William S. Burroughs’s 1953 novel Junkie was published under the pseudonym William Lee.
The book is a semi-autobiographical account of drug addiction, drug dealing, and life on the margins of postwar American society. Its original title was Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict, and Ace Books issued it as a paperback aimed partly at the sensational drug-fiction market.
Burroughs used “William Lee,” a name that also appears in later versions and adaptations of his work. The novel’s direct, documentary style differs from the fragmented experimental form of his best-known book, Naked Lunch, published in 1959.
A common mix-up is treating Junkie and Naked Lunch as the same work. Junkie was Burroughs’s first published novel and follows a more linear narrative, while Naked Lunch is a much more radically disjointed exploration of addiction, power, and control.