William S. Burroughs

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William S. Burroughs

Author profile


born
February 05, 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, The United States

died
August 02, 1997

gender
male

genre
Literature & Fiction

influences
heroin, gangster movies, Sci Fi, Samuel Beckett, Joseph Moncure March


About this author

William Seward Burroughs Jnr. always looked like the straight man among the Beat Generation, but his writing - violent, satirical, scatological, pornographic - makes the others look tame.
Burroughs was born into middle-class respectability and after studying English at Harvard and medicine in Vienna, trained as a glider pilot with the American military but was discharged as unfit for service in 1942. While working in the New York shipyards he became addicted to heroin.
His first book Junkie: confessions of an unredeemed drug addict was published under the pseudonym William Lee in 1953. His next novel Naked Lunch, 1959, was banned in the USA and first published by Maurice Girodias in Paris. It eventually came out in Britain in 1964. His later...more


combine editions
Books by William S. Burroughs

Average rating: 3.68 · 57,451 ratings · 3,097 reviews · 137 distinct works
Naked Lunch
by
3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 avg rating — 20,840 ratings — published 1959 — 73 editions
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Junky
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3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 avg rating — 12,274 ratings — published 1953 — 36 editions
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Queer
3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 avg rating — 3,000 ratings — published 1985 — 13 editions
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The Soft Machine
3.51 of 5 stars 3.51 avg rating — 1,734 ratings — published 1961 — 17 editions
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Cities of the Red Night
3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 avg rating — 1,603 ratings — published 1981 — 14 editions
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The Wild Boys
3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 avg rating — 1,139 ratings — published 1969 — 18 editions
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Nova Express
3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 avg rating — 1,077 ratings — published 1964 — 13 editions
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Exterminator!
3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 993 ratings — published 1969 — 12 editions
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The Yage Letters
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3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 avg rating — 1,068 ratings — published 1963 — 12 editions
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The Western Lands
4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 773 ratings — published 1987 — 12 editions
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More books by William S. Burroughs…

Series by William S. Burroughs

The Soft Machine The Ticket That Exploded Nova Express
The Nova Trilogy (3 books)
by
3.5694559513946422 of 5 stars 3.57 avg rating — 3,621 ratings
Cities of the Red Night The Place of Dead Roads The Western Lands
The Red Night Trilogy (3 books)
by
3.9108653220559533 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 3,074 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
941 people liked it
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“Nobody owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death.”
― William S. Burroughs
tags: death , murder
443 people liked it
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“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
285 people liked it
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