Word: burroughses
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Burroughs' compulsion to write stemmed from a personal tragedy, he said in his 1982 biography. In Mexico in 1951, Burroughs--drunk and on drugs--accidentally shot and killed his wife of five years, Joan Vollmer, in an attempt to shoot a glass off her head. Burroughs served a short sentence...
Later in his life, Burroughs acknowledged that he was homosexual and said Vollmer was the only woman with whom he had ever had a serious relationship.
Burroughs ended 15 years of heroin addiction by taking apomorphine and went on to write his first book Junky, published in 1953, about his years as an addict.
Although critics have diverged greatly in their estimations of the literary merit of Burroughs' non-traditional work, the author was an important influence for fellow beats Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who met Burroughs while he was living in New York in the 1940s.
In his later years, Burroughs moved to Kansas with secretary and companion James Grauerholz and began writing more conventional narratives. He also dabbled in the visual arts and appeared in several films including "Drugstore Cowboy" and "Twister" as well as a Nike commercial.