The Wild Boys (1971) Signed First Edition Reference

The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead is Burroughs’s transitional novel between the radical cut-up experiments of the Nova Trilogy and the more accessible narrative fiction of his later career. Published by Grove Press in 1971, it envisions a future in which gangs of homosexual guerrilla boys roam the earth, destroying the institutions of control — governments, religions, corporations — through a combination of violence, sexuality, and the manipulation of reality itself.

The Novel

The wild boys are Burroughs’s most utopian creation — warriors who have transcended conventional human limitations through a technology of desire that fuses sexuality, combat, and consciousness into a single revolutionary praxis. The novel’s imagery is both seductive and disturbing, and its vision of liberation through destruction connects to the counterculture’s more radical currents.

The book marks the beginning of Burroughs’s return to more conventional narrative techniques, though it retains cut-up passages and non-linear sequences. It is more accessible than the Nova Trilogy but more experimental than the later Red Night trilogy.

First Edition Identification

Publisher: Grove Press, New York Publication date: 1971 Copyright page: First printing per Grove convention

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed first edition, fine/fine: $500–$1,500
• Inscribed copies: $700–$2,000
• Unsigned first edition, fine/fine: $75–$200

A mid-range Burroughs collectible that represents an important transitional moment in his career. Signed copies are available at reasonable prices.