Nova Express

William S. Burroughs. First edition, first printing (stated). New York: Grove Press, 1964. Red cloth with black lettering to spine, in original illustrated, unclipped dust jacket. A 1966 Nebula nominee. No writing or markings in this well preserved book, 187 pp. Dust jacket designed by Roy Kulhman.

A first printing, one of 10,000 copies, that was released after Naked Lunch. This the third installment in Burroughs' Nova Trilogy, preceded by the Soft Machine and the Ticket That Exploded. Burroughs considered the trilogy a "sequel" or "mathematical" continuation of Naked Lunch.

"A novel of future violence and corruption, in which the anarchic Nova Mob descends like the Furies on hapless humankind, while the Nova police try to match them" The nova mob attempts to take over the Earth, in a 'hallucinatory interplanetary cops and robbers game.' Horrific, fragmentary and very funny in its ghastly way, this book about drug addiction and other forms of manipulation.

"Burroughs led a volatile life. Expelled from high school for taking Chloral Hydrate. Studied art at Harvard where he became involved in the gay subculture of New York City. He then travelled to Europe, married a Jewish woman to help her flee the Nazis. Divorced. Enlisted in the army but got a discharge when not made an officer. Moved in with Kerouac, became addicted to morphine, sold heroin in Greenwich Village to support his habit. He was living with Joan Vollmer, divorced from her GI husband after he found out about her addiction on returning from the war. Burroughs was arrested for various drug related crimes. Vollmer became his common law wife and they had a son. In 1951 Burroughs shot and killed Vollmer during a drunken game of 'William Tell' at a party in Mexico City. He spent 13 days in jail before the killing was ruled criminal."