Literary Pets: The Cats, Dogs, and Birds Famous Authors Loved

William S. Burroughs and his cat Ginger in the backyard of his home in Lawrence, Kansas

By Maria Popova

Twain and Bambino, Browning and Flush, Dickens and Grip, Hemingway and Uncle Willie, and more.

The wonderful recent Lost Cat memoir, one of my favorite books of the past few years, reminded me of how central, yet often unsuspected, a role pets have played in famous authors’ lives throughout literary history.

Cats have inspired Joyce’s children’s books, T. S. Eliot’s poetry, Gay Talese’s portrait of New York, and various literary satire, while dogs have fueled centuries of literature, philosophy and psychology, interactive maps, and some of the New Yorker’s finest literature and art. Gathered here are some of literary history’s most moving accounts of famous writers’ love for their pets, culled from a wealth of letters, journals, and biographies.

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Politically Incorrect Advice to the Young from William S. Burroughs, Remixed

 By Maria Popova

“Any old soul is worth saving at least to a priest, but not every soul is worth buying.”

It is in the tradition of every culture that its cultural icons would impart words of wisdom on its young. In ours, those have come from celebrated minds like E. O. Wilson’s advice to young scientists, Neil Gaiman’s advice to young artists, Jacqueline Novogratz’s advice to young graduates, and Christopher Hitchens’s advice to young contrarians. Joining them is William S. Burroughs with this deliciously remixed take on his famous, uncensored, and at times questionable advice to the young — which, if anything, underscores the importance of knowing when to and when not to take advice.

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Literary Outlaw

The troubled life of Queer writer William S. Burroughs, one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, is explored in an illuminating new documentary.

By Advocate Contributors

The cult author of such seminal works as Junkie and Naked Lunch is the subject of director Yony Leyser’s William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, a probing look at the writer who lived to tell about the extremes of drug and queer cultures. Leyser incorporates rare archival photos and interviews as well as new ones with luminaries like punk poet–singer Patti Smith (who admits to borrowing lyrics from him) and director Gus Van Sant (who cast Burroughs in Drugstore Cowboy for authenticity).       …read more