Naked Lunch Filmscript and Correspondence [J:531]

This massive group of manuscript drafts of a filmscript for Burroughs' novel, The Naked Lunch, consists of some 11 separate portfolios and notebooks, including approximately 100 pp. of Burroughs' typescript, heavily corrected by both Burroughs and Brion Gysin, as well as literally thousands of pages of MS inn Brion Gysin's holograph and typescript of various drafts for the film project.

During the period in the early 70s when Antony Balch, Brion Gysin and William Burroughs, who first met at the Beat Hotel on the rue Gi Le Coeur, Paris, all had apartments at 17 Duke Street, Saint James, London, a great deal of time and energy was spent on producing a treatment for Naked Lunch. Balch had originally filmed Burroughs and Gysin in Towers Open Fire (filmed in 1961-1963 at the Beat Hotel in Paris) and Cut Ups (filmed in 1964-1967, in Tangier, Paris, London and the Hotel Chelsea, New York).

The idea for making a film of The Naked Lunch was initiated by Burroughs and Gysin in 1971, and most of the manuscript materials in these files date from 1971-1972 in London. The film, for a variety of reasons, was never produced, and therefore ALL the materials contained in these massive files remain unpublished.

A company called Friendly Films was set up, owned by Burroughs, Balch and Gysin to make the film, but the project was never realized. Their friend Felicity Mason got involved to give advice. Burroughs moved from London to New York City where Balch ran errands for him, dealt with his ex-boyfriends, etc. Brion Gysin wrote the film-script, with the considerable involvement of Burroughs, and on the basis of this, Antony Balch produced a set of storyboards which are in the Antony Balch Collection offered for sale Water Row Books, in 1990.

The storyboards consisted of four volumes, each 14" x 12", containing drawings of every scene in the film, with details of panning and zooms and other action. The drawings are in color, done in felt-tip pen, and mostly feature William Burroughs himself as the main character of the story.

Included among the ASU Burrough's Collection materials are a letter from Anthony Balch to Brion Gysin, October 12, 1973, all of Burroughs' letters to Brion Gysin about the project, all of Gysin's replies (all in Gysin's holograph), together with an 80,000 word first draft screenplay by Burroughs (typed) with literally thousands of corrections and emendations in both authors' hands.

Gysin's 75,000-85,000 word second draft manuscript of the screenplay, which entirely revised the sequence of events in the original novel by Burroughs, and which apparently had Burroughs' approval (indeed in one of Burroughs' letters to Gysin, he claims that he has discovered a better ending for this landmark novel, through his work on the filmscript, and he intends to adopt this ending in some future publication of The Naked Lunch).

Two files containing about 600 pp. of combined typescript and xeroxes of earlier drafts of the typescript, with numerous holograph alterations mostly in Gysin's hand, but with comments and suggestions in Burroughs' hand.

In Box 6: Three large ring binder notebooks, each containing some 125-150 pp. of typescript and xeroxes of earlier versions of the manuscript, one bearing massive corrections in Gysin's and Burroughs' hands.

Various other portfolios with other drafts, notes, correspondence regarding the project, manuscript drafts of prospectuses for the film, advertisement manuscript copy, and so forth.

Altogether this group of files amounts to well over 175,000-200,000 words, entirely unpublished, and reveals a complete collaborative effort between Burroughs and his closest friend and fellow novelist, Brion Gysin. The Naked Lunch filmscript remains a project close to Burrough's heart, one which he would like to see produced, and this group of manuscript files is the only (and complete) extant record of the project. An extraordinarily important group of manuscripts. All in the original folders and binders, each individually marked with notes in Burroughs' hand.