Ghost of Chance

''Ghost of Chance'' is a

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

. The story was first published in 1991 in a special limited edition by the Library Fellows of the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

; this was followed by a mass market hardcover edition in 1995 by

High Risk Books High Risk Books was a book publisher, founded in New York City in 1993 as an imprint of Serpent's Tail Press of London. It was started by Ira Silverberg and Amy Scholder who was then an editor at City Lights Books in San Francisco. Its titles wer ...

and a paperback edition published after Burroughs' death. The novella, primarily set in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, initially focuses on a character named Captain Mission, founder of the pirate colony

Libertatia Libertatia (also known as Libertalia) was a purported pirate colony founded in the late 17th century in Madagascar under the leadership of Captain James Misson (last name occasionally spelled "Mission", first name occasionally "Olivier"). The ma ...

, and is described on the back cover of the 1995 edition as being "an important story about environmental devastation." Following Mission's death in the narrative, the novella moves into the present day and tells of a series of deadly viruses that plague humankind, including one that causes people to believe they have the powers of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

and another that causes uncontrollable hair growth. The narrative also switches to discussing the real-life endangerment of

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 exist ...

s in Madagascar and the story ends with the author requesting readers donate to the

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

Primate Center. Burroughs' longtime collaborator Brion Gysin, who died several years before the book was published, is referenced by name several times, and the book includes a brief narrative segment that Burroughs had recorded for his 1990 album '' Dead City Radio'' under the title "Brion Gysin's All-Purpose Bedtime Story." 1991 American novels American novellas Novels by William S. Burroughs Novels set in Madagascar {{1990s-novel-stub