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, credited as 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 also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians and made many appearances in films. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of William S. Burroughs has received more than 4,373,952 page views. His biography is available in 54 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 53 in 2019). William S. Burroughs is the 449th most popular writer (down from 395th in 2019), the 455th most popular biography from United States (down from 339th in 2019) and the 48th 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

  • 4.4M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 74.87

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 54

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 5.56

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.25

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

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Among WRITERS

Among writers, William S. Burroughs ranks 449 out of 5,794. Before him are Edgar Rice Burroughs, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Ilya Ehrenburg, Enid Blyton, Comte de Lautréamont, and Johannes V. Jensen. After him are Pierre de Marivaux, Henri Barbusse, Sayyid Qutb, Lysias, Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, and Louisa May Alcott.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1914, William S. Burroughs ranks 12. Before him are Marguerite Duras, Tenzing Norgay, Romain Gary, Michael Wittmann, Jiang Qing, and Julio Cortázar. After him are Mohammed Zahir Shah, Alec Guinness, Octavio Paz, Richard Widmark, Tyrone Power, and Bohumil Hrabal. Among people deceased in 1997, William S. Burroughs ranks 18. Before him are Roy Lichtenstein, Anton LaVey, Hans Eysenck, Sviatoslav Richter, Paulo Freire, and The Notorious B.I.G.. After him are Allen Ginsberg, Bảo Đại, Bohumil Hrabal, Isaiah Berlin, Clyde Tombaugh, and Fred Zinnemann.

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 455 out of 15,968. Before him are John Dillinger (1903), The Notorious B.I.G. (1972), Christopher Reeve (1952), Jessica Lange (1949), Sidney Poitier (1927), and Louis Zamperini (1917). After him are Jared Diamond (1937), Edgar Cayce (1877), Franklin Pierce (1804), William McKinley (1843), Warren G. Harding (1865), and John Coltrane (1926).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, William S. Burroughs ranks 48. Before him are Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804), Thomas Wolfe (1900), Kurt Vonnegut (1922), Sylvia Plath (1932), Tom Clancy (1947), and Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875). After him are Louisa May Alcott (1832), T. S. Eliot (1888), Theodore Dreiser (1871), Susan Sontag (1933), Tennessee Williams (1911), and Sidney Sheldon (1917).

American born Writers

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