Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso on William Burroughs continuing from here
AG: So, we’re in media res, 1953. It turns out that Junkie was published… then? – I didn’t know that, I thought it was earlier.
WSB: No no no.
AG: It was accepted earlier then?
WSB: Maybe it was accepted in.. I don’t know when it was accepted
AG When was the time of composition of Junkie (because I’m fuzzy on that)
WSB: Around 1950, that was the time of composition. … in Mexico City.
AG; Okay now, as I remember, the manuscript of Junkie arrived to my house in Paterson, or/and in apartments in New York, by letter, a lot of it, a lot of the Junkie manuscript…was part of our correspondence originally. From 1950 on, was that?, or earlier?
WSB: Yeah, well, 1950 and it didn’t take very long, as a matter of fact, it was about five or six months.
AG Uh-huh. The complete?
WSB: Certainly
AG: Writing and editing?
WSB: Yes, I mean, well, more or less. I don’t think it was.. I’m not sure of the editing. But, certainly, the writing didn’t take more than that.
AG: And do you have any recollection when it was accepted by Wyn, by A.A.Wyn? Ace Books?
WSB: No.
AG (to Ted Morgan): Do you know that Ted? .. when, when?
Ted Morgan: (It was..)
GC: He don’t know shit! He’s the guy who (said I was high). when I first met you, (and) it happened later..
Ted Morgan: (I was..)
GC: Oh you were just kidding? They don’t know!. Wake up, kid. They’ve given you some kind of shot that you know.
Ted Morgan: Pardon, pardon.. When you first met William it was in Allen’s apartment.
GC: Yeah. Right, on 7th Street, and he’s cutting his yage, and looking at me, and jealous, because he loved Allen, and I was a cute handsome Italian boy.
WSB: Had all your teeth.
AG: Well let’s see now, I had met Gregory in (19)50.. Bill was staying with me on 206 East 7th Street, right off Tompkins Square which is now (sic) the new-wave punk center of New York, near Avenue A (and between B & C, we were living). Gregory appeared one day, invited over (after a long period of absence – I seem to remember we didn’t.. I hadn’t seen you for a little while.
GC: I stayed there with you! That’s the time that you told everybody that you had sex with me and it wasn’t so!
AG: No
GC: This is what happened. I’d gotten out of prison….
AG: Wait a minute… be careful now! Are we talking about (19)53-(19)53 on East 7th Street? or are we talking on 14th Street near the Port Authority Building, you’re talking about?
GC: I’m talking to you on 7th Street!
AG: Okay.
GC: I get out of prison in (19)50 and I meet you in a dyke bar. And the girl that I…
AG: The Pony Stable
GC: ..say I’m wanting to fuck, you say, “I’m the guy who’s fucking her”, and you take me up there and I fuck her. That’s Dusty Moreland – Remember?
AG; Yes. She doesn’t like her name mentioned in public.
GC Par-don! – You took me out to eat one night in a place called The Four Seasons and I asked you, ”Are you queer?” And you said “Would that make any difference”?
AG: No, I looked you in the eyes, and I said, “Yes, Gregory.”
GC: And to me, how did I answer it? I said, “That’s alright. But in prison I couldn’t be. You’d suffer too much for that shit.”
Okay.. So I’m in a bar in 1950, that year, and some black guy says. “Don’t you ever go see Marisol again!” (now, Marisol Escobar, she’ s a great sculptor today. You know about her? Ever hear about her?)
Ted Morgan: (Certainly)
GC: Alight.. That’s the game. I’m fucking her. Nigger (sic) tells me, “You stay out of the house!” – So I see all the blacks against me in prison, I break the glass of beer in my hand and I go (right in) his face. I come home to you bleeding and all bad..You put me on the bed and caress me and try to suck my dick! – and then you tried to put your little fat Jewish cock up my asshole!. Can you imagine that!
AG: Quite easily! – Quite easily, yes. And my recollection is that I did do that actually, now that you bring it up. Not only that, you came.
GC: Well, If I came.. I‘ll give you that accolade. Sorry!
AG: But I think I had to bend down and blow you at the same time!
GC: Yeah
AG: I had a visual recollection of that but we have opposite,…
GC: Allen, I wouldn’t mind being blown by you, anytime, man, but..
AG: But we’re ignoring our beloved Bill!
GC: No, We’re not ignoring..
WSB: Not ignoring..
GC: He don’t belong here,
WSB: It’s the life and times…
GC: He don’t belong here. Remember that…
AG: Ok
WSB: I told you. I told you I was on my own.
GC: Right
AG: Now get to the point…
Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately six minute in and concluding at approximately eleven minutes in