William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) was an American novelist and a central figure of the Beat Generation. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he studied at Harvard University and later lived in New York, Mexico City, Tangier, Paris, and London. His early writings drew on experiences with addiction and the underground worlds he moved through. Burroughs is best known for *Naked Lunch* (1959), a controversial, nonlinear novel that became a landmark of postwar American literature. With Brion Gysin he developed and popularized the “cut-up” technique, influencing later experimental writing, music, and art. He died in Lawrence, Kansas.