The Exterminator

First published by the Auerhahn Press in 1960, this is the second edition of The Exterminator, this time published by Dave Haselwood Books with different colors on covers, & a slightly larger format. (Maynard & Miles, A4(b) p. 22) One of 1000 copies. Not to be confused with the more common book in the Burroughs canon known as just Exterminator!, this is an early & very important collaboration between William S. Burroughs & Bryan Gysin. They both contribute texts & Gysin provides calligraphic illustrations, including on the covers. "In The Exterminator pieces of [William Burroughs'] earlier writing, magazine and newspaper articles, headlines and catch-phrases of the day are cut-up, scrambled and thrown at the reader, or rather, sprayed at him in the same way a machinegun sprays its target." "The effect is like being turned loose in someones unconscious; the manifestations are various but they all carry the quality of one man. Brion Gysin contributed the poems and calligraphs which finally "rub out the word".