WRITER

William S. Burroughs

1914 - 1997

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William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays, and five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences; he was initially briefly known by the pen name William Lee. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of William S. Burroughs has received more than 6,025,501 page views. His biography is available in 59 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 55 in 2019). William S. Burroughs is the 568th most popular writer (down from 474th in 2019), the 580th most popular biography from United States (down from 479th in 2019) and the 55th most popular American Writer.

William S. Burroughs is most famous for his novel "Naked Lunch" and for his work as a spoken word artist.

Memorability Metrics

  • 6.0M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 65.96

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 59

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.69

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.85

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The Soft Machine
1961
Naked Lunch
1959
The wild boys
1971
The ticket that exploded
1962
Nova Express
1964
Junkie
1953

Page views of William S. Burroughs by language

Over the past year William S. Burroughs has had the most page views in the with 803,406 views, followed by Russian (109,347), and Spanish (62,030). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Indonesian (4,584.21%), Breton (66.91%), and Macedonian (50.10%)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, William S. Burroughs ranks 568 out of 7,302. Before him are Ausonius, Marina Tsvetaeva, Sidney Sheldon, A. A. Milne, Faxian, and Romain Gary. After him are Al-Zamakhshari, Harry Martinson, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Jaroslav Seifert, Laurence Sterne, and Denis of Portugal.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1914, William S. Burroughs ranks 19. Before him are Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Richard Widmark, Mohammed Zahir Shah, Bohumil Hrabal, Abd al-Karim Qasim, and Romain Gary. After him are Willi Stoph, Lída Baarová, Joe Louis, Aribert Heim, Richard Laurence Millington Synge, and Karl Carstens. Among people deceased in 1997, William S. Burroughs ranks 21. Before him are The Notorious B.I.G., Roy Lichtenstein, Bohumil Hrabal, Chaim Herzog, Sviatoslav Richter, and Hans Eysenck. After him are Fred Zinnemann, Isaiah Berlin, Allen Ginsberg, Bảo Đại, Helenio Herrera, and Dodi Fayed.

Others Born in 1914

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Others Deceased in 1997

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In United States

Among people born in United States, William S. Burroughs ranks 580 out of 20,380. Before him are Babe Ruth (1895), Harry Belafonte (1927), Roy Orbison (1936), Sidney Sheldon (1917), Stanley Cohen (1922), and Matt Damon (1970). After him are Hugh Everett III (1930), Jennifer Aniston (1969), Frank Abagnale (1948), Julianne Moore (1960), Carrie Fisher (1956), and Glen Campbell (1936).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, William S. Burroughs ranks 55. Before him are Alvin Toffler (1928), Tennessee Williams (1911), Richard Bach (1936), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804), T. S. Eliot (1888), and Sidney Sheldon (1917). After him are James Baldwin (1924), Allen Ginsberg (1926), Ellen G. White (1827), Theodore Dreiser (1871), Napoleon Hill (1883), and John Irving (1942).

American born Writers

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