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Beats In Kansas: The Beat Generation in the Heartland


Allen Ginsberg & William S. Burroughs
Last Public Appearance
November 2, 1996
Lawrence, KS

Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, photographed November 2, 1996, Spencer Museum of Art, KU, Lawrence, Kansas; Ports of Entry art exhibit. Their last public appearance together. George Kaull, Burroughs' friend, in background. Copyright 1996, George Laughead

Beat writers Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs photographed at their last public appearance together, November 2, 1996, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. George Kaull, a friend of William Burroughs, in background.
© 1996, George Laughead

"William [Burroughs] had his Ports of Entry art display sometime later at the Spencer Museum, and I went to the reception. William insisted that I sit at the table between him and Allen Ginsberg. It was noisy as hell and he kept talking to me but I couldn't make out half of what he was talking about. Some of his first plywood paintings with the bullet holes and spray paint were on display, along with a lot of his other art, and artwork about him. His stuff looked pretty damn good. A reporter from the Kansas City Star asked me what William and I talked about, and I told him, 'Well, he mumbles and I can't hear,' so that's about it." George Kaull, sculptor, artist, gun enthusiast, and good friend of William Burroughs, November 1996



Also see: "Shooting Joan Burroughs" Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs at home, Lawrence, 1997. UFOs and Joan Vollmer Burroughs death.


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Photograph © 1996, page © 2004, George Laughead Jr. Page posted: 15 Jan 2004. Hosted at WWW-Virtual Library @ www.vlib.us