Cover of original 1953 edition, published by Ace Books.

Semi-autobiographical first novel by William S. Burroughs, written 1950-1952, renamed Junkie when first published in 1953 (under the pseudonym, “William Lee”), and later released as Junky. Starkly compelling literature, and considerably more lucid than the subsequent experimental texts for which Burroughs is better known.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkie_(novel)

Burroughs, William S., and Oliver Harris. Junky : the definitive text of ‘Junk’. London: Penguin, 2008. (Contains a number of texts left out of previous editions, and an informative introduction by Oliver Harris.)