William Burroughs (1914-1997) was an American writer and visual artist, best-known for his controversial novels such as Junkie (1953) and Naked Lunch (1959). Hugely influential, Burroughs’ postmodern literature inspired a wide range of American culture and politics in the post-war era and beyond. Burroughs was one of the primary figures of the Beat Generation, alongside Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac; a literary movement which rejected standard traditional values and economic materialism and promoted the exploration of spiritualism, sexual liberation and the experimentation with psychedelic drugs.

Burroughs was also a visual artist, who exhibited his drawings and paintings extensively in the last decade of his life, with his work having featured in galleries and museums worldwide, including the Royal Academy of the Arts, Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art and the Centre Pompidou.

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