Selected Letters of William Styron Read Online Free Page A

graduate students at Johns Hopkins that spring, where he is introduced to Rose Burgunder.
1952      
In February,
Lie Down in Darkness
wins the Prix de Rome of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
 
Sails to England on the
Île de France
for the British publication of
Lie Down in Darkness
, then on to Paris. Becomes friendly with the American writer Peter Matthiessen, who introduces Styron to his circle of literary expatriates, who will soon found
The Paris Review
.
 
In Rome, begins to date Rose Burgunder, writes themanifesto for the first issue of
The Paris Review
, and proposes marriage to Rose.
1953      
Marries Rose Burgunder and honeymoons in Ravello, Italy.
1954      
The Styrons move back to New York; Styron spends ten days in bed with heart palpitations. The Styrons purchase a large, two-story nineteenth-century frame house in Roxbury, Connecticut.
1955      
Hiram Haydn moves to Random House in January and Styron signs a two-book contract with Random House. Daughter Susanna Margaret born February 25.
1956–58      
Norman Mailer and his wife move to nearby Bridgewater, Connecticut.
 
Daughter Paola (Polly) Clark Styron born March 13, 1958. Mailer accuses Styron of spreading slander about Mailer’s wife, Adele, ending their friendship for twenty-five years.
1959      
Hiram Haydn resigns from Random House to start a new firm (Atheneum). Styron decides to work with Bob Loomis at Random House.
 
Son Thomas Haydn Styron born August 4.
1960      
Set This House on Fire
published May 5, 1960. The Styrons spend February and March with James and Gloria Jones in Paris, then travel through Geneva, Milan, and Florence, and arrive to settle in Rome in early May.
 
James Baldwin moves into the Styrons’ guesthouse to work on a novel.
1961      
Travels in May to Southampton County, Virginia, with Rose, his father, and a local relative as guide in an attempt to trace the path of slave rebel Nat Turner’s revolt.
1962      
Travels to Paris for the publication of Coindreau’s translation of
Set This House on Fire
.
 
The Styrons attend a dinner at the White House. Styron transfers the handling of foreign publishing rights, in May, to the London-based Hope Leresche and Steele agency.
 
Attends William Faulkner’s funeral service in Oxford, Mississippi.
1964      
The Styrons decide to purchase a harbor-front house on Martha’s Vineyard.
1965      
Viking Press publishes Rose’s first collection of poetry,
From Summer to Summer
.
1966      
Daughter Claire Alexandra (Al) Styron born October 28.
1967      
There are prepublication orders of 125,000 copies when
The Confessions of Nat Turner
is published on October 9.
1968      
The Confessions of Nat Turner
wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
 
Flies to Seattle with Arthur Miller and Jules Feiffer to campaign for Eugene McCarthy in the Washington and Oregon Democratic presidential primaries.
 
Serves as an honorary pallbearer at the funeral of Robert Kennedy.
 
Beacon Press in Boston issues
William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond
, a collection of essays attacking the novel.
 
Attends Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
 
Travels with Rose to the Soviet Union to attend an Afro-Asian authors’ conference.
1970      
Awarded the Howells Medal.
1971      
Father, aged eighty-one, marries Eunice Edmundson, aged seventy-six.
1972      
In the Clap Shack
produced by the Yale Repertory Theatre.
1973      
Decides to stop work on Marine novel
The Way of the Warrior
and begin writing
Sophie’s Choice: A Memory
after a vivid dream involving Sophie, a Polish Catholic survivor of Auschwitz.
 
Viking Press publishes
Thieves’ Afternoon
, a collection of Rose’s poetry.
1974      
Styron travels to Europe to visit the death camp at Auschwitz.
1977      
James Jones dies of congestive heart failure on May 8, 1977, at age fifty-five.
1978