William Seward Burroughs, Jr., was a second-generation Beat both literally and artistically. The son of William S. Burroughs, one of the major Beat writers, Burroughs, Jr., carried on the Beats' romantic quest for extreme experiences in his own restless life dominated by addiction to drugs and alcohol. His drug experiences, travels, and friendships coincided with the youth revolt of the 1960s, which was partially inspired by the books of Burroughs's father and his father's friends--Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and others. Like his mentors, Burroughs, Jr., sought to give shape and meaning to his experience in an autobiographical series of books that chronicle his life story. But the younger Burroughs developed a voice, style, and vision of the world that was his own; and he moved away from the autobiographical fiction of his models toward straightforward autobiography.

William S. Burroughs, Jr., was born in Conroe, Texas, on 21 July 1947, to...