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William S. Burroughs

Born

in St. Louis, Missouri, The United States

February 05, 1914

Died

August 02, 1997

Genre

Literature & Fiction

Influences

Alfred Korzybski, Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Bla ...more

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William Seward Burroughs II, (also known by his pen name William Lee) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearance William Seward Burroughs II, (also known by his pen name William Lee) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he dropped out and became afflicted with the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation.
Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift", a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".
Burroughs had one child, William Seward Burroughs III (1947-1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. Vollmer died in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer's death, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997. ...more

Combine Editions
William S. Burroughs’s books

Average rating: 3.66 · 278,459 ratings · 17,505 reviews · 449 distinct works • Similar authors

	Naked Lunch: The Restored Text by William S. Burroughs, James Grauerholz (Editor), Barry Miles (Editor) 3.46 avg rating — 98,314 ratings — published 1959 — 181 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Junky by William S. Burroughs, Oliver Harris (Editor), Allen Ginsberg (Foreword) 3.84 avg rating — 71,125 ratings — published 1953 — 50 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Queer 3.49 avg rating — 23,013 ratings — published 1985 — 75 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks 3.72 avg rating — 15,058 ratings — published 1945 — 60 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Soft Machine (The Nova Trilogy #1) 3.43 avg rating — 7,043 ratings — published 1961 — 59 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cities of the Red Night (The Red Night Trilogy, #1) 3.75 avg rating — 5,556 ratings — published 1981 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead 3.52 avg rating — 4,261 ratings — published 1971 — 43 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Yage Letters by William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg 3.65 avg rating — 4,114 ratings — published 1963 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cat Inside 3.72 avg rating — 3,690 ratings — published 1986 — 33 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nova Express (The Nova Trilogy, #2) 3.67 avg rating — 3,352 ratings — published 1964 — 59 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by William S. Burroughs…

Series by William S. Burroughs

The Nova Trilogy (3 books)
by

William S. Burroughs

3.53 avg rating — 13,117 ratings

The Red Night Trilogy (3 books)
by

William S. Burroughs

3.84 avg rating — 10,446 ratings

Quotes by William S. Burroughs (?)

“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. ”
― William S. Burroughs

tags: drugs, philosophy, politics

2710 likes

“There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve.”
― William S. Burroughs

tags: love, risk

1108 likes

“Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs

tags: introspection, loquacity, remaining-silent, reticence, silence

1028 likes

See all William S. Burroughs's quotes »

Polls

What book would you like to read in October 2025?

Junkie., by William S. Burroughs (160 pages)

19 votes, 39.6%

The Holder of the World, by Bharati Mukherjee (286 pages)

17 votes, 35.4%

A Void / Avoid, by Georges Perec (304 pages)

12 votes, 25.0%

48 total votes

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