By Michael Hooper
LAWRENCE, Kan. -- The biggest names in the Beat movement are William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
All three are dead, but there is still a fire behind the beat movement throughout America, Europe, Asia and Kansas, driven largely by the continued popularity of On The Road by Jack Kerouac, Naked Lunch by William Burroughs and Howl by Allen Ginsberg.
The Beat movement started in the 1940s and took off in the 1950s as a rebellion against conformity; it evolved into the hippy movement and counter culture movement of the 1960s and 70s. The Beat movement's ideas of anti-war, civil rights, eastern spiritualist and pro-legalization of marijuana were picked up by other movements.
The death of James Grauerholz, 73, of Lawrence, in early 2026 has left the William Burroughs' literary estate in transition. Grauerholz was the longtime business manager for Burroughs and his literary executor after his death in 1997. In 2014, I met Grauerholz at the Lawrence Arts Center for the debut of a biography of William Burroughs by Barry Miles.
Grauerholz and Burroughs by Jon Blumb
Miles, a longtime friend of Burroughs, credited Grauerholz for much of the research for Call Me Burroughs. This article contains information from that 635-page book, plus interviews with friends of Burroughs in Lawrence.
Burroughs had been living in New York, but got addicted to heroin again in the late 1970s.
It was Grauerholz who convinced Burroughs to move to Lawrence in 1981. He could get methadone in nearby Kansas City on a regular basis.
Burroughs once said he moved to Lawrence so that he could go shooting and keep cats.
In 1983 Burroughs bought a bungalow at 1927 Learnard in southeast Lawrence for $28,000. It was on an acre of wooded ground on a quiet street. The house was built in 1929 from a Sears Roebuck kit.
Grauerholz helped Burroughs edit several books and articles over the years. He also introduced Burroughs to his friends.
One of Grauerholz’s friends is Wayne Propst. Propst took Burroughs out to visit the Propst farm home when Burroughs was thinking of getting a place in Lawrence. Burroughs said, "I’ll bet you five dollars I can hit that stock over there," pointing at a small dried ragweed stock about 20 feet away. Propst said, "I'm in." Burroughs drew his pistol, focused, and then fired. The stock fell in two parts. Burroughs turned to Propst and said pay up with his fingers. Propst was a little surprised that this famous writer would expect him to pay up but said "oh yeah" and handed over the five dollars.
I purchased a sledgehammer painting from Wayne Propst displayed at the Cider Gallery in 2018. We consummated the deal at the Bourgeois Pig. Propst recently celebrated his 80th birthday and still is producing art.
Michael Hooper with Wayne Propst and his art at the Cider Gallery
Burroughs was famous and attracted all kinds of characters. Propst said one time a drunken Indian showed up at the Burroughs house, saying he had heard this is where the party is. Burroughs said no, the party is at a house down the street. What Burroughs didn't tell him was the occupant of that house is a sheriff's deputy.
Grauerholz introduced Bill Rich to Burroughs. Miles wrote, "Rich was a major force in the punk and post punk scene in Lawrence, managing and producing and playing with local bands." He edited and published music magazine Talk Talk in 1979-81, interviewing Iggy Pop, Billy Idol and William Burroughs. Rich became one of Burroughs' assistants, driving him around and cooking meals, Miles wrote. Rich is still alive living in Lawrence.
Jon Blumb, 69, of Lawrence met Burroughs around 1986 when Burroughs wanted photographs of his art. Blumb took numerous photos of his art and Burroughs himself. Blumb created a significant archive of Burroughs from 1986 to 1997. Burroughs died at age 83 in 1997.
Blumb said Burroughs would shoot a wooden board and then paint it. Or he might paint it first and then shoot it. He shot spray cans that would blow up, with paint shooting onto an object.
Burroughs was highly productive and his art gained in popularity.
"It was well received," Blumb said in an interview with me. "The people of Lawrence were nice to him. He was well regarded. It was a great idea that James moved him here."
Grauerholz left the literary estate in the hands of the Nova Foundation.The board of directors of the Nova Foundation is currently making an inventory of the Burroughs' estate, including old manuscripts, letters, books, art and photographs. Blumb is taking photographs of WSB art for the inventory. Once up and running, the archive will be available to scholars seeking to do research on the Beats and Burroughs. The author also was a prodigious photographer so there are lots of old photos of different periods of his life.
Blumb said he could see this archive as a great resource for a graduate student of literature or art.
Blumb said there is a new movie out about the Beats called Nova '78, about the Nova Convention in NYC, which included Burroughs along with Patti Smith, Frank Zappa and Allen Ginsberg. They collided in an explosion of ideas, art and rebellion, said imbd.com.
One of Grauerholz's last projects, maybe his Mona Lisa, was an anthology of his work as a musician. His talent as a musician took backstage to his commitment to the art and artists around him. As Burroughs' Business Manager Grauerholz toured the world celebrating writers, musicians, and artists. This record is a collection of Grauerholz's musical expression over three decades.
I met Ginsberg in the early 1990s at a bookstore in Lincoln, Neb. He took an interest in my regional reporting work, seemed genuinely sincere and kind, drew a flower and signed my book that he had authored. I wonder what he would say today, now that 40 states have legal medical marijuana and 24 states have legal recreational marijuana. We have much to thank for the efforts of Ginsberg and others who pushed for legalization decades before it happened.
Another person in Lawrence who became friends with Burroughs is Jim McCrary. In an email to me, he said, he has a letter from Ginsberg to him in Lawrence in the late 60's "where we talked about starting a legalize marijuana group."
"I worked with James and WSB for a decade and saw Willliam on almost a daily basis," McCrary wrote. "Traveled with him to NYC to visit his friend Paul Bowles in the 90's and to LA for the opening of his show at LA Musuem of Art (met David Hockney and some kid named Leo who came with my buddy S. Clay Wilson. Leo's father was a distributor of Zap Comics in SF....Leo was actually Leo DiCaprio but we had no idea. Nor did William."
Paul Bowles, Burroughs, McCrary
McCrary said Kansas City and Wichita were more Beat than Lawrence in the early days.
"Wichita in late 50's and 60's was home to counter culture far more advanced, if you can call it that," McCrary wrote in an email to me. "Was a lot going on.......jazz clubs, beat bars, a place called The Beanery and a place called The Black Out were notable. Writers like Charlie Plymell, Mike McClure, Allen Ginsberg came through. There was a big hot rod scene as well...pre beat influence. KC of course had the jazz scene wrapped up in prewar US for sure and leftovers of that scene were alive and well in 60's. Ginsberg's poem Entering KC High ends with him going into a queer nightclub bar on Main Street of KC. Was quite a publication to come out of Lawrence promoting a drug fueled trip by a queer poet to Kansas."
McCrary said he came to Lawrence in 1965, said he "Met up with crowd around Abington Bookstore which included John Fowler, George Kimball, Rob Rusk, Lee Chapman (her brother was in band The Blue Things at the time) and S Clay Wilson who came down from Lincoln, Neb. High times indeed."
McCrary said, "There had been a 'beat' coffee shop in Lawrence for a while and there was a basement venue called The Firey Furnance where poets like Bob Creeley read by candlelight. Allen Ginsberg did come and do his thing at the Union chanting East Indian mantras. Nobody I knew called themselves beat. This was before summer of love so no hippies either. People were "freaks", "heads" as in pot heads or "stoned."
"Eventually Lawrence became hippy center for parts of Midwest," McCrary wrote. "All that went on. Not the laid back literary beat stuff...but maybe some influence. I don't think the shared living commune stuff was influenced by the Beats so much. Sure, use of drugs and hippies took that further than beats due to fact that drugs were more and better. The Beats were a lot more egocentric and nothing wrong with that...... Here in Lawrence the hippy thing took a turn towards outlaw lifestyle in a sense for a while and then a lot of that turned into alternate lifestyle business like leather shops, head shops, candle shops, veggie food shops, jewelry shops, Army surplus shops, stained glass shops and cafes and restaurants all of which in early 70's started a change in Lawrence from a ag based downtown to something else."
One thing locals miss is the energy associated with Grauerholz and Burroughs, the two created and attracted all kinds of interesting people.
In July 1996, the show, Points of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts, a solo Burroughs show, with 150 items at the Los Angeles Museum. The show came to the University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Arts Oct. 26. That show was combined with the Nova Convention Revisited: William S. Burroughs and the Arts.
Deborah Harry, Chris Stein, Michael Stipe, Patti Smith, John Giorno and Philip Glass -- all came to Lawrence for this big event. My friend Jonathan Hummer said he met several of these stars when he working at the Eldridge Hotel at the time of the show.
Robert Ruden, a longtime drug addict/Menninger patient who lived in Topeka until he died in 2015, said he went to Lawrence for the Nova Convention; Ruden was at the Eldridge Hotel, when Michael Stipe "was carrying on about the artistic process. I told him to shut the fuck up. I'm trying to have a conversation with my Uncle Stanley (Grinstein)."
Some critics say the Beats were misogynistic, women cleaned up after the men, who were always out partying and running around. The modern American man who is fully conscious is supportive of women's rights. So in a way the Beats are outdated. Yet, I have to believe the Beat's adventurous spirit as a rebellion against conformity is still alive today.
The people protesting President Donald Trump's war in Iran and his ICE agents locking up and deporting immigrants is very much a part of the rebellion against conformity, against hate.
The Beats of Kansas are alive but getting older yet still attracting young people, when they get themselves a copy of On The Road, Naked Lunch or Howl. Naked Lunch is a wicked yet funny read. Howl is still relevant today, Ginsberg's line -- "Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money!" -- reminds me of the algorithms of Wall Street. Moloch is the modern money machine.
The Beats. Don't discount them just because the founders are dead. There is a giant archive of hilarity, absurdity, profundity, hedonism, artistic expression, wanderlust and tragedy.
