William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 - August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. Burroughs was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author whose influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays. Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences.
Burroughs finished high school at Taylor School in Clayton, Missouri, and in 1932, left home to pursue an arts degree at Harvard University, where he was affiliated with Adams House. During the summers, he worked as a cub reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering the police docket. He disliked the work, and refused to cover some events, like the death of a drowned child. He lost his virginity in an East St. Louis, Illinois brothel that summer with a female prostitute whom he regularly patronized. While at Harvard, Burroughs made trips to New York City and was introduced to the gay subculture there. He visited lesbian dives, piano bars, and the Harlem and Greenwich Village homosexual underground with Richard Stern, a wealthy friend from Kansas City. They would drive from Boston to New York in a reckless fashion. Once, Stern scared Burroughs so badly that he asked to be let out of the vehicle. Burroughs graduated from Harvard in 1936. According to Ted Morgan's Literary Outlaw, His parents, upon his graduation, had decided to give him a monthly allowance of $200 out of their earnings from Cobblestone Gardens, a substantial sum in those days. It was enough to keep him going, and indeed it guaranteed his survival for the next twenty-five years, arriving with welcome regularity. The allowance was a ticket to freedom; it allowed him to live where he wanted to and to forgo employment. Burroughs' parents sold the rights to his grandfather's invention and had no share in the Burroughs Corporation. Shortly before the 1929 stock market crash, they sold their stock for $200,000 (equivalent to approximately $2,850,388 in today's funds).

Q: What year did Burroughs attend Harvard?
A: and in 1932, left home to pursue an arts degree at Harvard University,

Q: What did Burroughs study at Harvard?
A: he was affiliated with Adams House.
What is significant about his time at Harvard University?
During the summers, he worked as a cub reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering the police docket. While at Harvard, Burroughs made trips to New York City and was introduced to the gay subculture there. He visited lesbian dives, piano bars, and the Harlem During the summers, he worked as a cub reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering the police docket. While at Harvard, Burroughs made trips to New York City and was introduced to the gay subculture there.
While at Harvard, Burroughs made trips to New York City and was introduced to the gay subculture there.