William S. Burroughs was one of the must influential writers during 20th century. His crazy, drug influenced literature meant a major inspiration for the beat generation poets, as well as for many rock, punk and electronic musicians, among others. He was born at Saint Louis, MO, in 1914, (as the grandson of the inventor of the adding machine) and studied at Harvard. It was after a period in jail (after he accidentally killed his wife, Joan, in Mexico City) that he defined his literary drive.