Burroughs' own story, and how he unintentionally murdered his common-law wife, the writer Joan Vollmer, in 1951. That incident ultimately compelled Burroughs to write the novella "Queer" about his ...

T he Beat writer William S. Burroughs began his second book, Queer, just months after killing his wife, Joan Vollmer, at a party above the Bounty Bar in Mexico City. Though he completed the ...