This edition was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the book's publication in the US. However, due to a legal technicality, publication has now ceased, and it looks like the publishers (who cannot be named for legal reasons) are in hot water.
So why all the controversy?
Well, to highlight the drug influenced, psychedelic nature of the book, the publishers had the bright idea of printing the entire novel on two hundred and fifty individual LSD tabs.
These acid tabs are the first two pages of the book:
All two hundred and fifty 'pages' would then have been packaged and sold in this William Burroughs Pez dispenser:
However, when a legal expert informed the publishers that LSD is actually illegal in the United States, the decision was made to halt publication.
This story raises a number of questions:
Is this just another form of censorship? Shouldn't we be allowed to read a book no matter what it happens to be printed on?
Or are the publishing firm involved just a bunch of scummy drug dealers?
More importantly, do you care?
I don't.