Sunday August 3 7:54 AM EDT
Beat Generation Writer Burroughs Dead at 83
LAWRENCE, Kans. (Reuter) - Beat generation writer William S.
Burroughs, the counterculture author best known for the novel "Naked
Lunch" based on his experiences as a drug addict, died Saturday at the
age of 83.
Burroughs died at Lawrence Memorial Hospital a day after suffering a
heart attack, said Ira Silverberg, New York-based editor-in-chief of
Grove Press, which published several of his books.
Along with the poet Allen Ginsberg and other writers such as Jack
Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Burroughs, came to embody the
bohemian, anti-establishment beat generation literary movement.
Ginsberg died in April in New York.
Burroughs was admitted to the hospital Friday after suffering a heart
attack, Silverberg said.
"It was sudden. He was in fine health," Silverberg said.
The controversial Burroughs was openly homosexual, spent years as a
drug addict and accidentally killed his wife. In later years, he
achieved cult status among a generation of disaffected middle-class
youth.
Novelist Norman Mailer called Burroughs "the only American writer
living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius."
Burroughs had lived in with his cats in the college town of Lawrence
since December, 1981. He stopped smoking six years ago after
triple-bypass heart surgery.
Grove Press just last week completed an as-yet untitled manuscript of
Burroughs's previously published writings. Silverberg said the
collection was due to be released in 1998.
Burroughs was born Feb. 5, 1914, in St. Louis. His grandfather founded
the Borroughs adding machine company.
Borroughs was educated in private schools and graduated from Harvard
University. His many jobs included stints as a private detective and
an insect exterminator.
While living in Mexico City in 1951, he accidentally killed his wife,
Joan Vollmer, while trying to shoot a glass off of her head. He said
later that her death drove him to write.
His first book "Junkie," published in 1953 under the pseudonym William
Lee, is an autobiographical account of his experiences as a drug
addict.
Burrough's fame, however, was built on the celebrated novel "Naked
Lunch," written while the author was living in Tangier, Morocco and
first published in Paris in 1959.
The book was banned in the United States until 1962, when it won a
landmark anti-censorship Supreme Court decision.
Among his other books were "The Wild Boys," "Cities of the Red Night,"
and "Tornado Alley." Burroughs also was a photographer, and had
produced drawings, paintings and sculpture.
Burroughs once commented that "my entire life has been a struggle to
resist the dark force," which he defined as the worst aspects of
himself.
In an interview with The New York Times late last year, Burroughs said
he made notes every day but no longer wrote formally.
"I guess I've run out of things to say," he said.
Burroughs enjoyed a revival in recent years, and collaborated with
rock musicians. "Naked Lunch" was made into a film in 1991.
A tribute to Burroughs was held last November at the University of
Kansas in Lawrence, and featured appearances by rock artists Michael
Stipe of R.E.M. and former Blondie lead singer Deborah Harry.
More recently, Burroughs made a cameo appearance in the rock video for
U2's "Last Night on Earth," which was shot in May in Kansas City, Mo.
Last year, the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence held a retrospective
of Burroughs's artworks, called "Ports of Entry."
Burrough's son, William, died in 1981.
stuart @ 4thworld
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