Editor’s spotlight — updated daily
William S. Burroughs
United States
William S. Burroughs, born in St. Louis in 1914, became a seminal Beat Generation writer best known for his novel Naked Lunch, which was prosecuted for obscenity in Massachusetts until the state Supreme Court overturned the ban in 1966. He shot and killed his wife Joan in 1951 in a notorious incident. Burroughs acted in films such as Drugstore Cowboy and influenced punk and industrial music.
