William
Saroyan
William Saroyan, (b. Aug. 31, 1908,
Fresno, Calif., U.S.—d. May 18, 1981,
Fresno), U.S. writer who made his
initial impact during the Depression
with a deluge of brash, original, and
irreverent stories celebrating the joy
of living in spite of poverty, hunger,
and insecurity.
The son of an Armenian immigrant,
Saroyan left school at 15 and educated
himself by reading and writing. His
first collection of stories, The Daring
Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934),
was soon followed by another collection,
Inhale and Exhale (1936). His first
play, My Heart’s in the Highlands, was
brilliantly produced by the Group
Theatre in 1939. In 1940 Saroyan refused
the Pulitzer Prize for his play The Time
of Your Life (performed 1939) on the
grounds that it was “no more great or
good” than anything else he had written.
Saroyan was concerned with the basic
goodness of all people, especially the
obscure and naive, and the value of
life. His mastery of the vernacular
makes his characters vibrantly alive.
Most of his stories are based on his
childhood and family, notably the
collection My Name Is Aram (1940) and
the novel The Human Comedy (1943). His
novels, such as Rock Wagram (1951) and
The Laughing Matter (1953), were
inspired by his own experiences of
marriage, fatherhood, and divorce.
From 1958 on, Saroyan lived mostly in
Paris for “tax purposes,” though he
continued to maintain a home in Fresno,
Calif., where he had been born and
raised. The autobiographical element was
strong in all his work, usually
disguised as fiction; but some of his
later memoirs, consisting of vignettes
and brief essays written largely in
Paris and Fresno, have their own
enduring value. They include Here Comes,
There Goes You Know Who (1961), Not
Dying (1963), Days of Life and Death and
Escape to the Moon (1971), and Places
Where I’ve Done Time (1975).
