Many readers have a story about how they first encountered Naked Lunch. I had heard about it via Hour 25, a science fiction show on KPFK. I had also heard about Burroughs via Saturday Night Live, when he went on to read some excerpts. I didn't see it the first time, but caught it in reruns.
I wish I could say I knew what he was talking about, but I didn't. I was intrigued by the cadence of his delivery, and the fact he was this wrinkled old man talking into the microphone.
What
http://www.openculture.com/2012/02/william_s_burroughs_on_saturday_night_live_1981.html
The book was considered obscene, so the real first edition was put out by Olympia Press in France. The first US edition was published by Grove in 1962. The Grove edition was based on a manuscript Ginsberg had.
I bought my copy in the 1980s, either in college, or just before college. I tried to read it, and it didn't make sense at all. I just veered from sentence to sentence. Some parts were funny, and, again, the cadence of the words kept me reading for a while.
This is a Grove first edition of the book.
For sale at: http://www.ebay.com/itm/263897550214
