william burroughs at the royal academy

2009 marks 50 years since the publication of William Burroughs's Naked Lunch, released by Olympia Press in 1959 after considerable scandal and after even City Lights refused to print it.  To celebrate the anniversary of the book and Burroughs's enduring legacy in literature and art here more than ten years after his death the Royal Academy's Burlington Gardens space in London is currently showing Burroughs Live, an exhibit that collects self-portraits (like the one here, taken in Tangier in '59), video and other ephemera.  Beyond his writing, Burroughs's very presence remains hypnotic to me, and every time I hear a recording of his voice it gives me a delicious shiver.  To get a taste of the Royal Academy show, including Annie Leibovitz's otherworldly portrait taken two years before the writer's death, please click through to the gallery here.