Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Collection Scope and Content Summary
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: William Saroyan notebooks,
Date (inclusive): 1932-1939
Collection number: M1022
Creator:
Saroyan, William, 1908-1981
Extent:
1.25 linear ft.
Repository:
Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.
Abstract: 1568 notebook leaves documenting chiefly the apprenticeship and early success of Saroyan. The great bulk of the entries are
notes
on, ideas for or titles of short stories, bracketed by resolutions, observations, and, less frequently, personal data on how
much money
he has, or has not; debts; horse-racing notes; notes of walks or reading; personalities; radio shows, films, etc. (from dealer's
description)
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights
reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To
obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the
Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.
Preferred Citation
William Saroyan Notebooks. M1022. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Acquisition Information
Purchased, 1998.
Biography
Novelist, short-story writer, dramatist, and essayist, William Saroyan was born in Fresno, California in 1908. A high-school
dropout, Saroyan was largely self-educated and decided at an early age to pursue a career as a writer, drawing on his experience
as an Armenian-American growing up in California.
His first published works were sketches in
The Overland Monthly in 1928, which inspired him to seek his fortune in New York City. In 1934
Story Magazine printed "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze." The immediate public acclaim led to publication of the collection
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories (1934) by Random House. He followed this success with two more short story collections in 1936,
Three Times Three and
Inhale and Exhale.
Transforming one of these stories into his first dramatic production,
My Heart's in the Highlands (1939), Saroyan then wrote
The Time of Your Life (1939-40), for which he received both New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The same year he released
the story collection,
My Name is Aram (1940), a Book of the Month Club selection.
In late 1941 Saroyan agreed to work for Louis B. Mayer in Hollywood. This resulted both in the Oscar-winning MGM film,
The Human Comedy, (1943) as well as the popular novelized version of the original screenplay, published by Harcourt Brace simultaneously with
the movie's opening.
Drafted into the army, Saroyan was stationed during part of World War II in London, where he wrote the controversial anti-war
book,
The Adventures of Wesley Jackson (1946). Through the 1950s he continued to produce plays, short stories, and novels. He then turned to personal memoirs to
express himself, producing in succession
The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills (1952),
Here Comes, There Goes, You Know Who (1961),
Not Dying (1963), and
Obituaries (1980), which was nominated for the American Book Award. A final volume of reminiscence,
Births (1983), was published posthumously.
Collection Scope and Content Summary
1568 notebook leaves documenting chiefly the apprenticeship and
early success of Saroyan. The great bulk of the entries are notes on,
ideas for or titles of short stories, bracketed by resolutions,
observations, and, less frequently, personal data on how much money he
has, or has not; debts; horse-racing notes; notes of walks or reading;
personalities; radio shows, films, etc. (from dealer's description)
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
American literature--20th century.