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William S Burroughs


USA flag (1914 - 1997)
Father of William S Burroughs Jr

aka William Lee

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 work became less outlandish.
 

Genres: Literary Fiction, Science Fiction
 
Series
Nova Trilogy
   1. The Soft Machine (1961)
   2. The Ticket That Exploded (1962)
   3. Nova Express (1964)
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Novels
   Junkie (1953) (as by William Lee)
     aka Junky
   Naked Lunch (1959)
   Exterminator! (1960) (with Brion Gysin)
   Minutes To Go (1960) (with others)
   Dead Fingers Talk (1963)
   The Last Words of Dutch Schultz (1970)
   The Wild Boys (1971)
   Port of Saints (1975)
   Queer (1985)
   And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (2008) (with Jack Kerouac)
   Rules of Duel (2010) (with Graham Masterton)
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Collections
   The Third Mind (1978) (with Brion Gysin)
   Ali's Smile / Naked Scientology (1978)
   Ah Pook is Here (1979)
     aka The Book of Breathing
   A William Burroughs Reader (1982)
   Word Virus (1984)
   The Burroughs File (1984)
   The Adding Machine (1985)
   Interzone (1989)
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Novellas and Short Stories
   The Dead Star (1969)
   Ali's Smile (1971)
   White Subway (1974)
   Blade Runner (1979)
   Ghost of Chance (1991)
   The Seven Deadly Sins (1991)
   The Cat Inside (1992)
   The Finger (2018)
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Plays show
 
Non fiction show
 
William S Burroughs recommends
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The Slave and the Free (1999)
(Holdfast)
Suzy McKee Charnas
"Only one science fiction book in hundreds manages to convince the reader that it ever could have happened anywhere, and at least that few are worth reading at all. . . . [Charnas has] created a future that is at once believable and fascinating."
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Blue Limbo (1991)
(Dr. Owen Orient, book 7)
Frank Lauria
"Hypnotically readable..."
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Horse Crazy (1989)
Gary Indiana
"An archetypical story, expertly told, fascinating to everyman, no matter what his sexual tastes."

More recommendations 


Anthologies containing stories by William S Burroughs
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The Mammoth Book of Tales from the Road (2002)
Tales of Life on the Move
(The Mammoth Book of ...)
edited by
Maxim Jakubowski
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Rapid Eye 1 (2001)
edited by
Simon Dwyer

More anthologies 


Awards
Nebula Awards Best Novel nominee (1966) : Nova Express
Bram Stoker Best Short Story nominee (1994) : Death Fiend Guerillas


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