William S. Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs (1914-1997) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the grandson of the founder of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. After graduating from Harvard in 1936, he drifted through a series of odd jobs and eventually fell into heroin addiction, an experience that would shape his literary career. In 1951, he accidentally shot and killed his common-law wife Joan Vollmer during a drunken game of William Tell in Mexico City, an event he later described as the catalyst that made him a writer. This author hub collects 1 work in the Canon Compass ranking, led by Naked Lunch.