Anthony Burgess was born on February 25, 1917 in Manchester, England. His full name is John Anthony Burgess Wilson. Burgess spoke eight languages other than English. He wrote A Clockwork Orange based on the death of his wife during World War II. She was assaulted while he was at war and she died about a month after that from internal bleeding. She was pregnant at the time and the baby was also killed. Anthony Burgess died of cancer at age seventy-six, on November 25, 1993.