William Burroughs
William Burroughs (1914–1997) was an American novelist and essayist, a central figure of the Beat Generation alongside Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
His experimental novels, especially *Naked Lunch* (1959), employed cut-up techniques and fragmented narratives to explore addiction, sexuality, and social control.
A heroin addict for much of his life, Burroughs accidentally killed his wife in a drunken "William Tell" shooting in Mexico City—an event he later said propelled him to write.
- beat writerFifties countercultural prose stylist
- heroinIllegal addictive opiate
- cut-upHabitual joker or clown
- typewriterMechanical printing keyboard
- junkiePerson with compulsive dependency
drug addiction · Ginsberg · Kerouac · addiction · interzone · shotgun · experimental · transgressive · homosexuality · Morocco · mugwump · counterculture · routine · control · paranoia · centipede · heavy metal · Mexico City
- 20th Century AuthorsErnest Hemingway, Hemingway, Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald
- Counterculture IconsTimothy Leary, Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Huey Newton
- Experimental WritersSamuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, Borges, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce
- Bohemiabohemian dress, boho chic, free spirits, nonconformists, counterculture
- BeatniksJack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, On the Road, Howl, Beat Generation
- Expatriatesexpats, emigres, permanent residents, green card holders, foreign workers
William BurroughsJohn Updike
John Grisham · Tom Clancy · Danielle Steel · Nicholas Sparks · airport fiction
William BurroughsBilly Graham
American televangelist, presidential confidant
Nancy Reagan · Pat Boone · Rush Limbaugh · temperance advocate · temperance movement
William, Williams, will, wills, willed, willing, willingly, unwilling, borough