William Seward Burroughs II (February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American novelist, essayist, social critic and
spoken word performer. Much of Burroughs' work is semi-autobiographical cut-up stories. He saw all his writing as a single, vast book. He is generally allied with the Beats, and while he was close friends with the true Beats like
Allen Ginsberg and
Jack Kerouac, his writing never fit with the
Beatnik style. His first couple of novels, Junkie (or Junky) and Queer, were written in a style reminiscent of hard-boiled detective novels. As he became more comfortable w…
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