ST. LOUIS — Even sober, William S. Burroughs had visions.
As a young child, he saw a green reindeer the size of a cat. Another time, he woke to see tiny men scrambling among his building blocks, he said.
“He was one of those children who never really got over the magical kingdom. Part of him stayed there,” says biographer Barry Miles.
Burroughs’ kingdom, literally speaking, began in a comfortable house in the Central West End of St. Louis, at 4664 Pershing Avenue (known as “Berlin Avenue” before World War I). Later, the family would flee the smoggy city for the suburb of Ladue.
Over his life, Burroughs traveled much of the world and found myriad substances to induce more visions and dreams, which he recorded in books or used as inspiration for art of one kind or another.