 WILLIAM SAROYAN
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1908 in Fresno California to Armenian immigrant
parents, William (Aram) Saroyan would go on to become one of the top writers of the
mid twentieth century. An incredibly talented writer, Saroyan tried
his hand successfully at almost everything. Novels, plays, songs, and
short stories all grace this writer's resume.His birthplace of
Fresno and his experiences in the San Joaquin Valley proved useful to his
later writing. His father died when he was three years old, after
which he was sent to an orphanage for four years. He left school at
the young age of 15 and decided to become a writer. This decision was
based partly on his own father's attempts at writing. His experience
with death at such a young age, his time spent in the orphanage, and in
later years, his formal schooling, created the "joyous sorrow"
which characterizes Saroyan's works.
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By 1920, Saroyan
was able to live off of his writing, though mainstream recognition was only
given after 1934's short story "The Daring Young Man on the Flying
Trapeze". In 1939 My Heart's in the Highlands opened to
critical acclaim. His next big step came with the play Time of Your Life
later in the same year, which was given the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Though he refused the prize for himself on grounds that art should not be
given awards, especially by the rich who had no understanding of such
things. However, he did accept the Drama Critic's Circle Award in
that same year. Shortly after, in 1940, he again established himself
in the genre of short stories with his collection titled My Name is Aram. 1940 also found Saroyan at MGM filming The Human Comedy. This novel
turned movie won the Academy Award for best picture and original story for
the play.
Saroyan joined
the Army during World War II. His absence from Broadway during the war
would prove fatal for his career as a playwright. After the war,
public interest in his work was quickly declining due to changes in opinion
and taste. Cave Dwellers was the one exception to his exodus from New
York, the play opened in 1957.
He married
socialite Carol Marcus in 1943. They had two children, Aram and Lucy,
and divorced after six years. Though they were to remarry, the union
was one doomed to failure. They divorced for the second and final time
two years later.
Though interest in his work declined, Saroyan remained a
popular figure and continued to write. He began to write in the style
of the memoir, Bicycle Rider of Beverly Hills (1952) Short Drive, Sweet
Chariot (1966). His last major book Obituaries (1979) received a
National Book Award nomination.
Saroyan died in
1981 in his birthplace of Fresno, California, a hero of Armenian-American
people. Half his ashes were shipped to Armenia for burial. In 1991,
Saroyan was honored by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. Postal services when a joint
stamp was issued in his honor.
Saroyan leaves behind a bibliography of over fifty
published
works and more unpublished.
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