“I was around people who were using it. Then I started, you know, taking an occasional shot. It is, for most people, I think, a very pleasurable experience. After I’d had these experiences as an addict—I guess it was in 1950—I was living in Mexico City and someone suggested to me that I simply write up my experiences with heroin addiction, which I did. And that was my first book, Junkie. ”

Originally published in 1953 under the pseudonym “William Lee,” Junkie (or J-unk, its original title) is a harrowing document of William Burroughs’ 14year-old addiction to heroin—a document that still stands today, almost a quarter of a century later, as the definitive statement on that subject.