My Generation: Collected Nonfiction
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My Generation is the definitive gathering of William Styron’s nonfiction, exposing the core of this greatly gifted, highly convivial, and profoundly serious artist from his literary emergence in the 1950s to his death in 2006.
Here are fifty years of Styron’s essays, memoirs, reviews, op-eds, articles, eulogies, and speeches, reflecting the same brilliant style and informed thinking that he brought to his towering fiction and to a deeply committed public life. Including many newly collected and never-before-published items, this compendium ranges from the original mission statement of The Paris Review, which Styron helped found in 1953, to a 2001 tribute to his friend Philip Roth—creating an essential overview of arts and letters during the post–World War II years.
In these pages, Styron writes vividly of childhood days in Tidewater Virginia spent going to movies, not reading books. (“It does not mean the death of literacy or creativity if one is drenched in popular culture at an early age.”) He recalls being among the group of soldiers who would have been sent to invade Japan and were saved by Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb, which Styron feels was the right choice, “even though its absolute rightness can never be proved.” And he writes as few others have about midlife battles with clinical depression, “a pain that is all but indescribable, and therefore to everyone but the sufferer almost meaningless.”
Here, too, are Styron’s personal encounters with world leaders, fellow authors, and friends, each of whom comes memorably to life. Styron recalls sharing contraband Cuban cigars with JFK (“a naughty memento, a conversation piece with a touch of scandal”), getting lost in the snow with Robert Penn Warren, and party-hopping with the young James Jones (an experience he likens to “keeping company with a Roman emperor”). The beginnings of his masterpieces The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie’s Choice are chronicled here, along with the controversy that greeted the former upon its 1967 publication. Throughout, Styron celebrates the men and women of his generation, whose lives were forged in the crucible of World War II.
Whether he’s recounting a walk with his dog, musing on the Modern Library’s list of the hundred best English-language novels of the twentieth century, or contemplating America’s fraught racial legacy from his point of view as the grandson of a woman who owned slaves, William Styron writes always in urgent, finely calibrated prose. These fascinating pieces bring readers closer to this great writer and the world he observed, interacted with, and changed.
Praise for My Generation
“William Styron’s My Generation: Collected Nonfiction is both unsurpassably charming and unflinchingly honest, whether recounting the fallout from The Confessions of Nat Turner or reminiscing about the slave-owning grandmother who warned him never to forget he was a Southerner.”—Vogue
“At its most accomplished, Styron’s non-fiction mixes a conscientious, richly traditional prose style with a strong current of fellow feeling, a certain awe at the human condition, which is what gives power to his best fiction. . . . Styron stood tall in his generation, and the best of him will stand up...
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William Styron. (2015). My Generation: Collected Nonfiction. Random House Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)William Styron. 2015. My Generation: Collected Nonfiction. Random House Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)William Styron, My Generation: Collected Nonfiction. Random House Publishing Group, 2015.
MLA Citation (style guide)William Styron. My Generation: Collected Nonfiction. Random House Publishing Group, 2015.
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- A vital, illuminating collection of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner’s elegant, passionately engaged nonfiction
My Generation is the definitive gathering of William Styron’s nonfiction, exposing the core of this greatly gifted, highly convivial, and profoundly serious artist from his literary emergence in the 1950s to his death in 2006.
Here are fifty years of Styron’s essays, memoirs, reviews, op-eds, articles, eulogies, and speeches, reflecting the same brilliant style and informed thinking that he brought to his towering fiction and to a deeply committed public life. Including many newly collected and never-before-published items, this compendium ranges from the original mission statement of The Paris Review, which Styron helped found in 1953, to a 2001 tribute to his friend Philip Roth—creating an essential overview of arts and letters during the post–World War II years.
In these pages, Styron writes vividly of childhood days in Tidewater Virginia spent going to movies, not reading books. (“It does not mean the death of literacy or creativity if one is drenched in popular culture at an early age.”) He recalls being among the group of soldiers who would have been sent to invade Japan and were saved by Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb, which Styron feels was the right choice, “even though its absolute rightness can never be proved.” And he writes as few others have about midlife battles with clinical depression, “a pain that is all but indescribable, and therefore to everyone but the sufferer almost meaningless.”
Here, too, are Styron’s personal encounters with world leaders, fellow authors, and friends, each of whom comes memorably to life. Styron recalls sharing contraband Cuban cigars with JFK (“a naughty memento, a conversation piece with a touch of scandal”), getting lost in the snow with Robert Penn Warren, and party-hopping with the young James Jones (an experience he likens to “keeping company with a Roman emperor”). The beginnings of his masterpieces The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie’s Choice are chronicled here, along with the controversy that greeted the former upon its 1967 publication. Throughout, Styron celebrates the men and women of his generation, whose lives were forged in the crucible of World War II.
Whether he’s recounting a walk with his dog, musing on the Modern Library’s list of the hundred best English-language novels of the twentieth century, or contemplating America’s fraught racial legacy from his point of view as the grandson of a woman who owned slaves, William Styron writes always in urgent, finely calibrated prose. These fascinating pieces bring readers closer to this great writer and the world he observed, interacted with, and changed.
Praise for My Generation
“William Styron’s My Generation: Collected Nonfiction is both unsurpassably charming and unflinchingly honest, whether recounting the fallout from The Confessions of Nat Turner or reminiscing about the slave-owning grandmother who warned him never to forget he was a Southerner.”—Vogue
“At its most accomplished, Styron’s non-fiction mixes a conscientious, richly traditional prose style with a strong current of fellow feeling, a certain awe at the human condition, which is what gives power to his best fiction. . . . Styron stood tall in his generation, and the best of him will stand up... - reviews
- premium: False
- source: Booklist (starred review)
- content: "If [William] Styron is best remembered for his fiction--Lie Down in Darkness, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice--and his harrowing memoir of depression, Darkness Visible, his extensive output of short nonfiction stands as additional testament to his enormous talent and range of interests. His writing on his literary efforts, and those of his contemporaries, is honest, generous, and insightful. . . . This is a major addition to our knowledge of one of an impressive literary generation's foremost authors."
- premium: False
- source: Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
- content: "Wide-ranging, lucid, and incisive . . . a rich collection [which testifies] impressively to the power of Styron's nonfiction. Winner of a Pulitzer Prize for The Confessions of Nat Turner, a National Book Award for Sophie's Choice, and many other honors, Styron is acclaimed primarily as a novelist, but he contributed regularly to The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and many other venues, with pieces notable for their intelligence, verve, and crystalline prose."
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- source: Publishers Weekly
- content: "Impressive . . . There are too many gems to single any out."
- premium: True
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April 6, 2015
While West may very well have chosen only to include Styron’s “most important essays, reviews, and memoirs,” as he asserts in his editor’s note, casual admirers of the author may be overwhelmed. Some will undoubtedly feel that less would have been more (91 pieces are included, eight previously unpublished). The entries span a wide variety of topics, including Styron’s reaction to the film version of Sophie’s Choice, his explanation of how the Modern Library editorial board chose the 20th century’s 100 best novels written in English, and his recollection of luminaries such as Robert Penn Warren and Peter Matthiessen. Each is distinguished by Styron’s impressive prose, and many feature brilliantly crafted opening lines that compel further reading (“If the accident of birth caused you to spend most of your early life, as I did, on what is known as the Virginia historic peninsula, you were apt to grow up with a ponderous sense of the American past”). There are too many gems to single any out, and no clunkers, but the book’s length seems likely to discourage readers from picking it up in the first place.
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Starred review from March 15, 2015
A rich collection by an estimable writer.In advance of a future collected edition of Styron's (1925-2006) work, West (English/Pennsylvania State Univ.; Making the Archives Talk, 2012, etc.) has selected 92 pieces-essays, reviews, articles, speeches-including eight previously unpublished, which testify impressively to the power of Styron's nonfiction. Winner of a Pulitzer Prize for the Confessions of Nat Turner (1968), a National Book Award for Sophie's Choice (1979), and many other honors, Styron is acclaimed primarily as a novelist, but he contributed regularly to the New York Review of Books, the New York Times, the New Yorker, and many other venues, with pieces notable for their intelligence, verve, and crystalline prose. Born and raised in Virginia, the grandson of a slave owner, Styron devoted many essays to race, and one of his long essays follows "the stormy career" of his novel about the insurrectionist slave Nat Turner, which incited accusations that he was racist. Styron defined his generation-including writers such as Mailer, Baldwin, Salinger, Joseph Heller, and Walker Percy-as traumatized not only by their war experiences and the deployment of nuclear weapons, but by the chilling intimation of future conflicts. After the Korean War, "the cosmos seemed so unhinged as to be nearly insupportable," and he, like others, became mistrustful of power, nationalism, and political hawks. More than a quarter of the collection reflects these views: several essays focus on the Holocaust; one hard-hitting essay profiles a "horribly maimed" Vietnam veteran. Styron marvels that Douglas MacArthur's memoir is "almost totally free of self-doubt." Several pieces reflect movingly on Styron's experience with severe clinical depression. His literary debts emerge in elegies for Faulkner and Fitzgerald, Robert Penn Warren and James Baldwin, Peter Matthiessen and Truman Capote. Wide-ranging, lucid, and incisive.
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Starred review from April 15, 2015
One of America's finest novelists also wrote numerous essays, reviews, tributes, and memoirs over the period, 19512001, covered in this collection. If Styron is best remembered for his fictionLie Down in Darkness, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choiceand his harrowing memoir of depression, Darkness Visible, his extensive output of short nonfiction stands as additional testament to his enormous talent and range of interests. His writing on his literary efforts, and those of his contemporaries, is honest, generous, and insightful. His deeply personal style includes historically informed musings about race and the South (especially his beloved Virginia Tidewater). Though criticized for the manner in which he treated racial matters in Nat Turner, Styron sought to grapple with race (and more general evil; he wrote about the Holocaust and My Lai as well as slavery) in a way many other white writers of the period skirted. Regrettably, the book is arranged thematically rather than chronologically, and the editing by Styron's biographer, James L. W. West III, is so unobtrusive that several pieces spread over an active half-century could profit by more explicit context. Still, this is a major addition to our knowledge of one of an impressive literary generation's foremost authors.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)
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December 1, 2014
Author of 1998's William Styron: A Life, West collects more than 80 examples of Styron's nonfiction over five decades, with nearly a third never published in book form and seven of those not published at all.
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- premium: True
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April 15, 2015
West (English, Pennsylvania State Univ.; William Styron: A Life) has edited this hefty collection of Styron's (1925-2006) various essays. It includes all of the pieces from the author's two compilations of nonfiction (This Quiet Dust and Havanas in Camelot), as well as 34 items from op eds, eulogies, speeches, etc., eight of which were previously unpublished. For those who are familiar with Styron primarily for his fiction, this anthology will be a welcome introduction to his memoirs, criticism, and views on American life. His strong likes and dislikes are self-evident in the writings, many of which chronicle how he developed his novels as well as offer tributes to the writers he knew and/or admired. Styron covers in detail the controversy surrounding his portrait of Nat Turner in the novel The Confessions of Nat Turner. His experiences in the military are related, especially his harrowing stay in a marine hospital when it was suspected that he had syphilis (which turned out to be a misdiagnosis). Not all of the inclusions are essential reading; two discussions praising French president Francois Mitterrand could have been reduced to one. VERDICT All in all, an essential book for Styron fans, one that illuminates the man behind the fiction. Recommended for public and college collections. [See Prepub Alert, 11/24/14.]--Morris Hounion, New York City Coll. of Technology, Brooklyn
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Here are fifty years of Styron’s essays, memoirs, reviews, op-eds, articles, eulogies, and speeches, reflecting the same brilliant style and informed thinking that he brought to his towering fiction and to a deeply committed public life. Including many newly collected and never-before-published items, this compendium ranges from the original mission statement of The Paris Review, which Styron helped found in 1953, to a 2001 tribute to his friend Philip Roth—creating an essential overview of arts and letters during the post–World War II years.
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