Augusten Burroughs

Augusten Xon Burroughs was born Christopher Richter Robison on October 23, 1965, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He became an American writer best known for Running with Scissors, his 2002 New York Times bestselling memoir. His family background was literary and academic: his mother, Margaret Robison, was a poet, and his father, John G. Robison, was former head of the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Burroughs was the younger of two sons, eight years behind his brother, fellow memoirist John Elder Robison.

His childhood was spent in several Massachusetts towns, including Shutesbury, Amherst, and Northampton. After his parents divorced in 1978, his mother sent the 12-year-old Christopher to live with the family of her psychiatrist, Dr. Rodolph Harvey Turcotte. Turcotte’s large, ramshackle Northampton property held an ever-changing group of children, adopted children, and patients. Burroughs’ mother gave Turcotte legal guardianship, and Turcotte, who believed children became adults at 13, allowed him to drop out of sixth grade a few months after he arrived. Burroughs later earned a GED at 17.

At 18, while living on his own in Boston, he legally changed his name to Augusten Xon Burroughs. He enrolled at Holyoke Community College as a pre-med student but left before the end of the first semester. He then moved to New York City and worked for a Manhattan advertising company. In 1996, he sought treatment for alcoholism at a rehabilitation center in Minnesota and returned to Manhattan afterward. Those experiences, from unstable childhood arrangements to advertising work and recovery, became recurring material in his books.

Burroughs’ first novel, Sellevision, was published in 2000. His memoir Running with Scissors followed in 2002 and became the work most associated with his name. In 2006 it was made into a film directed by Ryan Murphy, produced by Brad Pitt, and starring Joseph Cross, Brian Cox, Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Evan Rachel Wood. Bening received a Golden Globe nomination for her role. Burroughs continued with Dry in 2003, about his experience during and after treatment for alcoholism, as well as the memoir essay collections Magical Thinking and Possible Side Effects.

His later books include A Wolf at the Table, released in 2008 and centered on his relationship with his father; You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas in 2009; This Is How in 2012; Lust & Wonder in 2016; and Toil & Trouble in 2019, about coming out as “a witch” and moving with his husband from New York City to a mansion in Connecticut. In 2023 he published the children’s book My Little Thief, illustrated by Bonnie Lui. His writing has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, House & Garden, BlackBook, New York, The Times, Bark, Attitude, and Out, and he wrote a monthly column for Details.

Burroughs’ work has also drawn public dispute. In 2007, he and St. Martin’s Press settled a lawsuit brought by Turcotte’s family over Running with Scissors; Burroughs maintained that the memoir was accurate, while future editions acknowledged conflicting memories and expressed regret for any unintentional harm. Outside his books, he has spoken in favor of full legal rights for same-sex couples. He married his longtime agent and companion Christopher Schelling in 2013. His appeal rests in the directness of his life material: family, recovery, love, work, and self-definition, written without hiding the mess.