And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks (Penguin Modern Classics) - Softcover

As seen through the eyes of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, this is the gripping story behind the acclaimed film Kill Your Darlings, starring Daniel Radcliffe.

In 1944, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were charged as accessories to murder. One of their friends, Lucien Carr, had stabbed another, David Kammerrer. Carr had come to each of them and confessed; Kerouac helped him get rid of the weapon - neither told the police. For this failing they were arrested. Months later, the two writers - unpublished at the time - collaborated on And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a fictionalized account of the summer of the killing.

William S. Burroughs was born in 1914. His first published novel was the largely autobiographical Junky, which remains a classic depiction of drug dependency. He died in 1997.

Jack Kerouac was born in 1922. In 1947, he hitchhiked across America and wrote his most famous novel On the Road. He died in 1969.

'The true(ish) story that Burroughs and Kerouac tell is sleazy, raw and painfully close to the bone even by the standards of the Beats ... [It's] also fascinating for the insight it gives into Kerouac and Burroughs' development ... A compelling read' Sam Jordison, Guardian

'Their efforts cohere into a spare existential narrative which races to a cruel denouement. Hippos stands the test of time; it is admirably hard-boiled' Independent

'Anyone interested in the making of the Beat generation will be fascinated by this survival from its beginnings' Literary Review

'Transfixingly readable ... It memorably evokes the demi-monde of New York at the war's end, with its honky-tonk parlours, automats, bars and spaghetti joints. As a period piece, it can't be beat' Evening Standard