William Styron
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William Clark Styron Jr. (June 11, 1925 – November 1, 2006) was an American
novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...
and essayist who won major literary awards for his work.


Early life

Styron was born in the
Hilton Village Hilton Village is a planned English-village-style neighborhood in Newport News, Virginia. Recognized as a pioneering development in urban planning, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The neighborhood was built between 191 ...
historic district of
Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an Independent city (United States), independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the List of c ...
, the son of Pauline Margaret (Abraham) and William Clark Styron. His birthplace was less than a hundred miles from the site of Nat Turner's slave rebellion, the inspiration for Styron's most famous and controversial novel. Styron's mother was from the
North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...
while his father was a Southern liberal, laying out broad racial perspectives in the household. Styron's father, a shipyard engineer, suffered clinical depression, as would later Styron himself. In 1939, at age 14, Styron lost his mother after her decade-long battle with
breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...
. Styron attended public school in Warwick County, first at Hilton School and then at Morrison High School (now known as Warwick High School) for two years, until his father sent him to Christchurch School, an Episcopal college-preparatory school in the Tidewater region of Virginia. Styron once said "of all the schools I attended ... only Christchurch ever commanded something more than mere respect—which is to say, my true and abiding affection." On graduation, Styron enrolled in Davidson College and joined Phi Delta Theta. By age eighteen he was reading the writers who would have a lasting influence on his own work, especially Thomas Wolfe. Styron transferred to Duke University in 1943 as a part of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps V-12 program aimed at fast-tracking officer candidates by enrolling them simultaneously in basic training and bachelor's degree programs. There he published his first fiction, a short story heavily influenced by
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...
, in an anthology of student work . Styron published several short stories in the university literary magazine, ''The Archive'', between 1944 and 1946. Though Styron was made a
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
in the U.S. Marine Corps, the Japanese surrendered before his ship left
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. After the war, he returned to full-time studies at Duke and completed his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English in 1947.


Career

After graduation, Styron took an editing position with McGraw-Hill in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. Styron later recalled the misery of this work in an autobiographical passage of ''Sophie’s Choice''. After provoking his employers into firing him, he set about writing his first novel in earnest. Three years later, he published the novel, '' Lie Down in Darkness'' (1951), the story of a dysfunctional Virginia family. The novel received overwhelming critical acclaim. For this novel, Styron received the Rome Prize, awarded by the American Academy in Rome and the
American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...
.


Military service

His recall into the military due to the
Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
prevented him from immediately accepting the Rome Prize. Styron joined the Marine Corps, but was discharged in 1952 for eye problems. However, he was to transform his experience at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina into his short novel, '' The Long March'', published serially the following year. This was adapted for the '' Playhouse 90'' episode "The Long March" in 1958.


Travels in Europe

Styron spent an extended period in Europe. In
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, he became friends with writers Romain Gary, George Plimpton,
Peter Matthiessen Peter Matthiessen (May 22, 1927 – April 5, 2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher and onetime CIA agent. A co-founder of the literary magazine ''The Paris Review'', he is the only writer to have won the Nat ...
, James Baldwin, James Jones and Irwin Shaw, among others. In 1953, the group founded the magazine '' The Paris Review'', which became a celebrated literary journal. The year 1953 was eventful for Styron in another way. Finally able to take advantage of his Rome Prize, he traveled to Italy, where he became friends with
Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...
. At the American Academy, he renewed an acquaintance with a young
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poet, Rose Burgunder, to whom he had been introduced the previous fall at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
. They were married in Rome in the spring of 1953. Some of Styron's experiences during this period inspired his third published book '' Set This House on Fire'' (1960), a novel about intellectual American expatriates on the Amalfi coast of Italy. The novel received mixed reviews in the United States, although its publisher considered it successful in terms of sales. In Europe its translation into French achieved best-seller status, far outselling the American edition.


Nat Turner controversy

Styron's next two novels, published between 1967 and 1979, sparked much controversy. Feeling wounded by his first truly harsh reviews for ''Set This House on Fire'', Styron spent the years after its publication researching and writing his next novel, the fictitious memoirs of the historical Nathaniel "Nat" Turner, a slave who led a slave rebellion in 1831. During the 1960s, Styron became an eyewitness to another time of rebellion in the United States, living and writing at the heart of that turbulent decade, a time highlighted by the counterculture revolution with its political struggle, civil unrest, and racial tension. The public response to this social upheaval was furious and intense: battle lines were being drawn. In 1968, Styron signed the " Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, a vow refusing to pay taxes as a protest against the Vietnam War. In this atmosphere of dissent, many had criticized Styron's friend James Baldwin for his novel '' Another Country'', published in 1962. Among the criticisms was outrage over a black author choosing a white woman as the protagonist in a story that tells of her involvement with a black man. Baldwin was Styron's house guest for several months following the critical storm generated by ''Another Country''. During that time, he read early drafts of Styron's new novel, and predicted that Styron's book would face even harsher scrutiny than ''Another Country''. "Bill's going to catch it from both sides", he told an interviewer immediately following the 1967 publication of '' The Confessions of Nat Turner''. Baldwin's prediction was correct, and despite public defenses of Styron by leading artists of the time, including Baldwin and
Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel '' Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. Ellison wrote '' Shadow and Act'' (1964), a co ...
, numerous other black critics reviled Styron's portrayal of Turner as racist stereotyping. The historian and critic John Henrik Clarke edited and contributed to a polemical anthology, ''William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond'', published in 1968 by Beacon Press. Particularly controversial was a passage in which Turner fantasizes about raping a white woman. Several critics pointed to this as a dangerous perpetuation of a traditional Southern justification for lynching. Styron also writes of a situation where Turner and another slave boy have a homosexual encounter while alone in the woods. Despite the controversy, the novel was a runaway critical and financial success, and won both the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the
William Dean Howells Medal The William Dean Howells Medal is awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music ...
in 1970.


Benjamin Reid controversy

In the early 1960s, Styron became a mentor to prisoner Benjamin Reid, who in 1957 had beaten a woman to death with a hammer in a botched robbery attempt. Through his writings and advocacy, Styron successfully helped to have Reid's death sentence commuted in 1962. In 1970, Reid escaped prison before his scheduled parole and kidnapped and raped a woman.


''Sophie's Choice''

Styron's next novel, '' Sophie's Choice'' (1979), also generated significant controversy, in part due to Styron's decision to portray a non-
Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish victim of
Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
and in part due to its explicit sexuality and profanity. It was banned in South Africa, censored in the Soviet Union, and banned in Communist Poland for "its unflinching portrait of Polish anti-Semitism." It has also been banned in some high schools in the United States. The novel tells the story of Sophie (a Polish
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
who survives Auschwitz), Nathan (her brilliant Jewish lover who has paranoid schizophrenia), and Stingo (a Southern transplant in post-World War II-
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
who falls in love with Sophie). It won the 1980 National Book Award"National Book Awards – 1980"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
With essay by Robert Weil from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.
This was the 1980 award for hardcover general Fiction.
From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Awards history there were dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories, and multiple fiction categories, especially in 1980. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including the 1980 general Fiction.
and was a nationwide bestseller. A 1982 film version was nominated for five
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
, with Meryl Streep winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Sophie. Kevin Kline and
Peter MacNicol Peter MacNicol (born April 10, 1954) is an American actor. He received a Theatre World Award for his 1981 Broadway debut in the play '' Crimes of the Heart''. His film roles include Galen in '' Dragonslayer'' (1981), Stingo in '' Sophie's Choic ...
played Nathan and Stingo, respectively.


''Darkness Visible''

Styron's readership expanded with the publication of ''Darkness Visible'' in 1990. This memoir, which began as a magazine article, chronicles the author's descent into depression and his near-fatal night of "despair beyond despair". It is a first-hand account of a major depressive episode and challenged the modern taboo on acknowledging such issues. The memoir's goals included increasing knowledge and decreasing stigmatization of major depressive disorders and suicide. It explored the phenomenology of the disease among those with depression, their loved ones, and the general public as well. Earlier, in December 1989, Styron had written an op-ed for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' responding to the disappointment and mystification among scholars about the apparent suicide of Primo Levi, the remarkable Italian writer who survived the Nazi death camps, but apparently had depression in his final years. Reportedly, it was the public's unsympathetic response to Levi's death that impelled Styron to take a more active role as an advocate for educating the public about the nature of depression and the role it played in mental health and suicide. Styron noted in an article for '' Vanity Fair'' that
the pain of severe depression is quite unimaginable to those who have not suffered it, and it kills in many instances because its anguish can no longer be borne. The prevention of many suicides will continue to be hindered until there is a general awareness of the nature of this pain. Through the healing process of time—and through medical intervention or hospitalization in many cases—most people survive depression, which may be its only blessing; but to the tragic legion who are compelled to destroy themselves there should be no more reproof attached than to the victims of terminal cancer.


Later work and acclaim

Styron was awarded the St. Louis Literary Award from the
Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...
Library Associates. Styron was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca in 1985. His short story "Shadrach" was filmed in 1998, under the same title. It was co-directed by his daughter Susanna Styron. Other works published during his lifetime include the play ''In the Clap Shack'' (1973), and a collection of his nonfiction, ''This Quiet Dust'' (1982). French president François Mitterrand invited Styron to his first Presidential inauguration, and later made him a Commander of the Legion of Honor. In 1993, Styron was awarded the
National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...
. In 2002 an opera by Nicholas Maw based on ''Sophie's Choice'' premièred at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden,
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. Maw wrote the
libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...
and composed the music. He had approached Styron about writing the libretto, but Styron declined. Later the opera received a new production by stage director Markus Bothe at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Volksoper Wien, and had its North American premiere at the Washington National Opera in October 2006. A collection of Styron's papers and records is housed at the Rubenstein Library, Duke University. In 1996 William Styron received the 1st Fitzgerald Award on the centenary of F. Scott Fitzgerald's birth. The F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature award is given annually in Rockville Maryland, the city where Fitzgerald, his wife, and his daughter are buried, as part of the F. Scot
Fitzgerald Literary Festival
In 1988 he was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal. He was a Charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.


Port Warwick street names

The Port Warwick neighborhood of Newport News, Virginia, was named after the fictional city in Styron's ''Lie Down in Darkness''. The neighborhood describes itself as a "mixed-use
new urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating Walkability, walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has ...
development." The most prominent feature of Port Warwick is William Styron Square along with its two main boulevards, Loftis Boulevard and Nat Turner Boulevard, named after characters in Styron's novels. Styron himself was appointed to design a naming system for Port Warwick, deciding to "honor great American writers", resulting in Philip Roth Street, Thomas Wolfe Street, Flannery O'Connor Street,
Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works ar ...
Avenue and others.


Personal life and death

In 1985, he had his first serious bout with depression. Once he recovered from his illness, Styron was able to write the memoir '' Darkness Visible'' (1990), the work for which he became best known during the last two decades of his life. While doing a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, Styron renewed a passing acquaintance with young
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
poet Rose Burgunder. They married in Rome in the spring of 1953. Together, they had four children: daughter Susanna Styron is a film director; daughter Paola is an internationally acclaimed modern dancer; daughter Alexandra is a writer, known for the 2001 novel ''All The Finest Girls'' and 2011 memoir ''Reading My Father: A Memoir''; and son Thomas is a professor of clinical psychology at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
. Styron died from pneumonia on November 1, 2006, at age 81, on
Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...
. He is buried at West Chop Cemetery in Vineyard Haven, Dukes County,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
.


Bibliography

Note – the following is a list of the first American editions of Styron's books *'' Lie Down in Darkness''. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1951. *'' The Long March''. New York: Random House, 1956.1952 (serial), 1956 (book) *'' Set This House on Fire''. New York: Random House, 1960 *'' The Confessions of Nat Turner''. New York: Random House, 1967. *''In the Clap Shack''. New York: Random House, 1973. *'' Sophie's Choice''. New York: Random House, 1979. *''Shadrach''. Los Angeles: Sylvester & Orphanos, 1979. *''This Quiet Dust and Other Writings.'' New York: Random House, 1982. Expanded edition, New York: Vintage, 1993. *'' Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness''. New York: Random House, 1990. *''A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth''. New York: Random House, 1993 *''Inheritance of Night: Early Drafts of Lie Down in Darkness''. Preface by William Styron. Ed. James L. W. West III. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1993. *''Havanas in Camelot: Personal Essays''. New York: Random House, 2008. *''The Suicide Run: Fives Tales of the Marine Corps''. New York: Random House, 2009. *''Selected Letters of William Styron''. Edited by Rose Styron, with R. Blakeslee Gilpin. New York: Random House, 2012. *''My Generation: Collected Nonfiction''. Edited by James L.W. I West III. New York: Random House, 2015.


Notes


References


External links and further reading

* *
James Campbell, "Tidewater traumas"
''The Guardian Unlimited'' website * *Kenneth S. Greenberg, ed. ''Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory'', New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. xix + 289 pp., (cloth); (paper). *James L. W. West III ditor ''Conversations with William Styron'', Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press, 1985. . *James L. W. West III, ''William Styron: A Life'', New York: Random House, 1998.
Charlie Rose with William Styron
A discussion about mental illness, 50-minute interview
William Styron interview with William Waterway Marks on "The Vineyard Voice"
1989/covers a range of topics.
"An Appreciation of William Styron"
''Charlie Rose'', – 55-minute-long video

on-line reprint of interview published in ''Humanities'', 18,3 (1997), * William Styron interview on Martha's Vineyard, William Styron interview by author and TV host William Waterway Marks with rare photo of Styron sitting at desk in his island writing studio. * Michael Lackey, "The Theology of Nazi Anti-Semitism in William Styron's Sophie's Choice," ''Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory'', 22,4 (2011), 277–300.
KCRW Bookworm Interview

A memoir of life with Styron by his writer daughter, Alexandra Styron

Stuart Wright Collection: William Styron Papers (#1169-011), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University

William Styron: An Author's Life and Career
a comprehensive website maintained by James L. W. West III, Styron's biographer. {{DEFAULTSORT:Styron, William 1925 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American tax resisters American writers about the Holocaust Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Military personnel from Virginia National Book Award winners Novelists from Virginia People from Newport News, Virginia People from Tisbury, Massachusetts People with mood disorders Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners United States Marine Corps officers United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War United States National Medal of Arts recipients