KANSAS CITY, Mo. (August 2, 1997 11:45 p.m. EDT) -- William S. Burroughs, the stone-faced godfather of the "Beat generation" whose experimental novel "Naked Lunch" unleashed an underground world that defied narration, died Saturday. He was 83.
Burroughs died at 6:50 p.m. in Lawrence, Kan., at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, about 24 hours after suffering a heart attack, said Ira Silverberg, his longtime New York publicist.
"The passing of William Burroughs leaves us with few great American writers. His presence in the American literary landscape was unparalleled," Silverberg said.