Which Beat Generation writer wrote the novel Junkie, published under the name William Lee?

William S. Burroughs wrote the novel Junkie, published under the name William Lee.

Junkie appeared in 1953, with Ace Books issuing it as part of its paperback crime-fiction list. Burroughs used the pseudonym William Lee, which later became one of the names associated with his fictional and autobiographical writing.

The book presents drug addiction, street life, and criminal subcultures in a restrained, report-like style. Its subject matter and paperback format initially placed it near pulp literature, but later readers recognized it as an important early work by a major experimental novelist.

Junkie is sometimes confused with Naked Lunch, Burroughs’s more formally radical later novel. Naked Lunch was published in parts in the 1950s and in book form in 1959, whereas Junkie is the earlier, comparatively conventional account of addiction and drug-seeking.