In the same way that Jim Morrison referenced Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night in the Doors’ moody masterpiece, “End of the Night”, Curtis dropped hints in song titles such as “Dead Souls”, “Colony” and “Atrocity Exhibition” that he had read writers as diverse as Gogol, Kafka and Ballard, while the lyrics reflected, in mood and approach, his interest in romantic and science-fiction literature.
Deborah [Curtis] recently recalled that Ian Curtis never read these books in her presence, which she felt was “an indication to me that he considered them part of his work. They were important to him. It wasn’t something he did as relaxation or for pleasure. He was studying/working. Too important to try and concentrate on with someone else in the room. It wasn’t something he did as relaxation or for pleasure. His books would be on the floor next to his drafts. – Jon Savage
Ian Curtis’ favourite books
Adrian Henri, Environments And Happenings
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Antonin Artaud, The Theatre And Its Double
Arthur Rimbaud, A Season In Hell
Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations
Dawn Ades, Dada And Surrealism
Franz Kafka, In The Penal Colony
Franz Kafka, The Castle
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight Of The Idols
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Great Short Works Of Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes From Underground
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf
Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game
J.G. Ballard, High–rise
J.G. Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition
Jean–paul Sartre, Nausea
John Heartfield, Photomontages Of The Nazi Period
John Wilcock, The Autobiography And Sex Life Of Andy Warhol
Ka–tzetnik 135633 [Yehiel De–nur], The House Of Dolls
Michael Green, The Art Of Coarse Acting
New Worlds [British Science Fiction Magazine] Nik Cohn, Rock Dreams: Under The Boardwalk
Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls
Oscar Wilde, The Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde
Selected Poems By Thom Gunn & Ted Hughes
Various, A Century Of Thrillers: From Poe To Arlen
William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch
William S. Burroughs, The Third Mind
William S. Burroughs, The Wild Boys
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