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Quick Facts
- NAME: William S. Burroughs
- OCCUPATION: Author
- BIRTH DATE: February 05, 1914
- DEATH DATE: August 02, 1997
- EDUCATION: Harvard University
- PLACE OF BIRTH: St. Louis, Missouri
- PLACE OF DEATH: Lawrence, Kansas
- Full Name: William Seward Burroughs
- AKA: William S. Burroughs
- AKA: William Burroughs
Best Known For
William S. Burroughs was a Beat Generation writer known for his startling, nontraditional accounts of drug culture, most famously in the book Naked Lunch.
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William S. Burroughs - Mini Biography
A founder of the Beat Generation, writer William S. Burroughs' novels "Naked Lunch" and "Junkie" dealt with his experiences as a drug addict.
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Play NowWilliam Seward Burroughs. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 12:42, May 25, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/william-s-burroughs-9232376.
William Seward Burroughs. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/william-s-burroughs-9232376 [Accessed 25 May 2013].
"William Seward Burroughs." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 25 2013, 12:42 http://www.biography.com/people/william-s-burroughs-9232376.
"William Seward Burroughs," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/william-s-burroughs-9232376 [accessed May 25, 2013].
"William Seward Burroughs," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/william-s-burroughs-9232376 (accessed May 25, 2013).
William Seward Burroughs [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 25] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/william-s-burroughs-9232376.
William Seward Burroughs, http://www.biography.com/people/william-s-burroughs-9232376 (last visited May 25, 2013).
William Seward Burroughs. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/william-s-burroughs-9232376. Accessed May 25, 2013.
Around the time of Lunch's release, inspired by artist Brion Gysin, Burroughs began to experiment with the cut-up technique, where random lines of text were cut from a page and rearranged to form new sentences, with the intention of freeing reader's minds from conventional, linear modes of thought. Using this technique with elements of satire and sci-fi, the '60s saw Burroughs releasing novels like The Soft Machine (1961) and Nova Express (1964),
Contents
which indicted consumerism and social repression, and the nonfiction work The Yage Letters (1963).
Musical Influence
Burroughs played with audio cut-ups as well via tape recordings. He released his first album in 1965, Call Me Burroughs, which featured his readings of text from Naked Lunch and The Soft Machine. Burroughs not only made waves in the literary world but became a huge influence for many musical artists of the day. The acts Soft Machine and Steely Dan took their names from the writer’s work and Burroughs went on to collaborate with artists of the avant-garde like Laurie Anderson, Sonic Youth and Genesis P-Orridge.
Burroughs continued his literary pursuits as well in the early ‘70s, publishing The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead (1971) and Exterminator! (1973) and penning a screenplay, The Last Words of Dutch Schulz. By the end of the decade, he worked on a book with Gysin that delved into their cut-up philosophy—The Third Mind (1978).
Burroughs would face family tragedy yet again as his son Billy Burroughs Jr., also a writer, succumbed to substance addiction and died from alcohol-related trauma in 1981.
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