarf.’” (Berg 37.15).
So Pack Your Ermines
SO PACK YOUR ERMINES
Titled “The Carbonic Caper” in all drafts until Burroughs retyped it for the October 1962 MS, this section was written shortly before he mailed Rosset the March 1962 MS. On March 15 he refers to “a section I had just written entitled The Carbonic Caper” in the course of explaining to Jack Kerouac how he had folded in this material together with the closing lines of The Subterraneans to form the penultimate section of Nova Express, “Melted Into Air” (Burroughs to Kerouac, March 15, 1962; CU, Kerouac Collection). Earlier drafts show a large number of very minor revisions, indicating the care Burroughs took to revise small details: e.g., the Carbonic Kid “is turning purple” and “screams” in first draft (OSU 2.2), but “is turning blue” and “yells” in second draft (OSU.4.9), which is near verbatim the final text.
15 “I was traveling with Limestone John”: early drafts (Berg 15.56, OSU 2.2) lack the opening lines and begin here.
15 “It worked like this::”: restores the double colon that Burroughs indicated on the October 1962 MS, only one of which was not canceled by the copyeditor (after “special purpose”; NEX 100, p. 105 here); thirteen other double colons have been restored throughout the text.
NABORHOOD IN AQUALUNGS
A cut-up of the previous section, “So Pack Your Ermines,” and the fol
lowing section, “The Fish Poison Con,” this section was almost certainly written at the same time (March 1962) and as a second part of what was then titled “The Carbonic Caper.” The earliest version (OSU 2.2), a rough 4-page typescript, lacks the final 30 words and has about 360 more, almost half of which were canceled on the manuscript. Cut-up variants in this draft include permutations such as “Then he was an American fascist with old Surrealist lark.” Although the section is at first frustrating, its beautifully judged recycling and recombination of phrase fragments makes it one of the most evocative on repeat readings.
THE FISH POISON CON
The earliest complete manuscript of this section is a 6-page typescript using this title and identified by Burroughs (possibly for Barney Rosset but much more likely in late 1961 for the benefit of the manuscript dealer Henry Wenning) as “1st draft” of “Chapter 12” (OSU 2.4). The section was therefore moved from the second half of the March 1962 MS toward the beginning of the October 1962 MS. This typescript lacks about 100 words and has just over 100 more, and differs in phrasing and punctuation, including having far fewer capitalizations (e.g., for phrases like “Old Sow Got Caught In The Fence”). There is also a “2nd draft” which shows only minor differences from the published version, principally an even more extensive use of lower case first-person “i” than in the first draft. The section was published in Evergreen Review 7.29 (March 1963) almost verbatim except for one significant difference: the text continues with the second half of “No Good—No Bueno” (from “I spit blood” onward). Burroughs recorded most of the section for his 1965 album Call Me Burroughs.
21 “checking store attendants for larceny”: the first draft continues: “and a rattier crew never went on tour” (OSU 2.4).