BURROUGHS, WILLIAM (1914-), U.S. Novelist

Called the "writer and oracle of the Beat Generation," Burroughs rebelled against his upper-class background, depicting it in his novels as dull, lifeless, and oppressive. Throughout his youth and early adulthood, Burroughs sought alternatives to what he saw as the empty existence of the bourgeoisie. He eventually found what he was looking for when he was introduced to morphine in 1944. Burroughs saw in drugs the possibility of breaking free of social conditioning and of expanding his consciousness, and he made addiction a way of life for the next fifteen years. Since the late 1950s, when he gave up his drug habit, Burroughs has devoted himself to writing. His works included Naked Lunch, which a Boston court declared to be obscene in 1965, Queer, and many others. In his revolt against bourgeois convention, Burroughs created a new novel form known as the pop-art novel, which includes elements of popular culture usually ignored by literary writers. Although he was married twice, Burroughs has lived in New York since 1974 with James Grauerholz, who acts as his companion, secretary, and agent.