THURSDAY,APRIL24,2003
COVER STORY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 9
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provided a source of entertainment and humor to those who spent time with him.
"He was enormously entertaining, lively and conversational," Ohle said. "He had been all over the world and knew almost anything."
Ohle said Burroughs might have had as many as two or three visitors a week, and described Burroughs as generous with his time, even when visitors showed up on his doorstep unannounced.
Burroughs' knowledgeable, interesting personality drew hundreds of visitors from across the globe.
Inspiration Through the Arts
Burroughs was constantly reading something, Ohle said, and this was one of the reasons he was so knowledgeable in many areas.
"He had a prodigious photographic memory," he said. "He cited long passages from Shakespeare from memory and read every day for hours and hours, anything from trash novels to Shakespeare. He could recite passages from almost anything he had ever read."
Burroughs also painted while he lived in Lawrence, but like his writing, his techniques varied from the norm.
McCrary, a Lawrence resident who also works for William Burroughs Communications, said Burroughs had disliked using paintbrushes to create his artwork.
"He used spatulas, plungers, suction cups and mushrooms—all kinds of different things," McCrary said of his friend. "He said he didn't like to plan what he painted, he just applied paint to the canvas and stepped back and looked for something to appear."
Propst remembered one example of Burroughs' untraditional painting technique in particular.
"William shot an aerosol paint can with a gun, and the paint can, as it discharged the compressed product, chased him around the yard," Propst said.
Propst said Burroughs ran around the backyard screaming, covered in red paint.
Supporting a Legacy
After Grauerholz met Burroughs, he began working for him and formed William Burroughs Communications, a company he still manages out of Lawrence.
The company used to work out of a home on Almira Avenue, but the house is now owned by Joanna Harader.
"It's a kind of a cheerful house for some of his works," Harader said. "If you read
Contributed art
Two paintings by William S. Burroughs.
his writing, you might expect doom and gloom."
Grauerholz is working on a detailed biography of Burroughs' life, which he said he didn't expect to be finished for a couple of years.
Grauerholz said his focus would be on the least-known period of Burroughs' life -up until Burroughs met friends such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg at Columbia University in New York at about age 30.
The working title for the biography is Pilgrim on the Earth named for one of Burroughs' favorite works, a novella by Julian Green.
Grauerholz was instrumental in organizing and directing the publication of
"William shot an aerosol paint can with a gun, and the paint can, as it discharged the compressed product, chased him around the yard."
Wayne Propst Personal friend of William S. Burroughs
Burroughs' last works, including Last Words, a compilation of Burroughs' journals written during the last nine months of his life.
Burroughs toured extensively throughout his life. His last trip away from Lawrence was to Los Angeles, to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the summer of 1996.
Burroughs traveled to see the opening of "Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts," an exhibit that was retrospective of his career. The exhibit was brought to the Spencer Museum of Art at the University in November 1996.
Propst said Burroughs had thought Lawrence residents were naive, but despite the naiveté, Burroughs enjoyed the laid-back, hassle-free life he was able to lead in Lawrence.
Although his friends agreed Burroughs influenced the lives of his friends and any students or Lawrence residents who took time to get to know him, they agreed he did not have a large impact on most Lawrence residents.
"Fame destroys a person's personal life enormously," he said. "Most people were aware he's famous and admired him, but they still treated him like a person. He was able to be seen as a person instead of a celebrity."
"I don't think Lawrence as a whole cared much as to whether he was here or not," McCrary said. "He wasn't a very visible part of the city. The people he knew, he had an impact on them. I think people would like to think Lawrence is more liberal because Burroughs lived here, but I don't think that's the case."
Why Lawrence?
Many people could not understand why Burroughs would choose to live in Lawrence as he grew into old age, Grauerholz said.
But he said one of the features about Lawrence that attracted Burroughs most was his ability to live a quiet peaceful life within a circle of close friends.
— Edited by Melissa Hermreck