?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800
Burroughs, William S. (1914-1997) & Maurice Helbrant. Junkie/Narcotic Agent.
New York: Ace Double Books, 1953.
First edition, two paperback pulp novels (with an abridged version of Maurice Helbrant's Narcotic Agent) bound back-to-back with lurid covers printed in color, a very nice example, published under Burroughs's pen name William Lee; with some very slight surface wear, and minor superficial creases, nicely preserved, 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 in.
Originally titled "Junk", Ace Books renamed the work "Junkie" without consulting Burroughs or his agent at the time, Allen Ginsberg, to avoid associating the work with any notions of poor-quality writing and added the subtitle "Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict." Burroughs himself was reliant on opium throughout its conception, though he refers to his drug use in the past tense as he had quit using heroine and other substances preceding its publication. At the time, he did not believe opium to be an addictive narcotic. Ace Books also decided to bind Junkie back-to-back with Helbrant's Narcotic Agent, without consulting Burroughs, which he deemed, "an appalling idea," for obvious reasons.
