The Three Wives of Queer William S. Burroughs

In 2026, Beatdom Books will publish Thomas Antonic’s The Three Wives of Queer William S. Burroughs.

Synopsis

Although he was openly homosexual, the Beat writer William S. Burroughs married three women. Famously, he married the first of them, Ilse Herzfeld, to help her escape Nazi persecution, but almost nothing was known about her except an assortment of assumptions and exaggerations. Perhaps the most consequential act of his life was the accidental killing of another wife, Joan Vollmer, in 1951, but again her life has been poorly documented. His third marriage remained entirely unknown until 2025…

The Three Wives of Queer William S. Burroughs digs deep into the lives of these three women and explains how they came to marry Burroughs. It takes us through the Weimar Republic and the anti-fascist struggles in Europe of the 1930s and 1940s, then through New York, Texas, Louisiana, and Mexico, exploring the lives of dozens of fascinating characters. It is based on an astounding volume of research and no small amount of luck, and is presented as an investigative narrative of a researcher’s constant struggle with myth, hearsay, and the absences of archival data due to the horrors of World War II.

About the Author

Thomas Antonic is the author of Amongst Nazis: William S. Burroughs in Vienna 1936/37 and the editor of ruth weiss: Beat Poetry, Jazz, Art. You can read more about him here.

Praise for the Book

“Whatever you thought you knew about Burroughs’ life before he became a published writer, Thomas Antonic will make you think again. And this isn’t just a book of meticulous archival scholarship and great detective work, it’s also an exhilarating journey down the rabbit holes of research itself that shows the reader how it’s done. He has shown the way, let others follow!”

–Oliver Harris, Professor of American Literature at Keele University, President of the European Beat Studies Network, and the world’s leading Burroughs scholar

“Like a Beat Studies Philip Marlowe, Thomas Antonic takes the reader sleuthing down false leads, dead ends, and shocking discoveries. This deep-dive examination of William S. Burroughs’s wives, their fascinating backgrounds, their wonderful and strange relatives and acquaintances, and their never-before-unearthed secrets, changes our understanding of the iconoclastic author. The lives of Burroughs’s first wife, Ilse Herzfeld, and the love-of-her-life first husband, Heinrich Klapper, are beautifully brought to life for the first time—as well as the breathtaking revelation of a heretofore unknown third wife! If you thought there wasn’t much more to learn about Burroughs, be prepared to have that notion disabused.”

–Kurt Hemmer, Professor of English at Harper College, IL, President of the Beat Studies Association, author of numerous essays on the Beat Generation

“Long encapsulated under one banner, William S. Burroughs’ biography is enlarged thanks to Thomas Antonic’s intuitive, meticulous, research. Yes, the American writer who accidentally shot his wife in a William Tell routine in Mexico City following a trip to South America in search of yage, and the favors of a younger man, had a complicated relationship with women—and in fact, was married to three. Eschewing a chronological approach, Antonic tells all three stories, even the most sensational one left shadowy in most accounts, with finesse and flair following his own research processes. The larger picture not only illuminates Burroughs’ private world and the obstacles to telling it truly till now, but about the bureaucratic, historic imperatives of the times in which he lived and made art.”

–Regina Weinreich, NYC-based Beat Studies veteran, author, critic, filmmaker, teacher and scholar of the Beat Generation

“In The Three Wives of Queer William S. Burroughs, Thomas Antonic leaves the beaten path of scholarship on the Weimar Republic and brings to life a cast of historical figures—some known and some lesser-known—who lived during Germany’s 1920s and its perilous aftermath. Rather than confining the narrative to familiar academic frameworks, he uncovers biographies and life stories that begin in Berlin and traverse Western and Eastern Europe and the United States. What makes this study particularly compelling is not just its scope, but the vividness with which these individuals are rendered—their lives unfolding against a backdrop of growing instability and violence. The book ultimately leaves the reader in awe of the rigorous archival work and narrative precision that underpin it, combining meticulous research with a storyteller’s instinct for drama and detail.”

–Barbara Kosta, Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson, expert and author of several books on the Weimar Republic

“Thomas Antonic’s excavation of the history of Ilse Herzfeld Klapper, and her insufficiently known marriage to William Burroughs in 1937, invites genuine applause. The research is meticulous, a life-story that embraces affluent Jewish birth in Hanover, escape from Nazi-era Europe, New York residence, return to Europe, and her activities as writer-artist (and socialite) in her own considerable right. Burroughs’s generosity in aiding her out of danger, a gay man younger than she, remains a badge of honour. Antonic’s further situating of Herzfeld in a latitude with Burroughs’s two other wives, adds to what makes this book a simply compelling read.”

–A. Robert Lee, Emeritus Professor of American Literature at Nihon University in Tokyo, author of The Beat Generation Writers and Modern American Counter Writing: Beats, Outriders, Ethnics, and editor of the Routledge Handbook of International Beat Literature

Pre-Order

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