This year marks the 50th anniversary of the original publication of Naked Lunch, by William S Burroughs. Given the book's ongoing influence it goes without saying that this is a significant milestone. However, when the book first appeared in Paris in 1959 (mistitled as The Naked Lunch) on the small Olympia Press, it had little impact. Because of this, perhaps a more important anniversary is that of the novel's first US publication in 1962. For that's when Burroughs's controversial drug-and-sex-fuelled classic truly burst into the limelight, both because it was recognised by large numbers of critics and readers as a breakthrough piece of literature and also because of a series of obscenity trials it inspired. More
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