To the editor:

You have got to be kidding me. Lawrence shouldn’t memorialize its most famous author, William S. Burroughs, because he was “not a poster boy for good citizenship”? If good citizenship were a prerequisite for recognition for one’s achievement, we would no longer be reading the plays of Christopher Marlowe, who died in a tavern brawl more than 400 years ago. Please spare me this prudery.

You say memorializing Burroughs’ home will do nothing to “put Lawrence on the map,” but I disagree. Last month, on a trip through Nebraska, my family went out of the way to visit the John Neihardt home and visitors center. Earlier this spring, we traveled to Hannibal, Mo., for the express purpose of seeing the Mark Twain home and museum. I would certainly not go out of my way to take a gander at Burroughs Creek, but I would to see a well-planned and well-maintained Burroughs home or museum.

Rachel Hile Bassett,

Lawrence