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William S. Burroughs

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William Seward Burroughs III (better known as William S. Burroughs, 1914-1997) was an author and poet. Burroughs is best known for his novel Naked Lunch, his novel trilogy The Nova Trilogy, and his novel Cities of the Red Night.

Life[]

Born in February of 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, William was the grandchild of the founder of the Burroughs Company - a manufacturer of business equipment - and the nephew of advertising pioneer Ivy Lee. His father owned an antiques shop and moved the family to Palm Beach, Florida. As a young child, Burroughs attended the college-preparatory school John Burroughs School (named for the naturalist John Burroughs, who is seemingly not related to William S. Burroughs) before attending a private boarding school for the rich called Los Alamos Ranch School. Burroughs did not like his experience at the school and, though he was caught with another student taking drugs, left of his own accord after telling his parents to let him return to St. Louis.

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Writing style[]

A major member of the Beat Generation, Burroughs was an early gay author - with this being most notable in Naked Lunch, Queer, The Wild Boys, and Cities of the Red Night (which feature an analogue of AIDS). Another major theme in Burroughs' works is drug use - as seen in Junkie and Naked Lunch - mechanization (The Nova Trilogy), surrealistic/fantastical creatures (Naked Lunch and The Nova Trilogy), guns and gun use (The Place of Dead Roads), mysticism (Naked Lunch and The Soft Machine), unreal locations (seen in most of his works after Naked Lunch), and body horror (most prevalent in Naked Lunch).

Burroughs was one of the first authors to use the cut-up style. While this might have been an artistic choice in part, Burroughs also believed that it was a way to keep himself from being possessed by something he called the Ugly Spirit - a sort of evil force that Burroughs believed had first possessed him during the shooting Joan Vollmer.

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Connections to other authors[]

Burroughs was friends with two other major Beat Generation writers - Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg - even after the 1950s. While both of these had some influence on Burroughs' writings, another friend of Burroughs who had some influence over his writings was the New Wave director, artist, and author Brion Gysin. Both Burroughs and Gysin were early practitioners of the cut-up technique.

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Notable works[]

  • The Last Words of Dutch Schultz - a screenplay
  • The Cat Inside - a book on cats
  • The Black Rider - a stage musical
  • My Education: A Book of Dreams - a collection of dreams

Novels and novellas[]

  • Junkie (or Junky) - a novel about a drug addict named William Lee
  • Queer - a novel about William Lee's relationship with another man
  • Naked Lunch - a novel about William Lee's travels through the Interzone
  • Dead Fingers Talk - a reworking of parts of Naked Lunch and the Nova Trilogy
  • Blade Runner (a movie) - a novella based on Alan E. Nourse's The Bladerunner
  • The Wild Boys - a novel about a homosexual youth movement in a postapocalyptic world
  • Port of Saints - a novel about a group of boys trying to change history
  • Ah Pook is Here - an attempt at a graphic novel, illustrated by Malcolm McNeill)
  • Ghost of Chance - a novella about viruses
  • And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (with Jack Kerouac) - a collaborative effort with Kerouac

The Nova Trilogy[]

  • The Soft Machine - a novel about an agent travelling back to the time of the Mayans
  • The Ticket That Exploded - a novel about Agent Lee hunting the Nova Mob
  • Nova Express - a novel about the battle between the Nova Mob and the Nova Police

The Red Night trilogy[]

Collections[]

  • The Yage Letters (with Allen Ginsberg)
    • Roosevelt After Inauguration
    • I Am Dying, Meester?
  • Ali's Smile
    • Burroughs on Scientology
    • William Burroughs: Open Letter to Mr. Garden Mustain
    • William Burroughs on Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman
    • Answer to R. Sorrell's Letter
    • Ali's Smile
  • Exterminator!
    • "Exterminator!"
    • The Lemon Kid
    • Short Trip Home
    • Davy Jones
    • The Evening News
    • Astronaut's Return
    • My Face
    • Wind Die. You Die. We Die.
    • End of the Line
    • The Drums of Death
    • "Johnny 23"
    • The Discipline of DE
    • The Perfect Servant
    • Ali's Smile
    • Twilight's Last Gleamings
    • The Coming of the Purple Better One
    • "What Washington? What Orders?"
    • From Here to Eternity
    • The Teacher
    • They Do Not Always Remember
    • Friends
    • Seeing Red
    • Old Movie
    • Electricals
    • SPUT
    • Reddies
    • The "Priest" They Called Him
    • My Legs Señor
    • The End
    • Cold Lost Marbles
  • The Third Mind (with Brion Gysin)
  • Interzone
    • Twilight's Last Gleamings
    • The Finger
    • Driving Lesson
    • The Junky's Christmas
    • Lee and the Boys
    • In the Cafe Central
    • Dream of the Penal Colony
    • International Zone
    • Lee's Journals
    • An Advertising Short for Television
    • Antonio the Portuguese Mooch
    • Displaced Fuzz
    • Spare Ass Annie
    • The Dream Cops
    • The Conspiracy
    • Iron Wrack Dream
    • Ginsberg Notes
    • WORD
  • Tornado Alley
    • Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986 - a poem
    • Jerry and the Stockbroker
    • To Talk for Joe the Dead
    • Dead-End Reeking Street
    • The FUs
    • Book of Shadows
    • Where He Was Going

Gallery[]

See also[]

           Works of William S. Burroughs

Novels
And the Hippos Were Boiled in their Tanks (with Jack Kerouac), Junky/Junkie, Queer, Naked Lunch, Dead Fingers Talk, The Wild Boys, Port of Saints, My Education
The Nova Trilogy
The Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded, Nova Express
The Red Night Trilogy
Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads, The Western Lands
Novellas
Blade Runner (a movie), The Cat Inside, Ghost of Chance
Miscellany
Interzone, The Yage Letters (with Allen Ginsberg), The Last Words of Dutch Schultz, Exterminator!, The Third Mind (with Brion Gysin), Ali's Smile, Ah Pook is Here
Major and recurring characters and locations
William Lee/Agent Lee, Eugene Allerton, The Interzone, Doctor Benway, Clem Snide, The Countess de Vile, The Nova Mob, Libertatia, Noah Blake, Virus B-23, William Seward Hall

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