The Naked Lunch

Paris: The Olympia Press, 1959. First edition, first issue with the original price of "Francs 1500" (later issues have a "18NF" price sticker). Signed and inscribed by the author on the title page: "For David / William Burroughs". Original publisher's green wrappers; original purple and white pictorial dust jacket designed by the author. Book near fine, with some minor rubbing to the spine ends, former owner's inscription to the front flyleaf, bright and clean pages; unclipped dust jacket, with some light wear and small nicks to the spine ends, light toning to the spine, fresh panels. Overall, a bright and pleasing copy, inscribed by Burroughs.

The Naked Lunch was first published in Paris as part of The Olympia Press' The Traveller's Companion series, which included other literary classics like Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (1955) and Henry Miller's Quiet Days in Clichy (1956), among others. The Olympia Press was well known for its liberal selection of literature; many English-speaking authors published their books with Olympia in Paris after being rejected by other publishing houses. Even so, Olympia's publisher Maurice Girdoias did not initially want to publish the racy The Naked Lunch, but changed his mind after selections from the novel appeared in literary magazines, including The Chicago Review. The chapters in The Naked Lunch are a series of vignettes, intended to be read independently of one another, that follow drug addict William Lee as he travels to a variety of locations; each story is loosely based on Burroughs' own experiences with drugs in these locations. As John Ciardi commented in his June 27, 1959 review for The Saturday Review, "what Burroughs is writing about is not only the destruction of depraved men by their drug lust, but the destruction of all men by their consuming addictions, whether the addiction be drugs or overrighteous propriety, lasciviousness or sixteen-year-old girls."