SAROYAN, William

Nationality: American. Born: Fresno, California, 31 August 1908. Education: Public schools in Fresno to age 15. Military Service: Served in the U.S. Army, 1942-45. Family: Married Carol Marcus in 1943 (divorced 1949; remarried 1951; divorced 1952); one son (the writer Aram Saroyan) and one daughter. Career: Worked as grocery clerk, vineyard worker, post office employee; clerk, telegraph operator, then office manager, Postal Telegraph Company, San Francisco, 1926-28; co-founder, Conference Press, Los Angeles, 1936; founder and director, Saroyan Theatre, New York, 1942; writer-in-residence, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, 1961. Awards: New York Drama Critics Circle award, 1940; Pulitzer prize, 1940 (refused); Oscar (for screenplay), 1944. Member: American Academy, 1943. Died: 18 May 1981.

Publications

Collections

My Name Is Saroyan, edited by James H. Tashjian. 1983.

Saroyan: Memoirs, edited by Brian Darwent. 1994.

The William Saroyan Reader. 1994.

Short Stories

The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories. 1934.

Inhale and Exhale. 1936.

Three Times Three. 1936.

Little Children. 1937.

The Gay and Melancholy Flux: Short Stories. 1937.

Love, Here Is My Hat. 1938.

A Native American. 1938.

The Trouble with Tigers. 1938.

Peace, It's Wonderful. 1939.

3 Fragments and a Story. 1939.

My Name Is Aram. 1940.

Saroyan's Fables. 1941.

The Insurance Salesman and Other Stories. 1941.

48 Saroyan Stories. 1942.

Best Stories. 1942.

Thirty-One Selected Stories. 1943.

Some Day I'll Be a Millionaire: 34 More Great Stories. 1943.

Dear Baby. 1944.

The Saroyan Special: Selected Short Stories. 1948.

The Fiscal Hoboes. 1949.

The Assyrian and Other Stories. 1950.

The Whole Voyald and Other Stories. 1956.

Love. 1959.

After Thirty Years: The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (includes essays). 1964. Best Stories of Saroyan. 1964.

My Kind of Crazy Wonderful People: 17 Stories and a Play. 1966.

An Act or Two of Foolish Kindness: Two Stories. 1977.

Madness in the Family, edited by Leo Hamalian. 1988.

The Man with the Heart in the Highlands and Other Early Stories. 1989.

Fresno Stories. 1994.

Novels

The Human Comedy. 1943.

The Adventures of Wesley Jackson. 1946.

The Twin Adventures: The Adventures of Saroyan: A Diary; The Adventures of Wesley Jackson: A Novel. 1950.

Rock Wagram. 1951.

Tracy's Tiger. 1951.

The Laughing Matter. 1953; as A Secret Story, 1954.

Mama I Love You. 1956.

Papa You're Crazy. 1957.

Boys and Girls Together. 1963.

One Day in the Afternoon of the World. 1964.

Plays

The Man with the Heart in the Highlands, in Contemporary One-Act Plays, edited by William Kozlenko. 1938; revised version, as My Heart's in the Highlands (produced 1939), 1939.

The Time of Your Life (produced 1939). In The Time of Your Life(miscellany), 1939.

The Hungerers (produced 1945). 1939.

A Special Announcement (broadcast 1940).

Love's Old Sweet Song (produced 1940). In Three Plays, 1940.

Three Plays: My Heart's in the Highlands, The Time of Your Life, Love's Old Sweet Song. 1940.

Subway Circus. 1940.

Something about a Soldier (produced 1940).

Hero of the World (produced 1940).

The Great American Goof (ballet scenario; produced 1940). InRazzle Dazzle, 1942.

Radio Play (broadcast 1940). In Razzle Dazzle, 1942.

The Ping-Pong Game (produced 1945). 1940; as The Ping Pong Players, in Razzle Dazzle, 1942.

Sweeney in the Trees (produced 1940). In Three Plays, 1941.

The Beautiful People (produced 1941). In Three Plays, 1941.

Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning (produced 1941). InThree Plays, 1941.

Three Plays: The Beautiful People, Sweeney in the Trees, Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning. 1941.

The People with Light Coming Out of Them (broadcast 1941). InThe Free Company Presents, 1941.

There's Something I Got To Tell You (broadcast 1941). In Razzle Dazzle, 1942.

Hello, Out There, music by Jack Beeson (produced 1941). InRazzle Dazzle, 1942.

Jim Dandy (produced 1941). 1941; as Jim Dandy: Fat Man in a Famine, 1947.

Talking to You (produced 1942). In Razzle Dazzle, 1942.

Razzle Dazzle; or, The Human Opera, Ballet, and Circus; or There's Something I Got to Tell You: Being Many Kinds of Short Plays As Well As the Story of the Writing of Them (includes Hello, Out There, Coming Through the Rye, Talking to You, The Great American Goof, The Poetic Situation in America, Opera, Opera, Bad Men in the West, The Agony of Little Nations, A Special Announcement, Radio Play, The People with Light Coming Out of Them, There's Something I Got to Tell You, The Hungerers, Elmer and Lily, Subway Circus, The Ping Pong Players). 1942; abridged edition, 1945.

Opera, Opera (produced 1955). In Razzle Dazzle, 1942.

Bad Men in the West (produced 1971). In Razzle Dazzle, 1942.

Get Away Old Man (produced 1943). 1944.

Sam Ego's House (produced 1947). In Don't Go Away Mad and Two Other Plays, 1949.

Don't Go Away Mad (produced 1949). In Don't Go Away Mad and Two Other Plays. 1949.

Don't Go Away Mad and Two Other Plays: Sam Ego's House; A Decent Birth, A Happy Funeral. 1949.

The Son (produced 1950).

The Oyster and the Pearl: A Play for Television (televised 1953). InPerspectives USA, Summer 1953.

A Lost Child's Fireflies (produced 1954).

Once Around the Block (produced 1956). 1959.

The Cave Dwellers (produced 1957). 1958.

Ever Been in Love with a Midget (produced 1957).

The Slaughter of the Innocents (produced 1957). 1958.

Cat, Mouse, Man, Woman and The Accident, in Contact 1, 1958. The Dogs; or, The Paris Comedy (as The Paris Comedy; or The Secret of Lily, produced 1960; as Lily Dafon, produced 1960). In The Dogs; or, The Paris Comedy and Two Other Plays, 1969.

Settled Out of Court, with Henry Cecil, from the novel by Cecil (produced 1960). 1962.

Sam, The Highest Jumper of Them All; or, The London Comedy(produced 1960). 1961.

High Time along the Wabash (produced 1961).

Ah Man, music by Peter Fricker (produced 1962).

Four Plays: The Playwright and the Public, The Handshakers, The Doctor and the Patient, This I Believe, in Atlantic, April 1963. The Time of Your Life and Other Plays. 1967.

Dentist and Patient and Husband and Wife, in The Best Short Plays1968, edited by Stanley Richards. 1968.

The Dogs; or, The Paris Comedy and Two Other Plays: Chris Sick; or, Happy New Year Anyway, Making Money, and Nineteen Other Very Short Plays. 1969.

The New Play, in The Best Short Plays 1970, edited by StanleyRichards. 1970.

Armenians (produced 1974).

The Rebirth Celebration of the Human Race at Artie Zabala's Off-Broadway Theatre (produced 1975).

Two Short Paris Summertime Plays of 1974 (includes Assassinations and Jim, Sam, and Anna). 1979.

Play Things (produced 1980).

Warsaw Visitor [and] Tales from Vienna Streets, edited by DickranKouymjian. 1991.

Screenplays:

The Good Job (documentary), 1942; The Human Comedy, with Howard Estabrook, 1943.

Radio Plays:

Radio Play, 1940; A Special Announcement, 1940;There's Something I Got to Tell You, 1941; The People with Light Coming Out of Them, 1941.

Television Plays:

The Oyster and the Pearl, 1953; Ah Sweet Mystery of Mrs. Murphy, 1959; The Unstoppable Gray Fox, 1962; Making Money and Thirteen Other Very Short Plays, 1970.

Ballet Scenario:

A Theme in the Life of the Great American Goof, 1940.

Poetry

A Christmas Psalm. 1935.

Christmas 1939. 1939.

Other

Those Who Write Them and Those Who Collect Them. 1936.

The Time of Your Life (miscellany). 1939.

Harlem as Seen by Hirschfeld. 1941.

Hilltop Russians in San Francisco. 1941.

Why Abstract?, with Henry Miller and Hilaire Hiler. 1945.

The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills (autobiography). 1952.

The Saroyan Reader. 1958.

Here Comes, There Goes, You Know Who (autobiography). 1962.

A Note on Hilaire Hiler. 1962.

Me (for children). 1963.

Not Dying (autobiography). 1963.

Short Drive, Sweet Chariot (autobiography). 1966.

Look at Us: Let's See: Here We Are: Look Hard: Speak Soft: I See, You See, We all See; Stop, Look, Listen; Beholder's Eye; Don't Look Now But Isn't That You? (us? U.S.?). 1967.

Horsey Gorsey and the Frog (for children). 1968.

I Used to Believe I Had Forever; Now I'm Not So Sure. 1968.

Letters from 74 rue Taitbout. 1969; as Don't Go But If You Must Say Hello to Everybody, 1970.

Days of Life and Death and Escape to the Moon. 1970.

Places Where I've Done Time. 1972.

The Tooth and My Father (for children). 1974.

Famous Faces and Other Friends: A Personal Memoir. 1976.

Morris Hirshfield. 1976.

Sons Come and Go, Mothers Hang In Forever (memoirs). 1976.

Chance Meetings. 1978.

Obituaries. 1979.

Births. 1983.

Editor, Hairenik 1934-1939: An Anthology of Short Stort and Poems. 1939.

*

Bibliography:

A Bibliography of Saroyan 1934-1964 by David Kherdian, 1965.

Critical Studies:

"What Ever Happened to Saroyan?" by William J. Fisher, in College English 16, March 1955; Saroyan by Howard R. Floan, 1966; Last Rites: The Death of Saroyan, 1982, and Saroyan, 1983, both by Aram Saroyan; Saroyan: My Real Work Is Being by David Stephen Calonne, 1983; Saroyan by Edward Halsey Foster, 1984; Saroyan: A Biography by Lawrence Lee and Barry Gifford, 1984; Saroyan: The Man and the Writer Remembered edited by Leo Hamalian, 1987; The World of William Saroyan: A Literary Interpretation by Nona Balakian, 1997.

* * *

As Howard Floan pointed out, William Saroyan's career can be divided into four periods, each one distinguished by Saroyan's choice of literary genre. In the closing years of his life, for example, Saroyan wrote several autobiographical volumes, thereby concentrating on a genre that had been implicit in his work from the beginning. Prior to that phase he had focused his attention on the novel, producing in 1943 one of his best-known works, The Human Comedy. An interest in drama (1939-43) preceded his novelistic phase. In the earliest years of his long career (1934-39), before he started writing plays, Saroyan wrote several collections of short stories. Many critics feel that these will prove to be his most significant contribution to American literature.

The collections are impressive both for the quality of their prose and for their number. Between 1934 and 1939 Saroyan published The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, Inhale and Exhale, Three Times Three, Little Children, Love, Here Is My Hat, The Trouble with Tigers, and Peace, It's Wonderful. With each one he developed a more sophisticated attitude toward the formal components of the short story, resisting a bit more in each collection his natural tendency to interrupt his narratives with philosophical reflections spoken in his own voice. Gradually he chose to place greater faith in his abilities as a storyteller. In 1936 he wrote, "Critics are happiest with my stuff … when I try for almost nothing, when I sit down and very quietly tell a little story. In a way, I don't blame them, I myself enjoy writing and reading a very simple story, that is whole and with form" (Three Times Three).

Despite this admission, Saroyan never equated form with formulaic plots or simplicity with an absence of ideas. From "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" he consistently dramatized what one critic (William J. Fisher) calls a "pseudo-philosophy" and another (David Stephen Calonne) more generously refers to as a "central concern … [with] humanity's deepest spiritual aspirations." In Saroyan's oeuvre the short story is unique only insofar as its length forced him to integrate his ideas and beliefs more effectively into the traditional elements of tone, plot, and characterization. In doing so it provided him with fewer opportunities to interrupt the narrative with his own distinct voice.

Even an early autobiographical story like "Seventy Thousand Assyrians" demonstrates how the genre could control Saroyan's ego. Despite its first-person narrative and conversational tone, "Seventy Thousand Assyrians" is not concerned exclusively with the inner life of the speaker; rather, it treats the ways in which the narrator responds to the world around him. Saroyan allows the world—its people, places, and language—to shape the young writer who narrates his story from a barber shop on Third Avenue in San Francisco. The Iowa farm boy, the Assyrian barber, and even the distinctly "American" language that both enables him to communicate and threatens to "isolate" him, all of these elements define the narrator as principally a member of the "brotherhood of things alive." "If I have any desire at all," he concludes after his encounters, "it is to show the brotherhood of man."

This dialectic between the self and the world manifests itself less directly but no less forcefully in later stories such as "The Man with the Heart in the Highlands" and "Love, Here Is My Hat." The former dramatizes a series of exchanges between "neighbors and friends" that centers around the figure of an itinerant bugler named Jasper MacGregor; the second depicts two people who can only satisfy their own appetites for life through their relationship with one another. In both cases Saroyan draws strong central characters by demonstrating how they interact with those around them; he dramatizes, in other words, a much later autobiographical admission (in Sons Come) in which he asserts, "I not only believe that … it means something that I am…. I [also] believe that this meaning is large, and goes far, and is not ever going to be forgotten by … the human family."

As many critics have noted, the consequences of this dialectic between the self and the world is twofold. The subsequent quest for human unity and harmony gives Saroyan's prose, especially in the short stories, much of its force and meaning. The dialectical nature of the quest leads readers to interpret those stories about the fragmented lives of individuals as allegories about the broken center at the heart of all twentieth-century reality. "Deeply aware of the fragmentation and spiritual anarchy of life in the modern world," Saroyan, writes Calonne, "exhibits a driving impulse toward joy, self-realization, and psychic integration. Read in this manner, the stories do address what Saroyan himself (in Three Plays) called "the imperative requirement of our time": to "re-store faith to the mass and integrity to the individual."

But, as Fisher argues, in order to fulfill this requirement Saroyan often sacrifices too much. According to Fisher, Saroyan "yearn[s] for a harmony, for an eradication of conflicts and contradictions" that tends to "eliminate all distinction, reducing meaning to some amorphous unit—if not to a cipher." The result is a sentimental literature that ignores evil, champions an unshakable optimism, and tries desperately "to get rid of the unpleasant realities of life."

There is an element of truth to both positions, as one might expect given Saroyan's preoccupation with his fundamental belief in the intrinsic value of life or "being." "The thing about the people one meets on arrival, upon being born," writes Saroyan in Chance Meetings, "is that they are the people they are." One could argue that this single realization has motivated his entire career. If that is the case, then surely one also can understand how the consequences of his fiction would be as complicated and contradictory as the hearts of both his characters and readers.

—John C. Waldmeir

See the essay on "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze."