Trivia

The acknowledgment given to him at the end of the film Blade Runner (1982) was for legal reasons. He had written a screenplay with an identical title (and completely different storyline), but it was never put into production.

Wrote one of the earliest exposes on Scientology.

In 1951 Burroughs and his common-law wife Joan got drunk at a party in Mexico City, where they were living (he was a heroin addict and she was addicted to Benzedrine, and drugs were easier to come by in Mexico). They decided to do a "William Tell" act with Joan balancing a glass on her head and Burroughs shooting it off with a gun. He missed and Joan was killed. This incident was later worked into the movie adaptation of Burroughs' novel "Naked Lunch" (Naked Lunch (1991)).

Did not start writing until he was 39 years old.

Was a good friend of Kurt Cobain. He was even asked to appear in Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" video as Jesus Christ, but later refused. He made an EP with Cobain titled "The Priest They Called Him".

His novel "Naked Lunch" provided the name for the famous rock group Steely Dan. "Steely Dan III From Yokohama" was the name of a rubber phallus used in the book.

In 1937, while studying medicine in Germany, he agreed to marry a German Jewish woman named Ilse Herzfeld Klapper so she could escape Nazi persecution and become a U.S. citizen. They never lived together, separating immediately upon entering the U.S., but remained friends, meeting weekly for lunch. Burroughs formally divorced her nine years later so he could marry his second wife, Joan.

Was addicted to heroin. This was a recurring theme throughout many of his novels.

Created the "cut-up" style of writing along with Brion Gysin, in which sections of a story are cut up and reassembled to create a new story. This technique is similar to the "tape collage" style of experimental music, which Burrough was known to dabble in.

After shooting his second wife Joan, he fled to Tangiers, Morocco, and remained there for many years, a fugitive in both his birth country of the U.S. and in his adopted homeland of Mexico.

Lived in Tangiers (Morocco) for several years, partly to avoid the legal and social fallout from shooting his wife when they were living in Mexico and partly because Tangiers was even cheaper to live in than Mexico, which meant that the allowance he got from his family trust fund allowed him to live in luxury.

Highlander (1986) director Russell Mulcahy bought the rights to Burroughs' novel "The Wild Boys" in the 1980s with the intention of making it into a feature film. When the project fell through, he used the book as the basis for the 1985 Duran Duran video of the same name.

The prosecution of Burroughs' book "Naked Lunch" by the Comonwealth of Massachusetts is considered the last major obscenity trial in the United States. The book was initially found obscene, but the Massachusetts Supreme Court overturned the decision on appeal in 1966. For the initial trial, Grove Press had gathered together an impressive list of "experts" such as Norman Mailer to defend the book, but Burroughs' modern classic initially lost and was declared obscene in Massachusetts. However, the state Supreme Court (Memoirs v. Massachusetts) found that the book "was not without social value, and therefore, not obscene." With the ruling, an era that began in 1870s when anti-smut crusader Anthony Comstock led the charge for stricter enforcement of obscenity laws by the federal and state governments came to an end.

Once lived in a windowless apartment in the basement of what used to be a YMCA. His friends often called the apartment "Bill's Bunker".

He is featured on the song "Just One Fix" by Ministry with a vocal speaking part. Like frontman Al Jourgensen, Burroughs was also a heroin addict.

Was an heir to the Burroughs Cash Register Co. fortune. A family trust fund allowed him to write without holding other jobs.

Produced several albums throughout the 1980s featuring spoken word and his own style of electronic music.

Was a good friend of Genesis P-Orridge, leader of the avant-garde/industrial band Throbbing Gristle. The two were frequent correspondents and great fans of each others' work, and P-Orridge collaborated with Burroughs on his tape work occasionally.

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 84-87. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

"Ah Pook is Here" was adapted for both animation and a Graphic Novel.

There happened to be a Mrs S Burrows of the Scilly Isles, whose claim to fame was that her cat ate a rare gray-cheeked thrush.

When he was a child, he had a vision of a cat-sized green reindeer while walking in a park.