About William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced both underground and popular culture and literature. Much of Burroughs's work is highly experimental and features unreliable narrators. Also noted as semi-autobiographical, his work often drew from his experiences with drug addiction, and featured his various places of residence as settings in much of his work. With Brion Gysin, Burroughs popularized the cut-up, an aleatory literary technique. His writing also engaged frequent mystical, occult, or otherwise magical themes, constant preoccupations in both his fiction and real life. Burroughs found success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), published under the pen name William Lee. His grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, had founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which evolved into the Burroughs Corporation. Louis, where his first published essay — "Personal Magnetism", which revolved around telepathic mind-control — was printed in the John Burroughs Review in 1929. In 1984, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.