''Interzone'' is a collection of short stories and other early works by William S. Burroughs from 1953 to 1958. The collection was first published by

Viking Penguin Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...

in 1989, although several of the stories had already been printed elsewhere, including an earlier publication titled ''Early Routines''. The title was inspired by the

International Zone An international zone is any area not fully subject to the border control policies of the state in which it is located. There are several types of international zones ranging from special economic zones and sterile zones at ports of entry exe ...

Tangiers Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...

, Morocco, where Burroughs lived for a time and by which he was greatly influenced. A notable inclusion is "Twilight's Last Gleamings", written in 1938 in collaboration with childhood friend Kells Elvins, and widely thought to be Burroughs' first attempt at fiction. The villain of the piece, Doctor Benway, was to play a pivotal role in ''

Naked Lunch ''Naked Lunch'' (sometimes ''The Naked Lunch'') is a 1959 novel by American writer William S. Burroughs. The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes, intended by Burroughs to be read in any order. The reader follows the na ...

''. (This story differs from another Burroughs piece titled "Twilight's Last Gleamings," which was published in the 1970s collection, '' Exterminator!''.) ''Interzone'' features many characters and concepts that would manifest themselves in ''

'', ''

Nova Express ''Nova Express'' is a 1964 novel by American author William S. Burroughs. It was written using the 'fold-in' method, a version of the cut-up method, developed by Burroughs with Brion Gysin, of enfolding snippets of different texts into the novel ...

'' and others. At one point, Interzone was considered as a title for ''

''. Moreover, the concluding section entitled "WORD" was part of the original ''

'' manuscript but was cut during the editing process (according to the introduction by editor

James Grauerholz James Grauerholz (born December 14, 1953) is a writer and editor. He is the bibliographer and literary executor of the estate of William S. Burroughs. Life and career Grauerholz was born in Coffeyville, Kansas and attended the University of Kans ...

). Several of the short pieces were adapted into other media. Burroughs recorded the stories " The Junky's Christmas" and "Spare Ass Annie," which were set to music and released on the album '' Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales''. " The Junky's Christmas" was also adapted as an animated film in the 1990s.

The book is divided into three sections:

Part 1: Stories

# Twilight's Last Gleamings (a different piece from the one in the earlier collection, '' Exterminator!'') # The Finger # Driving Lesson # The Junky's Christmas # Lee and the Boys # In the Cafe Central # Dream of the Penal Colony # International Zone

Part 2: Lee's Journals

# Lee's Journals # An Advertising Short for Television # Antonio the Portuguese Mooch # Displaced Fuzz # Spare Ass Annie # The Dream Cops # The Conspiracy # Iron Wrack Dream # Ginsberg Notes (a reference to

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

)

Part 3: WORD

As noted above, this is a novella-length story that was originally part of the ''Naked Lunch'' manuscript when it was entitled ''Interzone''.

References

1989 short story collections Short story collections by William S. Burroughs Books published posthumously Viking Press books Novels set in Tangier {{William S. Burroughs

Contents

Part 1: Stories

Part 2: Lee's Journals

Part 3: WORD

References