Burrough's Grove Press publisher has recently completed selection of a still-to-be-titled collection of the author's writings, scheduled to be published in 1998.

His books, said by author Norman Mailer to reflect "the only American writer today who may conceivably be possessed by genius," include his first work, Junkie, published in 1953. Others are, Tornado Alley, The Wild Boys, and Cities of the Red Night. Burroughs also distinguished himself with sculptures and works of photography. The Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence held a 1996 exhibition of artworks by Burroughs, titled "Ports of Entry."

The author's death came suddenly and without warning. He is said to have felt quite well before collapsing Friday. A cameo appearance of Burroughs can be seen in U2's rock video "Last Night on Earth," filmed in Kansas three months ago.

In 1991 Naked Lunch was turned into a film.

A November tribute was paid Burroughs at the University of Kansas. There, Deborah Harry (former Blondie lead) and Michael Stipe of R.E.M. performed in the author's honor.

Burroughs reportedly said that the whole of his life had been spent "resisting" his own dark force--the worst integrated aspects of his own being. He is said to have killed his wife, Joan Vollmer, in a befogged William Tell type accident, one in which he attempted to shoot a water glass off of her head. He later announced that Ms. Vollmer's death had been a primary prompt for him to write. Though a Harvard graduate he'd held unusual jobs including such professions as bug exterminator and private eye.

The writer is said to have stopped smoking at age 77 and to have lived surrounded by cats for over fifteen years in Lawrence Kansas, a college town.

Naked Lunch, Burroughs' most highly acclaimed novel, was written in Tangier, Morocco and published in Paris in 1959. It was refused publication in the United States until 1962 after Burroughs won a landmark anti-censorship case at the Supreme Court level.