One of the events at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival paired two biographers:  Adam Begley and William Burroughs biographer Barry Miles.

Nick Major posted “EBIF2014: Adam Begley on Updike and Barry Miles on Burroughs” as a guest blogger—a summary of the presentation and a reminder, perhaps, that comparative studies need not always be of kindred spirits.

“The discussion chopped and changed between talk of Burroughs and Updike,” he writes. “It was almost a real-life replica of Burroughs’ famous cut-up technique of writing novels. Although it was thankfully told in plain English and only the occasional sentence was sliced in two. Updike was from a poor background. Burroughs came from wealth. Updike went to Harvard. So did Burroughs. Updike went on to work for The New Yorker. Burroughs became a heroin addict. Updike quit The New Yorker to become a full time novelist. Burroughs quit the country after a game of William Tell went wrong and he killed his wife, Joan Vollmer. Updike ‘never broke any laws.’ Burroughs made his own laws.

“Begley shadowed Updike as a journalist in the mid-1990s. Burroughs invited Miles to catalogue his archives in 1972. . . . It was a woefully small audience that were fortunate enough to hear these two biographers talk about their subjects in such fine detail. It was a shame such fascinating insights found so few ears. Most of those present were there out of an interest in Updike, so the last words should go to that notoriously generous reviewer who ‘took in the entire globe as a critic.’ Responding to Burroughs’ Port of Saints Updike wrote: ‘claptrap, but murderous claptrap and for that we owe it respect.'”

Here’s the full article.