who was william s burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (/ËbÊroÊz/ ; also known by his pen name William Lee; February 5, 1914 â August 2, 1997) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer.inding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws.