Burroughs, William S(eward) 1914–

Burroughs is an American novelist best known for Naked Lunch, which was based in large part on the author's years as a drug addict and which became the center of a storm of controversy upon publication. Burroughs's fiction is characterized by such experimental techniques as "folding-in" or "cutting-up" in which his own writing or the works of other authors are reorganized so that words and events occur in random sequence, achieving a hallucinatory, surreal effect. He influenced beat writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and has collaborated with Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Gregory Corso, and Sinclair Beiles. (See also CLC, Vols. 1, 2, 5, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 9-12, rev. ed.)