Read Selected Letters of William Styron Online
Authors: William Styron
Selected Letters of William Styron (97 page)
§YY
William Styron, untitled review of Richard Hammer,
The Court-Martial of Lt. Calley
, and John Sack,
Lieutenant Calley: His Own Story, The New York Times Book Review
(September 12, 1971). Collected in
This Quiet Dust
.
§ZZ
Styron refers to the main character in his
Way of the Warrior
. This “episode” was published as “The Suicide Run,”
American Poetry Review
3 (May/June 1974), later collected in
The Suicide Run
.
‖aa
“Marriott, the Marine,”
Esquire
76 (September 1971). Collected in
The Suicide Run
.
‖bb
Jack Zajac (b. 1929). An American artist known for his sculptures in bronze and marble, as well as his figurative paintings, Zajac received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rome Prize. He was an Artist in Residence at the American Academy in Rome when Styron was there for the Prix de Rome.
‖cc
Turner (1921–84) was warden of the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania from 1956 to 1972. He wrote an autobiography,
My Serengeti Years
, about his efforts to manage the park.
‖dd
Styron’s play
In the Clap Shack
was produced by the Yale Repertory Theatre, and published by Random House in book form in 1973. See Melvin J. Friedman, “In
the Clap Shack:
William Styron’s Neglected Play,”
The Southern Quarterly
33, nos. 2–3, Winter–Spring 1995.
‖ee
Susanna had graduated from high school at the age of sixteen and spent the next year traveling around Europe while attending Franklin College in Switzerland.
‖ff
The screenplay was never produced.
‖gg
Pascal Franchot Tone was one of the founders and presidents (1973–79) of Franklin College.
‖hh
Neil Simon (b. 1927), American playwright.
The Prisoner of Second Avenue
ran on Broadway from November 1971 until September 1973. It was later made into a film starring Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft.
‖ii
Marie-Henri Beyle (1783–1842), best known by his pen name Stendhal, was a French writer who helped develop realism in novels such as
The Red and the Black
(1830).
‖jj
Warren’s novel
Meet Me in the Green Glen
(New York: Random House, 1971).
‖kk
Postcard from Downtowner Motor Inn, Goldsboro, North Carolina.
‖ll
Unknown attachment.
‖mm
A sticker that Bill attached to the letter. He attached them to several envelopes around this time as well. The reference is to President Nixon’s daughter Tricia, who had married Edward Cox on June 12, 1971.
‖nn
On one of the Nat Turner “Power of Self Determination” cards, Styron wrote above the image on the front, “He looks a little like Harry Belafonte, I think.”
‖oo
On “Mrs. William Styron, Roxbury” stationery, with
Mrs. William
crossed out and
Mr. Irving
written in by hand.
‖pp
Reprinted as “Vidal Blue,”
The Atlantic
229 (May 1972).
‖qq
Gerald Clarke, “Petronius Americanus: The Ways of Gore Vidal,”
The Atlantic
229 (March 1972).
‖rr
“Responsibility and the Exhilaration of Power,”
Pointing to the Presidency
, a special publication of the New Democratic Coalition of New York (1972).
‖ss
Jerzy Kosinski (1933–91), a novelist best known for his novels
The Painted Bird
(1965),
Being There
(1971), and
Steps
(1969), which won the National Book Award.
‖tt
Michael Mewshaw’s second novel,
Walking Slow
(New York: Random House, 1972).
‖uu
Born Luis Miguel González Lucas, Dominguín (1926–96) was a famous bullfighter who took the name of his father, bullfighting legend Domingo Dominguín. Luis Dominguín counted Pablo Picasso among his friends, and had affairs with actress Ava Gardner and model China Machado, among others. In 1954, he married actress Lucia Bosé, and had a son, Miguel Bosé, a Grammy-winning singer. In 1959, the rivalry between Dominguín and his brother-in-law, Antonio Ordóñez, was chronicled by Ernest Hemingway in
The Dangerous Summer
.
‖vv
A riff on “un homme moyen sensuel”—a man of average tastes and sensibilities.
‖ww
Robert Sargent “Bobby” Shriver III (b. 1954) is the current mayor of Santa Monica, California.
‖xx
Cleve Gray (1918–2004), American abstract expressionist painter. He was married to the author Francine du Plessix and lived in Warren, Connecticut. Actress Florence Eldridge was married to actor Fredric March; they owned a home in New Milford, Connecticut. The property was later sold to Lillian Hellman as well as Henry Kissinger.
‖yy
Brustein wrote a regular column from London, beginning with his piece “London vs. New York: A Tale of Two Cities,”
The New York Times
, October 15, 1972.
‖zz
Arthur Miller,
The Creation of the World and Other Business
(1972).
‖AA
Alvin Epstein, associate director of the Yale Repertory Theatre under Brustein, directed Styron’s play.
‖BB
The
Diabolique
was a boat jointly owned by Styron and Brustein.
‖CC
October 1972 issue of
The Vineyard Gazette
(Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts).
‖DD
Again, the Nat Turner stationery.
‖EE
James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) was an American writer and poet best known for creating “Little Orphan Annie” and the “Raggedy Man.”
‖FF
Clive Barnes, “Playwriting Debut for Styron,”
The New York Times
(December 17, 1972). Barnes wrote that “the subject matter makes [
In the Clap Shack
] sound more original than it in fact is … the play is rather conventional.” After critiquing nearly every aspect of the play, Barnes wrote that “Mr. Styron exaggerates everything.”
‖GG
Norman Podhoretz and Irving Howe, “Philip Roth Reconsidered,”
Commentary
(December 1972).
‖HH
Dwight Macdonald, “By Cozzens Possessed—A Review of Reviews,”
Commentary
(March 1958).
‖II
Clifton Fadiman, “Faulkner, Extra-Special, Double-Distilled,”
The New Yorker
(October 31, 1936); “Mississippi Frankenstein,”
The New Yorker
(January 21, 1939).
‖JJ
Styron consciously struck out “seven.”
‖KK
Richard Yates,
William Styron’s Lie Down in Darkness: A Screenplay
(Ploughshares Books, 1985).
‖LL
Styron had long hoped that a film of
Lie Down in Darkness
would be made. He had written his agent Elizabeth McKee on December 14, 1956, hoping that Eva Marie Saint would sign on for the role. Neither that film version nor this one ever made it into production. Styron’s daughter Susanna is currently working on a new film based on Yates’s script.
‖MM
Richard Poirier, often called Mailer’s most astute critic, had just published
Norman Mailer
(New York: Viking, 1972).
‖NN
The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
‖OO
Fain Hackney (b. 1960) is the only son of Lucy and Sheldon Hackney, the Styrons’ close friends and neighbors.
‖PP
The daughter of the Styrons’ close friends George and Ann d’Almeida.
‖QQ
The Hackneys’ youngest daughter.
‖RR
Josiah Bunting III (b. 1939) is the author of several books of fiction and nonfiction. He was the headmaster of the Lawrenceville School and the president of Hampden-Sydney College.
‖SS
Charles H. Sullivan was a friend of Styron’s from the Marine Corps. Sullivan was a career officer who had served in Guadalcanal before being sent to officer training at Princeton.
‖TT
Ben Forkner and Gilbert Schricke, “An Interview with William Styron,” was conducted in France in April 1974 and published in
The Southern Review
(Autumn 1974); reprinted in West, ed.,
Conversations with William Styron
.
‖UU
Styron wrote Rubin a postcard on July 29 indicating that “I toned down at least some of the ‘race’ references that you felt were rather out of order.”
‖VV
Armand S. Deutsch, the eldest grandson of Julius Rosenwald, was the intended victim of the kidnappers and murderers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. A close friend of Frank Sinatra, “Ardie” was also in the inner circle of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. As Todd Purdum wrote in his
New York Times
obituary on August 18, 2005, “He shared a box at Dodger Stadium with Jack Benny and then with Walter Matthau, traveled the world with the publisher Bennett Cerf, lunched regularly with the director Billy Wilder and had dinner every Christmas for years in the Beverly Hills home of James Stewart.” Deutsch also wrote a memoir,
Me and Bogie: And Other Friends and Acquaintances from a Life in Hollywood and Beyond
(New York: Putnam, 1991).
‖WW
The Styrons were on vacation with the Brusteins.
‖XX
Burke Davis (1913–2006), noted Southern writer of biographies and historical novels, best known for his nonfiction works on the Civil War. Like Styron he had strong ties to both North Carolina and Virginia; from 1940 to 1980 he was married to Evangeline McLennan Davis.
‖YY
Burke Davis,
Getting to Know Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia
(New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1971).
‖ZZ
Cynthia Ozick, “A Liberal’s Auschwitz,” took issue with Styron’s argument that the tragedy of the Holocaust was “ecumenical” and “anti-life” rather than Jewish. See William Styron, “Auschwitz’s Message,”
The New York Times
(June 25, 1974). Robie Macauley defended Styron in
The New York Times Book Review
, August 8, 1976. Ozick admonished Styron for making Sophie Zawistowska Polish Catholic rather than Jewish, and renewed her critiques of
Sophie’s Choice
as recently as a 2005 speech at Harvard.
aaa
Styron never wrote the article.
bbb
The election of James Earl Carter, Jr., as President of the United States.
ccc
Francine du Plessix Gray,
Lovers and Tyrants
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976).
ddd
James Jones died on May 9, 1977, and Mitgang penned the
New York Times
obituary on May 10. He had written an indignant note to Styron on June 14, 1977, in reaction to Styron’s piece in
New York
magazine: “A Friend’s Farewell to James Jones,”
New York
(June 6, 1977). This piece was collected in the first edition of
This Quiet Dust
but was replaced by a different piece on Jones for the second and later editions. “Apparently, you did not like my obituary report on Jones,” Mitgang wrote. “Most readers thought it fair and respectful.” He questioned Styron’s ability to recognize the “difference between a news report and a eulogy,” finishing by admonishing Styron that “I don’t have a shovel.” Mitgang to Styron, June 14, 1977.
eee
Mitgang’s obituary included Jones’s quote about Hemingway: “One has to be an egomaniac to be a writer, but you’ve got to hide it.… Hemingway was more concerned with being an international celebrity than in writing great books. He worked harder on his image than on his integrity. He was a swashbuckler who didn’t swash his buckle or buckle his swash.” Seemingly reacting to this critique of Hemingway, Mitgang wrote: “Unlike Hemingway, however, Mr. Jones continued to be criticized as a writer, regardless of his themes. Unlike Hemingway, he did not avoid writing for films and turning out books clearly designed for the commercial market. And, unlike Hemingway, he had gone to Paris, not in his youth, but in his flourishing mature years.” Mitgang, “James Jones, Novelist, 66, Dies; Best Known for ‘Here to Eternity,’ ”
The New York Times
(May 10, 1977).
fff
Lowell had died on September 12, 1977.
ggg
Stuart Wright (b. 1948), bibliographer and private-press publisher in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His imprint, Palaemon Press, issued several limited editions by Styron. Styron gave Wright his only set of galleys for
Sophie’s Choice
.
hhh
Bell Irvin Wiley (1906–80), Civil War historian who studied under Ulrich B. Phillips at Yale and later worked at the University of Mississippi, Louisiana State University, and Emory University.
iii
James L. W. West III,
William Styron: A Descriptive Bibliography
(Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977).
jjj
Styron delivered the tribute to Warren at the Lotos Club in New York City, April 10, 1975, and it was published as
Admiral Robert Penn Warren and the Snows of Winter
(Winston-Salem, N.C.: Palaemon Press, 1978). The first edition was signed only by Styron; a second edition in 1981 was signed by both Styron and Warren. This piece was eventually collected in
This Quiet Dust
.
kkk
Wright was a coauthor of
Forsyth: The History of a County on the March
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1976).
lll
Danny Robb, a fifteen-year-old boy, had written to Styron asking how he got started in his career.
mmm
The town said the proposed eight-foot wall was too high. The Styrons built a four-foot wall and planted many fir trees.
nnn
Peter Matthiessen’s 1978 nonfiction account of his two-month journey to Crystal Mountain in the Himalayas.
ooo
“Porter” was Matthiessen’s nickname for Styron, given during chess matches in Ravello in the early 1950s and used for his entire life.
ppp
Bertha Krantz was the chief copy editor of Random House; she edited all of Styron’s books.
qqq
Styron forwarded this note to Bob Loomis in April of 1998.
rrr
The last line of
Sophie’s Choice
.
sss
The Orinoco River in Venezuela.