William Saroyan | |
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 Saroyan in the 1970s | |
| Born | August 31, 1908 Fresno, California, U.S. |
| Died | May 18, 1981 (aged 72) Fresno, California, U.S. |
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| Period | 1934–1981 |
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| Relatives | Strawberry Saroyan (granddaughter) Ross Bagdasarian (cousin) Ross Bagdasarian Jr. (first cousin once removed) |
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William Saroyan[2] (/səˈrɔɪən/; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy. When the studio rejected his original 240-page treatment, he turned it into a novel, The Human Comedy.
Saroyan wrote extensively about the Armenian immigrant life in California. Many of his stories and plays are set in his native Fresno.[3] Some of his best-known works are The Time of Your Life, My Name Is Aram and My Heart's in the Highlands. His two collections of short stories from the 1930s, Inhale Exhale (1936) and The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1941) are regarded as among his major achievements and essential documents of the cultural history of the period on the American West Coast.
He has been described in a Dickinson College news release as "one of the most prominent literary figures of the mid-20th century"[4] and by Stephen Fry as "one of the most underrated writers of the [20th] century." Fry suggests that "he takes his place naturally alongside Hemingway, Steinbeck and Faulkner".[5] Kurt Vonnegut has said that Saroyan was "the first and still the greatest of all the American minimalists.”[6]
- ^ "Relative to William Saroyan Year". Official California Legislative Information. March 13, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
Half of his ashes were buried in the Ararat Cemetery in Fresno and the remaining was interred in Yerevan, Armenia
- ^ Armenian: Վիլեամ Սարոյեան in classical orthography and Վիլյամ Սարոյան in reformed orthography
- ^ "William Saroyan Is Dead At 72; Wrote 'The Time of Your Life'". The New York Times. May 19, 1981. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
- ^ "One-Man Show Tells Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author's Story". Dickinson College. September 2, 2001. Archived from the original on December 27, 2013. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
- ^ 2013 Parajanov-Vartanov Institute Awards
- ^ Quotes by Stephen Fry, Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams