The Bunker Diaries
By Stewart Meyer
Beatdom Books
$19.99
The Bunker* is one of the major sites of Beat History, the downtown NYC lair of William Burroughs. Two others I can think of: The Six Gallery** where Howl was first read aloud by Allen Ginsberg. The third is the Beat Hotel in the Latin quarter of Paris,***, where Gregory Corso lived in the attic, Burroughs & Brion Gysin discovered the cut-up method with an accidental slice of newsprint, and Allen Ginsberg passed through at the end of the 1950s.
With only Gary Snyder remaining among us, we now must rely on younger friends of the Beats for any direct history. Stewart Meyer hung out at the Bunker quite a bit from 1978 to 1983. This was New York City’s hey-day of punk bands — as well a wide wave of heroin use. Elsewhere in NYC, photographer Nan Goldin’s polaroids capture the baked eyes of cool kids, some on their way to the grave. Junk packets traveled with different colored tape throughout Alphabet City, with names like Black Sunday or Toilet.
Meyer kept good notes, so that much of his recorded (untaped) comments of Burroughs have the stamp of authenticity. The Bunker was a nexus of the who’s who of hip when Meyer spent time there. Meyer gives a vivid account of this converted YMCA, a windowless white-painted concrete, well, bunker, replete with a leftover urinal. The way in was through a steel-plated door; once inside, one felt safe from the scuzzy urban decay of the Bowery.
According to Meyer, Burroughs had returned to opiates after more than 15 years of abstinence. Bill’s books of the sixties describe a successful apomorphine junk cure (a “metabolic regulator”). While reading him on the West Coast at the time, I thought he was still clean, at least of opioids. The new truth slowly leaked out, just as James Grauerholz (RIP), his assistant and editor, whisked Bill away to Lawrence, Kansas before something really serious happened. Meyer’s recollections show that the Kansas move was more drawn out than I had thought, with Grauerholz moving there first, setting up camp, and enticing Burroughs to follow.
Given junk’s prevalence in and out of the Bunker, it is of no surprise that Meyer himself developed a junk habit (he claims from eating opium, not shooting up). Early on, Meyer describes himself as straight. His comfort among so many exclusively homosexual men (Bill, Allen Ginsberg, John Giorno and Grauerholz among others) never comes up in the book. Nobody asked Burroughs about his sex life. Grauerholz was Burroughs’ former lover, unmentioned. Other lovers of record, (such as Cabell McLean and Marcus Ewert) probably passed through the Bunker at this time, but discreetly. Bill first comes across as simply enjoying Meyer’s company. However, Brion Gysin, Bill’s co-creator of the Cut-up Method (and also gay), treats Meyer with haughty disinterest, a predictable response. Frequent guest Allen Ginsberg might have given a more objective read on the Burroughs/Meyer relationship.
Ginsberg, had surprisingly little to say of his forays through the Bunker, but the description of his relationship as student to Bill’s teacher is spot-on.
Meyer had zero interest in Buddhism, (which Ginsberg and Giorno studied seriously at this point) and neither did Burroughs. But Ginsberg always felt Burroughs was a fellow traveler in Buddhism with his “homemade yankee tantra.” Burroughs himself admits a similarity when describing his Do Nothing technique, which allows writing to spontaneously arise. Burroughs later describes John Giorno rushing about, getting ready for his teacher, “the Dalai Lama.” In fact, this would have been Dudjom Rinpoche. Burroughs’ audience with Dudjom Rinpoche on the other half of 222 Bowery (eventually called Yeshe Nyingpo) is described in Matthew Levi Stevens’ Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. Burroughs was interested in the magical powers lamas such as Ginsberg’s teachers, Rinpoches Chogyam Trungpa and Gelek, supposedly have. Burroughs had a real relationship with Trungpa because of the time he spent teaching at Naropa Institute (later University).
Meyer gives a great sketch of Herbert Huncke, the world’s most famous junkie, when enters the Bunker. Huncke’s original connection with the Beats was through Burroughs; Huncke gave Burroughs his first shot of morphine. Jack Kerouac and Ginsberg were fascinated by Huncke and his tales of the criminal underworld. The three of them often hung out drinking coffee in a number Times Square automats (self-service restaurants with giant banks of vending machines dispensing sandwiches and such, open 24 hours), all long gone. As the story goes, Huncks arrived one night to meet them, sat down and declared,”Man, am I beat.” Kerouac replied, it is said, “I guess we’re a beat generation.” The rest is history.
Huncke, amazingly, lived to the ripe old age of 81; Billy Burroughs Junior’s life was unfortunately a short one. He drank his liver into oblivion, had a liver transplant, and continued to drink until he destroyed that one too. It killed him in 1981, only 34 years old. Billy was the son of Burroughs and Joan Volmer, who died (supposedly) in a William Tell stunt with Burroughs and pistol in Mexico City in 1951, aged 28. Billy’s death was felt all through the Bunker. He had shown some real promise as a writer, completing three novels and two memoirs; my favorite is the posthumously published Cursed At Birth.
During the five year run covered in The Bunker Diaries, Meyer gets divorced and meets his future second wife, Jenny. By the end of the half decade, the book is dominated by his efforts to complete his novel, eventually published as The Lotus Crew, which I found to be very good, not merely Burroughs-derivative, but 100% a reflection of Meyer’s personality. Besides the similarity in subject matter (dope), I enjoyed the precise, often metaphorical imagery. It also suggests that Burroughs intuited Meyer’s talent from the beginning, which gives a better understanding of what Bill liked about him.
The Diaries ends with Burroughs permanently ensconced in Lawrence. He was done with NYC and didn’t like being separated from his cats. I know the feeling.
William S. Burroughs very much admired
(Black’s name likely inspired the current comic actor). Burroughs’ wisdom is in line with the stoicism of Jack Black’s 1926 criminal memoir You Can’t Win, equanimity born from confronting the “algebra of need.” Situation hopeless, but workable. Stewart Meyer has not published another novel after his good luck run. The ups and downs, “the slings and arrows” of good fortune and good drugs, are possibly still his demons.
Good luck with them, sir.
*222 Bowery, NYC
**3115 Fillmore St. San Francisco, original space gone.
***9 Rue Git-le-Coer
Marc Olmsted
Reviews
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The detail that Meyer says he got a junk habit from eating opium, not shooting up, is the one that stopped me. It makes his early ‘straight’ days at the Bunker feel even stranger. Posts like this make me want to sketch things out visually — I’ve been trying Seedance 2.5 for quick video drafts.
The detail that Burroughs returned to opiates after 15 years clean is the one that stuck with me—it makes Meyer’s notes feel like a slow leak of truth. I also didn’t know the Kansas move was so drawn out. Unrelated tip for anyone who likes visual storytelling: Seedance 2.5 is handy for turning a concept into a short clip.
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The concrete details of the Bunker, especially the windowless room and steel-plated entrance, make the setting tangible. The distinction between Meyer’s notes and taped testimony also matters when reading this as history. I work on kling 4.0, an AI visual and video creation website; this review is a reminder that any imagined visual reconstruction should be labeled as interpretation rather than treated as documentary evidence.
A printable collection becomes more flexible when people can begin with a personal idea instead of only browsing preset categories. An ai coloring page generator can turn a simple prompt into a starting point for seasonal activities, story-inspired sheets, or a themed set for a group. The most helpful output still keeps clear outlines and enough open space for markers, pencils, or crayons.
Your point about Meyer’s untaped comments raises a useful distinction between preserving an impression and preserving exact speech. Dated notes could help readers assess the recollections around the Bunker. Literary voice matters too: a fictional title such as I Can Smell You From Here invites attention to perspective and atmosphere. For this historical account, I would be interested in how the book presents its notes and distinguishes remembered conversations from contemporaneous entries.
The framing matches how the situation actually presents itself. The gap between theory and practice is the honest part of this write-up.
Meyer’s notes sound especially valuable for tracing who was present at the Bunker and how their relationships developed. Your description of the converted YMCA also gives that history a physical setting: a windowless room behind a steel-plated door. Reading about unfamiliar places always makes me wonder how accurately I picture their proportions, which is the premise behind Guess The Size. Does the book include photographs or a floor plan to help readers visualize the space?
Stewart Meyer’s perspective on the Bunker era offers such a fascinating glimpse into late Beat history, especially that gritty late 70s Bowery scene with Burroughs. Definitely adding this book to my reading list!
Great review, Marc. It’s fascinating to get these firsthand glimpses into Burroughs’ later NYC years at the Bunker before the move to Lawrence. Meyer’s recollections sound like an invaluable piece of Beat history.