Co-written in 1945 by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks deals with the event that gave the Beat writer group its notoriety: the stabbing of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr. The Telegraph writes:
Carr served two years after admitting manslaughter, claiming Kammerer had been obsessed with him and had become violent.
Carr confessed to Kerouac and Burroughs, who helped him dispose of the knife but did not go to police. Kerouac was arrested as an accessary to the killing in 1944 and was put in a Bronx jail but he was freed after his girlfriend, Edie Parker, stood bail.
Burroughs was arrested but escaped incarceration after his father put up bail.
The book's publication will be a cause célèbre, given the enduring appeal of the authors. It is understood legal wranglings within the Kerouac estate are the reason it has not been published before, although neither writer was keen for that to happen. In a documentary Burroughs described it as "not a distinguished work".
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