With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
William Styron
Fiction
1925 – 2006
By exploring difficult historical and moral questions in his novels, Styron earned a place among the leading literary figures of the post-World War II generation and was a Pulitzer Prize winner. Early in his career, he was recognized as giving voice to southern culture like William Faulkner before him, as in “Lie Down in Darkness,” and throughout his work the themes he probed generated controversy.
- Biography/Description of Work
William Styron was born in 1925 in Virginia and studied at Duke University after serving in the Marines during World War II. After receiving his degree, he moved to New York City where he worked at McGraw-Hill Publishing for a short time before being fired. He then turned to writing his first novel, “Lie Down in Darkness,” published in 1951 when Styron was just 26. The novel was well received and earned him the American Academy’s Prix de Rome. In 1953, Styron married Rose Burgunder, and for a short time they lived in New York City before purchasing an old farmstead in Roxbury, Connecticut. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, in his Roxbury studio, he wrote “Confessions of Nat Turner,” which won a Pulitzer Prize; it was a fictionalized account of the slave who started a bloody and disastrous uprising in Virginia in 1831. “Sophie’s Choice” was published in 1979 and three years later adapted into an award winning movie. During the 1980s, and throughout his life, Styron battled with depression. His memoir, “Darkness Visible, ” published in 1990 chronicled his illness. Throughout the 1990s, Styron continued to write and became a spokesperson for mental illness. His health began to decline in the early 2000s, and he died in 2006 at the age of 81.
- Sources view
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Styron
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/02/books/02styron.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Cunningham, Jan; Roxbury: A Historic and Architectural Resource Survey; Cunningham Associates Ltd., Middletown, Connecticut, 1996-1997 - Associated Resource(s)