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William S. Burroughs —
The stone-faced grandson of inventor of Burroughs Ten Key Machine, William was destined to live his life according to his own rules where he strongly emphasized need for personal freedom and nonconformity.
Throughout his life, aside from writing, Burroughs never really seemed to work, since his endeavors were financed by his wealthy Midwestern family.
He was an intelligent bookworm who graduated from Harvard by studying literature and anthropology. William, who experimented with various lifestyles, was an avid gun fanatic and frequent drug user. He had a fascination with gangster underworld, and often when he was out in public, was sharply dressed in a business suit and fedora. In addition, he was a frontiersman who traveled extensively and lived on cutting edge of society everywhere from Chicago, Colombia, Morocco, Paris, London, New York, New Orleans, Mexico, and Texas, until he "retired" in Lawrence, Kansas in 1981.
As he traveled, he preferred to settle into a motel and use it as his base camp for writing some of his numerous often shocking and highly idiosyncratic books. Hence, his aforementioned quote about his creative spirit being unleashed while staying in a hotel room.
On a beautiful evening with a full moon slowly rising over low Desert Hot Springs sky, Kim and I pulled our MINI into barely identifiable, yet full hotel parking lot. The only building moniker, a small grouping of white letters saying, "Hotel" signified to us where we were.
The Beat Hotel is at end of a residential street and is surrounded by empty plots of land complete with natural desert landscaping. Upon ringing doorbell, we were warmly welcomed by owner/curator, Steve Lowe, and were given an extensive tour of his labor of love.
Throughout tour, Steve recalled numerous memories he had of William S. Burroughs from his years knowing him. He explained history of his extensive collection of Burroughs artwork, pictures, manuscripts, and memorabilia. As Steve departed us for evening, we were on overload from countless facts about godfather of Beat Generation. So, we dropped off our bags at our very hip room, and each grabbed a complimentary glass of wine from library and went perusing Beat Hotel's funky lounge, and outdoor pool area.
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Don and Kim Tatera, Jetsetters Magazine Editor – Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To book travel visit Jetstreams.com at www.jetstreams.com and for Beach Resorts visit Beach Booker at www.beachbooker.com
Kim and Don Tatera, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent. Join the Travel Writers Network in the logo at www.jetsettersmagazine.com