Tornado Alley is a collection of short stories and one poem by Beat Generation author, William S. Burroughs, written during the later years of his career and first published in 1989. The first edition of the book included illustrations by S. Clay Wilson. Notable pieces in the collection include the crime melodrama "Where He Was Going", which Burroughs said on his album Dead City Radio was inspired by the writings of Ernest Hemingway (the story title is taken from a famous quotation from Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro), and the poem "Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986". The collection is dedicated to 1930s gangster John Dillinger, "in hope that he is still alive." Both "Where He Was Going" and "Thanksgiving Day" were performed by Burroughs on his 1990 spoken word/musical album, Dead City Radio, with "Thanksgiving Day" also being performed by Burroughs in a music video to promote the CD. In both the CD and video versions of "Thanksgiving Day", which was retitled "A Thanksgiving Prayer", Burroughs appends the dedication to Dillinger. The short film "Thanksgiving prayer" by Gus Van Sant is a reading of the poem "Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986" from Tornado Alley. It features a collage of black and white images intercut with Burroughs reading the poem. (via Wikipedia)