William Saroyan
4 Remarkable Characteristics of William Saroyan
Uneducated writer
Wrote about what he knew
Stuck to his own values and didn’t cave in
Bigger than life
When deciding on the first person to write about for Remarkable Armenians, it needed to be not only a “remarkable Armenian” but a person who spoke for Armenians around the world. That is why William Saroyan is the first choice for Remarkable Armenians.
William Saroyan was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright and short story writer. He gave international recognition to his people at a time when they remained dispersed and continued to meet with prejudice and outright hatred. Through his work he brought more public understanding to the culture and the quality of the Armenian people than any other person in Armenian history up to that time. By international standards, Saroyan is the most famous literary figure produced by his ancient people. http://kaliniansaroyan.com/biography/wsaroyan
The Early Years - The uneducated writer
William Stonehill Saroyan was born in 1908 in Fresno, California, the fourth child of Armenak and Takoohi Saroyan from Bitlis, Ottoman Empire. His father died when William was three and he and his siblings were placed in the Fred Finch Orphanage in Oakland for five years until they were reunited with their mother in Fresno. Takoohi’s mother, Lucy, joined the household and became a strong influence on William. He dropped out of school at 13 and enrolled in typing classes at a technical school. He became so interested in writing that one of his childhood friends remembered that by the time Saroyan was 14 he had stopped playing with his friends. Instead he would set up his typewriter in the kitchen and write for hours.
His Writings- Wrote about what he knew
A few of Saroyan’s early short stories were published in Overland Monthly in the 1930’s. Many of his stories were based on his childhood experiences. His big break came in 1934 with the publication of his story “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze” in Story Magazine about a young starving writer who tries to survive during the Great Depression. This was followed by the publication of a collection of short stories under the same name by Random House Publishers. By the time he was 30 years old Saroyan had published six books and had three plays running simultaneously on Broadway.
Among his best-known plays is “The Time of Your Life” (1939) set in a waterfront saloon in San Francisco. It won a Pulitzer prize which he refused but accepted the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the play. In 1948 the play was adapted as a movie starring James Cagney.
One of Saroyan’s earlier books “My Name is Aram” is a collection of short stories about a young Armenian boy and the colorful characters in his immigrant family. Published in 1940 it became an international bestseller and was a Book-of-the-Month choice. In this book, Saroyan acknowledged Armenian culture as an important source of literary inspiration.
In 1943 he published “The Human Comedy” about a young telegraph messenger who becomes a witness to the sorrows and joys of small-town people during WWII. The story was bought by MGM and the screenplay, written by Saroyan, won the Oscar for the Best Original Motion Picture Story.
The Personal Travels - Stuck to his own values and didn’t cave
Diana Der Hovanessian, a writer, poet, teacher and translator of Armenian poetry into English remembers admiring Saroyan’s ability to make it look “light and easy, poignant and funny, ethnic and so American all at the same time. He appeared in the grim 30’s and 40’s just when American writing needed him. And with Hemingway and Faulkner, he was one of the big three…”
~ Armine Iknadossian, Armenian Reporter, August 2, 2008
In 1958 Saroyan headed for Europe with no clear plan. He loved traveling from one country to another. While living in Paris he wrote several plays which were very popular in Eastern Europe, especially Czechoslovakia. Diana Der Hovanessian said his work translated very well. In many European countries he is taught as one of the most significant American writers.
Saroyan visited Armenia four times from 1935 to 1978 and found himself at ease not only with the established and emerging writers but with the “man on the street”. After his first trip he had this to say: “I’m no Armenian. I’m an American. Well, the truth is I am both and neither. I love Armenia and I love America and I belong to both, but I am only this; an inhabitant of the earth, and so are you, whoever you are. I tried to forget Armenia but I couldn’t do it.” In a documentary about his life Saroyan said “My birthplace is California, but I can’t forget Armenia. I have always been an Armenian writer, only my writing is in English.”
Throughout the milestones in his life, Saroyan continued to write hundreds of pieces; plays, books, essays, collections of stories and unbelievably he found time for art. He was an accomplished artist who created hundreds of drawings and paintings during his lifetime.
He said “The drawings and paintings were part of my writing, partly of my finding out about writing, and about how I would live my life and write my writing.” ~ Artwork by William Saroyan/WS Foundation
His Legacy - Bigger than life
In 1966 Saroyan established the William Saroyan Foundation to be the steward of his legacy: to preserve and promote his life’s work, and to support promising young writers as they advance their careers. In 1997 the Board of the Foundation decided to place Saroyan’s entire collection of written work in Special Collections at Stanford University libraries, now designated as the William Saroyan Archive.
Ten years after his death the United States and Armenia issued The Saroyan Stamp which was part of the Postal Service’s Literary Arts Series, which also included stamps honoring William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, T.S. Eliot, John Steinbeck and Marianne Moore.
An international prize for writing in his name was established in 2004 over 20 years after his death by the Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation. Prizes are awarded biennially for newly published books and to encourage new or emerging writers and to honor the Saroyan legacy of originality, vitality and endurance.
Another prize, The Saroyan/Paul Human Rights Playwriting Prize is sponsored by the William Saroyan Foundation and the Lillian and Varnum Paul Fund at the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America and administered by The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance. $10,000 is awarded biennially to the original play that best explores socially and politically charged themes about Human Rights/Social Justice. https://massispost.com/2017/04/adaa-presents-saroyanpaul-human-rights-playwriting-prize/
He served in the Army during WWII even though he was a pacifist and was stationed in New York and London. He married Carol Marcus, an actress and had two children. Aram became a writer and Lucy, an actress. He was a proud American but at the same time he was proud to be an Armenian. Quote from Saroyan: “It is simply in the nature of Armenians to study, to learn, to question, to speculate, to discover, to invent, to revise, to restore, to preserve, to make and to give.”
Saroyan died in 1981 at the age of 72. Half of his ashes are buried in Fresno, California and the other half have been interred at the Pantheon in Yerevan, Armenia. Since that time more of his works have been published. I ask you all to visit your local libraries and take out books written by Armenians so they will stay in circulation. Most libraries throw books out weekly so we must be vigilant. Buy a book written by an Armenian for a loved one. And remember to educate yourself!
William Saroyan’s most famous quote is taken from the end of a short story he wrote in 1935. It was first published in the collection of short stories entitled “Inhale and Exhale”. It is about the survival of the Armenian people after the genocide of 1915.
“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.”