332 p. Audience: General/trade; General/trade. protective cover over dust jacket. FIRST EDITION.

332 p. Audience: General/trade; General/trade. protective cover over dust jacket. FIRST EDITION.

332 p.

332 p.

Signed by William S. Burroughs in black ink on half-title page. A fine copy

Signed by William S. Burroughs in black ink on half-title page. A fine copy of the first printing hardcover in jacket. xviii, 332 pages. Fantasy novel involving the Spanish conquest of the New World (among other topics). 'First Edition' and number line from 1 to 2 on title page verso. William S. Burroughs (1914-97) was born in the Midwest, and graduated from Harvard with an art degree in 1936. He was often a rascal, notorious for his addiction to heroin, and the shooting of his wife at a party in Mexico (the so-called 'William Tell' incident). He'd worked and played in Vienna, Paris, London, Tangiers, Chicago, Mexico, and New York before finally retiring to Lawrence, Kansas in the 1990s, where he died. He stood the literary establishment on its ear in 1959 with the publication of his Beat classic Naked Lunch. During the 1980s, Burroughs combined his predilection for firearms with his desire to paint. His 'gunshot paintings' were nearly as controversial in the art world as Naked Lunch had been in the literary world decades earlier. Decorative Title Page, Headpieces and Endpapers (brown/black/white).