Pershing Avenue, an elm-lined street in St. Louis, is Middle America's testament to hard work, conventional behaviour, proper values, shared assumptions, and a sedentary, rooted, community-minded lifestyle. A cheerful bedroom in the three-storey house at 4664 Pershing, with its slate roof, spacious garden enclosed by high wooden fences adorned with morning glories and rose vines, and cosy interior, was where on 5th February 1914, that William Seward Burroughs II was born. His heritage blended two quintessential American archetypes: the Yankee inventor and the Southern preacher.
The inventor was his paternal grandfather. William Seward Burroughs, born in 1857 in Rochester, New York, was named after Lincoln’s Secretary of State, with hopes of future success. A talented and persuasive inventor, Burroughs spent seven years in white-collar work before founding his own company, which eventually employed 465 people. However, indifferent to wealth, he sold most of his shares and died at 41, leaving his children little more than a fleeting legacy, unlike the dynasties built by other entrepreneurs like the Fords and Rockefellers.
William Seward Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II’s maternal grandfather, James Wideman Lee, was a Methodist minister and a devout moraliser who spread the gospel over Georgia. In 1875, aged 26, he married 13-year-old Eufala Ledbetter, and they had twelve children, six of whom survived to adulthood, including Burroughs' mother, Laura, and his notable uncle, Ivy Ledbetter Lee. Ivy, a pioneer of modern public relations, advised John D. Rockefeller Jr. during a 1914 strike, promoting transparency and direct communication, which helped improve relations with workers and resolve the conflict.
Thus, William Seward Burroughs II inherited two forms of laissez-faire capitalism: his inventor grandfather created a machine that boosted clerical work, while his uncle Ivy employed preaching techniques to promote interests, debased language for trickery and deceit. However, Burroughs was a disowned heir, as his grandfather lost control of his corporation. In 1929, Burroughs’ father sold their remaining shares before the market crash, bringing home a cheque for £276,000. Burroughs, then fifteen, recalled, "With a mere quarter of a million in the bank, we were not accepted by families with ten, twenty, or fifty million."
McLean Building, St. Louis, Missouri, 1876
William Burroughs grew up in a family where displays of affection were frowned upon, despite being his mother's favourite. The family was not particularly religious, and although he shared a room with his brother, their communication was minimal. One early memory involves him throwing a ten-pin at his brother Mortimer after he refused to play. Laura Lee and Mortimer Burroughs married in 1910, lived briefly in Detroit, then returned to St. Louis, where Mortimer started a plate glass company. Though listed in the Social Register (a semi-annual publication in the United States that indexes the members of American high society), they weren’t members of the St. Louis Country Club (a privately-owned club, often with a membership quota and admittance by invitation or sponsorship). Their next-door neighbour was a prosperous hardware dealer who always wore a black tie and a high starched collar and commuted to his office in a Packard limousine.
The Burroughs household employed a gardener, maid, nanny, and cook who prepared lavish meals. They spent their summers in Harbour Beach, a picturesque town on Lake Huron. Despite the seemingly idyllic childhood, young William fell under the influence of the household staff. He described the old Irish cook as akin to a witch, teaching him how to summon toads. His Welsh nanny, Mary Evans, had peculiar expressions; whenever he asked how they were going to get somewhere, she would say, “By shank’s pony.” Once, when he suggested lighting the fire, she replied, “It will light”—and it did. To him, it seemed she possessed magical powers.
In September 1929, William left for Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico, one of the most expensive schools in the U.S. Its students included the sons of prominent figures like General Wood and the owner of Humble Oil. The self-sufficient community had around 200 people, including students, staff, and ranch workers. It had its own water supply and 400 acres of crops. The campus situated near a pine forest, which teemed with deer and wild turkey, and it was said the ratio of skunks to boys was about three to one. William felt the school was like a prison, not least because of its rigid daily routine.
Burroughs kept journals documenting an erotic attachment to another boy. A couple of times, William got Danny Franklin, a fellow student, to masturbate with him under the sheets with a flashlight, but then Danny told him it was all wrong, saying, “I think you’re going to be the sort of person who will be revolted by a naked woman.”
Burroughs was expelled from Los Alamos for purchasing chloral hydrate in Santa Fe, marking both the first time Burroughs bought a substance to alter consciousness and a serious embarrassment for his parents, leading to his father receiving a stern letter from the school’s headmaster. When his belongings arrived home, he anxiously searched for his diary, fearing his classmates had read it. Upon finding it, he was repulsed by its sentimentality and false emotions, and destroyed it to eliminate the vulnerable self it revealed.