Burroughs, William S(eward) (1914–1997)

US author. One of the most culturally influential post-war writers, his work is noted for its experimental methods, black humour, explicit homo-eroticism, and apocalyptic vision. In 1944 he met Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, all three becoming leading members of the Beat Generation. His first novel, Junkie (1953), documented his heroin addiction and expatriation to Mexico, where in 1951 he accidentally killed his common-law wife. He settled in Tangier in 1954 and wrote his celebrated anti-novel Naked Lunch (1959). A landmark federal court case deemed Naked Lunch not obscene; this broke the ground for other books, helping to eliminate censorship of the printed word in the USA.

In Paris, he developed collage-based techniques of writing, resulting in his ‘cut-up’ science fiction trilogy, The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket That Exploded (1962), and Nova Express (1964). For these books he would literally cut up, reposition and paste in pieces of narrative from various sources, in order to see what kind of creative results they generated. Later, more conventionally written novels, include Cities of the Red Night (1981), Place of Dead Roads (1984), and The Western Lands (1987). His ‘Selected Letters 1945–59’ were published 1993.

Born in St Louis, Missouri, Burroughs attended Harvard University. After he graduated, he lived in New York City on an allowance from his wealthy parents. He died in Lawrence, Kansas.