William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, short story writer, satirist, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer; born on February 5th 1914, today marks his 102nd birthday.
Burroughs is well known for his issues with heroin addiction and his innovative and culturally influential novels but there is much more to this fascinating author.
The Burroughs’ family fortune came from the Burroughs Adding Machine (patented in 1888)
Right before the Stock Market crash of 1929 the Burroughs family sold all of their stocks for $200,000 (the equivalent of $2,766,374 in 2016).
At the age of eight Burroughs fired a gun for the first time, he also penned his first book; The Autobiography of a Wolf.
The Burroughs’ housekeeper introduced him to Opium.
He was first published at the age of fifteen; the John Burroughs Review published his short essay “Personal Magnetism”
Sent to an exclusive boarding school Burroughs was expelled after he and another student were discovered taking Chloral Hydrate.
He lost his virginity at 16, to the boy in the next bunk.
He was turned down by the Military on four separate occasions.
When in Europe studying medicine, Burroughs married a Jewish woman by the name of Ilse Klapper in order to facilitate her escape from the Nazis.
He cut the end of his left pinky off on purpose; taking it to his psychiatrist Herbert Wiggers, who admitted him to a mental hospital. He stated that the self mutilation was an initiation into the Crow Tribe. He later wrote a story about it entitled The Finger.
Burroughs was introduced to his future common law wife Joan by fellow author and addict Jack Kerouac who was dating her friend and the four moved in together.
In 1951, Burroughs killed Joan after shooting her in the head while playing William Tell.
In 1962 Naked Lunch was officially declared obscene by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer testified in defence of the book.
In 1966, courts rejected the obscenity charges against Naked Lunch marking the last major censorship hearing against written literature in the United States.
Burroughs’ son was one of the first Americans to get a liver transplant.
Take a close look at the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. Yes, that’s Burroughs next to Marilyn Monroe right in the middle.
Burroughs was a pioneer of The Gay Liberation Movement.
He was never without a gun, even in bed
He also had a custom made cane sword.
William S. Burroughs’ final words in his last journal entry were: “Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller what there is. Love.”
And that’s barely touching the surface of the fantastically surreal life that Burroughs lived. He was in a nike advert, Kurt Cobain went to visit him after collaborating on a spoken word ep, he was in a GAP commercial, he’s considered the Godfather of Punk, he made paintings using shotgun ammunition. The man was an enigma and he lived every second of his life to the fullest.
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