Celebrating 100th Anniversary of William Saroyan

William Saroyan would have been 100 years old this past August 31.  His 100th anniversary was celebrated during 2008 with many events both in the Diaspora and in Armenia.  While visiting California in early December, I learned that  Abril Bookstore in Glendale, California celebrated its 30th year in business last November with a two-day festival of Armenian literature and culture. It continues to serve the Armenian-American community with a wide selection of books in both Armenian and English. Abril also holds frequent ‘book signings’ and also publishes.  In its anniversary booklet, the article above appeared. Written in 1981 in a magazine that it published (before “online” activity mainstreamed), it is reprinted here courtesy of Harout and Arno Yeretzian, the father/son team of http://www.abrilbooks.com/. We are grateful to Jaklin Ekmekjian, St. Leon Armenian School teacher, for making the English translation available. Ruth Bedevian
 

William Saroyan

Translated by Jaklin Ekmekjian

William Saroyan was born in Fresno, on August 31, 1908. His parents emigrated from Turkey, settling in Fresno, California where the climate was comparable to Bitlis from whence they had come. His father Armenag Saroyan, was a Presbyterian minister, but worked as a farm laborer, dying in 1910 when William was barely two years old. After his father’s passing, his mother, Takoohy Saroyan, unable to support her four children, was forced to send them to the Alameda orphanage. William returned from the orphanage when he was seven years old, joining his mother after she had found employment in a canning factory.

Saroyan graduated Emerson Elementary School and Longfellow Middle School. Because of his educational level, he could work as a newspaper boy at the Fresno-Evening Herald newspaper. He worked at the vineyards, held a position in the post office and in San Francisco’s Telegraph Company as an office manager.  He quit school at age fourteen, but continued to study on his own through use of his hometown library in Fresno.  Thus, self-educated as he was, he began writing as he entered his teenage years. His first story was published in 1933, in the Armenian journal, “Hairenik,” under the alias Sirag Goryan.  “Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze” was published in 1934; its success catapulted him to literary fame, establishing him as a serious writer.

In 1935 he made his first visit to Armenia. In 1936 - he became one of the founders of Los Angeles’ Press. In 1939, his play “My Heart’s in the Highlands” instantly earned him a place among America’s best known writers. At the same time he also began stage productions of his plays. In 1940, “The Time of Your Life” won the New York Drama Critics Award and the Pulitzer Prize. It was the first time that a literary work had won both competitions. He declined the Pulitzer Prize asserting his opinion that since the Pulitzer Prize came with a monetary reward as well, he felt that wealth corrupts art. He did not believe that money should influence the recognition of artistic achievement.

Between 1940-45 - Saroyan served in the United States army. After becoming a theatrical director in New York, he took the position of Writer in Residence at Lafayette Vertu University in 1961.  Saroyan’s works depict life in Fresno, from his childhood through WW II. Many of his works from that period are connected with the Armenian community which promotes the importance and unity of family life.