Why did William Burroughs shot his wife?
Having, according to him, accidently aimed low, his bullet struck Vollmer’s head, killing her. Burroughs himself mythologized the event, claiming it was the genesis of his becoming a writer, while distancing himself from it, as well, seeing it evidence of an “invader,” or “Ugly Spirit” inside him.
What happened to William Burroughs son?
Burroughs Jr. underwent a liver transplant in 1976 after developing cirrhosis. He died in 1981, at the age of 33, from alcoholism and liver failure.
Is William S Burroughs a good writer?
William S. Burroughs was a Beat Generation writer known for his startling, nontraditional accounts of drug culture, most famously in the book ‘Naked Lunch. ‘
How old was William Burroughs when he died?
83 years (1914–1997)William S. Burroughs / Age at death
He was 83. The cause of his death was a heart attack that he suffered on Friday, his publicist, Ira Silverberg, said. Over the years, Mr. Burroughs had lived in such places as New York, London, Paris, Mexico City and Tangier.
What happened to William Burroughs daughter?
Death. On September 6th, 1951, Burroughs shot Vollmer in the head, allegedly while trying to shoot a glass he had asked her to balance on her head during a drunken William Tell act. Vollmer died several hours after being shot in the head, at the age of 28.
Did William Burroughs go to jail for shooting his wife?
She died a few hours later. She was 28. Burroughs initially claimed he dropped the gun and it accidentally fired. He spent 13 days in a Mexico City jail while his brother traveled to Mexico and bribed officials to release Burroughs on bail.
What did William S Burroughs drink?
Tequila, vodka and coke Due to his time in Mexico and Texas, Burroughs was known to have consumed a lot of tequila. His wife, Joan, when she was not busy drinking Benzedrine coffee, was a heavy tequila drinker in those years, too. In his later days, though, Burroughs preferred vodka.
Is William S Burroughs related to Edgar Rice Burroughs?
Douglas Adams was a bodyguard to a Middle Eastern family of oil magnates; Tarzan creator (and William Burroughs’ namesake) Edgar Rice Burroughs was a pencil sharpener salesman. But William Burroughs, who was born in 1914, started out working as an exterminator in Chicago.
What is William S Burroughs known for?
Burroughs, in full William Seward Burroughs, (born February 5, 1914, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.—died August 2, 1997, Lawrence, Kansas), American writer of experimental novels that evoke, in deliberately erratic prose, a nightmarish, sometimes wildly humorous world.
Where did Burroughs shoot his wife?
What did Jack Kerouac smoke?
He was smoking Camels, drinking whiskey from a medicine vial and chasing it with Falstaff beer in a half-quart can,” the paper later reported. Kerouac complained a lot that day: about his hernia, and his finances. Shortly after he died, his wife admitted that he had been drinking heavily.
How much did Jack Kerouac drink daily?
His routine beverage, however, was the Boilermaker: one biographer records him drinking a liver-savaging average of fourteen an hour from morning to night.