William Burroughs, Sr., Burroughs’ paternal grandfather and inventor of the adding machine. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Laura Lee Burroughs with her sons, Mortimer and William. (Courtesy of William Cudlipp)

Bill Burroughs at the Los Alamos Ranch School, age fifteen. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

A. J. Connell, director of the Ranch School, and his dog, Peggy. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Below: William Burroughs (first row, left) and classmates at Los Alamos Ranch School, 1929. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Edith Parker (top), who married Jack Kerouac, and Joan Vollmer (bottom), who became Burroughs’ common-law wife, shared an apartment near Columbia University where the founders of the Beat Generation gathered. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, and Burroughs in the Columbia days. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Joan Vollmer shortly before her death in 1951. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Burroughs being questioned in the shooting of his wife, Mexico City, 1951. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Kiki and Burroughs in Tangier in 1957. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Kells Elvins, Burroughs’ boyhood friend, on a visit to Tangier. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Brion Gysin, portrait by Carl Van Vechten. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Maurice Girodias, who first published Naked Lunch. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

The psychedelic summer of 1961, Tangier. Left to right: Mikey Portman, Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Alan Ansen, Gregory Corso, Ian Sommerville. Sitting in front: Paul Bowles. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Jack Kerouac, shortly before his death in 1969. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Billy and his father, not long after Billy’s liver transplant in 1976. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Peter Orlovsky and Billy, not long before Billy’s death in 1981. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)

Two masters of the macabre, Burroughs and Charles Addams, 1986. (Courtesy of Arizona State University)