Which Beat poet wrote the 1958 novel Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict under a pseudonym?

William S. Burroughs wrote the 1953 novel Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict under the pseudonym William Lee. The question’s commonly cited 1958 date refers to a later edition, while the first American publication appeared in 1953 through Ace Books.

Burroughs used the pseudonym partly because the book dealt openly with drug use and addiction. Carl Solomon, who later became associated with Ginsberg’s “Howl,” helped Burroughs obtain the publishing opportunity. The novel presents an episodic account of drug dependence, criminalized markets, and the routines of addiction.

Junkie is often confused with Naked Lunch, Burroughs’s later and much more formally experimental novel. Junkie is comparatively direct and documentary in style, while Naked Lunch uses fragmentation, satire, and surreal imagery.

The title has appeared in several forms, including Junkie and Junky. “William Lee” is the pseudonym attached to the first edition, not Burroughs’s legal name.