Victor Bockris (born 1949) is an English-born, U.S.-based author, primarily of biographies of artists, writers, and musicians.
He has written about Lou Reed (and The Velvet Underground), Andy Warhol, Keith Richards, William S. Burroughs, Terry Southern, Blondie, Patti Smith, and Muhammad Ali. He also helped write the autobiographies of John Cale and Bebe Buell.
Bockris was born in Sussex, England in 1949; his family moved to Pennsylvania when he was four years old. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where both his parents worked, in 1971. While still in Philadelphia, he founded Telegraph Books.
He moved to New York City in 1973 and became an associate of Warhol and Burroughs. He worked for Warhol at the Factory and published many pieces in Warhol's magazine Interview, often in collaboration with Andrew Wylie, now best known as a literary agent. As well as Interview, Bockris also published work in High Times, Gadflyi> and Drummer.
Bockris' book Beat Punks explores the relationship between artistic bohemias of the 1950s (the Beats) and the 1970s (the Punks).
Quotes
"Andy taught us how to interview: Never have any questions ready. Treat it like a cocktail party."
References
External links
- interview
- The Ali-Warhol tapes by Victor Bockris
- The magic world of William Burroughs by Victor Bockris
- Visions of the Seventies by Victor Bockris
- Telegraph Books collection, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania
- Victor Bockris papers, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania