A Village Find: Junkie by William Lee ( William Burroughs )

 

 

Junkie by William Lee, Ace D-15, 1953. Front cover art 

by Al Rossi, taken in approximately 2004 

    Some books are valuable because of their rarity, some because of their condition, and some because of the name on the title page. But every once in a while, a book becomes special because of the story attached to it. My former copy of William Lee’s "Junkie" was one of those books that is "all of the above".

    I found it in Greenwich Village sometime in the 1980s, in the display case of a now-long-gone rare bookstore. The shop had the kind of atmosphere that made you want to linger. I would stop in from time to time, buy a vintage paperback or two, and talk with the owner. He was a real Village character and had wonderful stories about Greenwich Village, the Beats, writers, collectors, and the generations of book lovers who had passed through the neighborhood.

    He knew that I collected vintage paperbacks, and eventually our conversations turned to the possibility of trading. He had several interesting vintage paperbacks, including a signed copy of the "Junkie" Ace D-15 Double Novel, which I had been drooling over as it sat in his display case for quite a while.

 

 

Signed! by William Burroughs for William Lee 

    At the time, he was asking around $200 for it—a considerable sum for me. I simply couldn't afford to buy it outright. But the owner apparently decided that getting some cash flow going was more important than continuing to wait for someone willing to pay the asking price. I had a group of lower-value but particularly nice Ace science-fiction doubles that he thought he could sell more readily, and we eventually worked out a trade.

    And that's how I ended up with this copy. It was a win-win for both of us.

    A collection of relatively inexpensive Ace science-fiction doubles was transformed into one highly desirable copy of "Junkie". From my perspective, the trade effectively converted books I could part with into a book I could not otherwise dream of affording, and signed at that!

    From the bookseller's perspective, it converted a long-unsold display copy into a group of books that could potentially be sold individually at prices that more everyday collectors could handle.

    What makes it especially fun is that the books given in trade were themselves Ace Double science-fiction paperbacks. I didn't come to "Junkie" through the world of high-end literary collecting. I came to it through the humble world of horse-trading similar vintage genre paperbacks.

    Ace Doubles were designed around the basic proposition that two books could be packaged together for a single low price. Their covers became an important part of mid-century paperback culture, and their science-fiction, mystery, western, crime, and adventure titles developed substantial collecting communities. So there is a pleasing circularity in the story.

 

 

Flip side, with Narcotic Agent by Maurice Helbrant 

 The final turn of the circle: 

    Alas, the ending involved the final turn of the circle.  Life circumstances had me sell that copy in 2004 but at least Ebay was around, unlike when I sold the bulk of my original collection  for relative peanuts in the mid 1990's. I got a pretty penny for "Junkie" at the time, around $1,000 if I recall correctly. 

    It was soon after Burroughs passed away. I was starting a new life with my wife and a newborn daughter so the money was needed and there's usually never a better time to sell signed copies than when the signer passes away since the passing is newsworthy and collectors realize that there won't be any more copies legitimately signed. 

    When I started collecting again in the 2010's, of course I had to go back and acquire another copy of "Junkie". It pales in comparison to my original signed copy but, hey, at least I kept the photos to fawn over!

 

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