William Saroyan
William Saroyan (1908-1981) was an American author. His works include The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934), The Human Comedy (1943), One Day in the Afternoon of the World (1964).[1]
Life and works
William Saroyan was born in Armenia on August 31, 1908.[2] Before he was born, his father left the town of Bitlis for New York, where he raised money for the whole family to go to America, and in 1908, they moved to California.[3] When his father died, his mother could not support the family, and he and his siblings lived in an orphanage in Oakland until their mother could take them back to Fresno.[4] He sold newspapers at age eight and attended public school until being kicked out at age 15, when he decided to try his hand at writing; after six years of trying, his The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories (1934) was published.[5] The titular story, "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze," takes its name from an old song, and depicts a writer struggling in the Great Depression.[6] He also wrote a play, Time in Your Life (1939) that won a Pulitzer Prize, but he rejected the Pulitzer.[7] Using his knowledge of fatherhood, marriage, and divorce, he wrotethe short story collection My Name Is Aram (1940) and the novels The Human Comedy (1943), Rock Wagram (1951) and The Laughing Matter (1953).[8] As his career continued, his caustic personality and egocentricity blurred the quality of his works, and critics began to ignore them.[9]
He died May 18, 1981, in Fresno.
References
- â The New York Public Library Student's Desk Reference. Prentice Hall, New York: 1991.
- â http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/william-saroyan-is-born
- â http://www.williamsaroyansociety.org/biographical-sketch/
- â http://literary-destinations.com/authors/william-saroyan/biography
- â http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-literature-biographies/william-saroyan
- â http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/William_Saroyan
- â http://users.dickinson.edu/~wronski/saroyan/biotest.html
- â "Saroyan, William." Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
- â http://home.uchicago.edu/~coleman/public_html/overview.html
External links
- Website of the William Saroyan Society
- Extensive Biography by Armeniapedia