William Saroyan Papers, 1926-1981

http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf187001q3 No online items Guide to the William Saroyan Papers, 1926-1981 Processed by staff of the Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley Department of Special Collections Green Library Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA 94305-6004 Phone: (650) 725-1022 Email: [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc ©2003, 1998 The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved. Guide to the William Saroyan Papers, Special Collections M0870 1 1926-1981 Guide to the William Saroyan Papers, 1926-1981 Collection number: M0870 Department of Special Collections and University Archives Stanford University Libraries Stanford, California Contact Information Department of Special Collections Green Library Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA 94305-6004 Phone: (650) 725-1022 Email: [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Processed by: Staff of the Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, with funding and direction from the William Saroyan Foundation. Encoded by: Patricia White ©2003, 1998 The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: William Saroyan Papers, Date (inclusive): 1926-1981 Collection number: Special Collections M0870 Creator: Saroyan, William, 1908-1981 Extent: 185 linear ft. Repository: Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives. Abstract: Manuscripts, correspondence, journals, drawings, scrapbooks, clippings, financial and legal records, his personal typewriter, and ephemera. Language: English. 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 [Identification of item] William Saroyan Papers, M0870, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. Acquisition Information Gift of William Saroyan Foundation 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 Guide to the William Saroyan Papers, Special Collections M0870 2 1926-1981 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. Scope and Content Saroyan's papers document his personal and professional life and include manuscripts, correspondence, journals, drawings, scrapbooks, clippings, financial and legal records, and ephemera. The correspondence, which includes both incoming and outgoing items, is with his family, publishers, fans, agents, attorneys, writers, actors, and other public figures. The manuscripts include novels, plays, short stories, memoirs, essays, poems and music. The scrapbooks date from 1935 to 1942 and contain clippings, programs, and photos relating to some of Saroyan's first theatrical productions. Indexing Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog. Subjects American literature--20th century. Genres and Forms of Material Typewriters. Atlantic Monthly Press Ballantine Books Bantam Books George Braziller Cassell & Co. Cowles Communications Creative Arts Book Co. Thomas J. Crowell, Inc. Delacorte Press Dell Publishing Co. Dial Press Dilia Doubleday & Co. Duchess Music Corp. Arnoldo Mondadori Editore Faber & Faber Farrar, Strauss & Giroux Samuel French Ginn & Co. Grabhorn Press Hairenik Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Harper & Row Houghton & Mifflin Guide to the William Saroyan Papers, Special Collections M0870 3 1926-1981 Jose Janes Japan Uni Agency Kenkyusha Ltd. Leeds Music Corp. J.B. Lippincott Listening Library Little, Brown & Co. McDougal, Littell & Co. McGraw-Hill Book Co. MacMillan Company Modern Age Books Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd. New American Library Nippon Hoso Kyokai Noble & Noble, Inc. W.W. Norton Penmaen Press Phaedra Publishers, Inc. Pocket Books Inc. Praeger Publishers, Inc. Prentice-Hall Inc. Random House, Inc. Franco Maria Ricci Editore Scholastic Book Services Scott, Foresman & Co. Charles Scribners' Sons Simon & Schuster Spadea Syndicate S. Fischer Verlag Viking Press World Publishing Co. A.A. Wyn Stichting tot Exploitatie en Berscherming van Auteursrechten Authors Agency Limited Brandt & Brandt Jaques Chambrun Joan Davies Barthold Fles Fox Chase Agency (Al Hart) Samuel French James Geller Folmer Hansen Jugoslovenska Autorska Agencija Michelle La Pautre Landers Agency Irving Lazar A & S Lyons Elizabeth Marton Guide to the William Saroyan Papers, Special Collections M0870 4 1926-1981 George Marton Plays Harold Matson Ben Medford Scott Meredith William Morris Agency Pearn, Pollinger & Higham Lawrence Pollinger Ltd. Stanley Richards Stanley Rose Lawrence Smith Literary Agency Talent Associates Margery Vosper Ltd. Ann Watkins Inc. K. Yano Literary Agency Philip Alperin Athearn, Chandler & Hoffman (Richard Harrington) Coudert Fr�res (Aram Kevorkian) Robert Damir Desser, Rau, Christensen & Hoffman Ernst and Ernst Ernst, Cane, Berner & Gitlin Alan Fenner Armen Hampar Kevorkian & Caldwell (Aram Kevorkian) Arnold Krakower Shearer, Fields, Rohner & Shearer Shirley, Saroyan, Calvert & Peterson (Suren Saroyan) William Stern Bagdasarian, Ross Kazarian, Jacqueline Matthau, Carol Minasian, Archie Papazian Family Saroyan, Aram Saroyan, Aram (uncle) Saroyan, Cosette Saroyan, Hank Saroyan, Henry Saroyan, Lucy Saroyan, Mihran Papazian, Zabel (Saroyan) The Abracadabra Kid Ah Sweet Mystery of Mrs. Murphy The Bad Men The Best Year in the History of the Whole World The California Boyhood of William Saroyan The Christmas Tie An Everyday Family Miracle Guide to the William Saroyan Papers, Special Collections M0870 5 1926-1981 The Man in the Cool-Cool Moon My Heart's in the Highlands The Oyster and the Pearl A Picture for the Family Album Scalawag's Heaven A Spring Day at the Marriage License Bureau Vive! Series 1 Correspondence, ca. 1926-1981 Scope and Content Note Correspondence in the collection covers the years 1926-1981, with the bulk falling in the years after 1950. Major correspondents include family members, attorneys, agents, and publishers. Also included are notable literary, stage and film figures such as Charley Chaplin and Oona O'Neill, John Houseman, Darryl F. Zanuck, George Jean Nathan, Garson Kanin, and composers Joaquin Rodrigo and Alan Hovhaness. From the 1950s on, Saroyan kept carbon copies of most of his correspondence, which he attached to letters incoming from others. Approximately one quarter of all correspondence is from William Saroyan himself. Saroyan occasionally used the pseudonym "Aram Garoghlanian" for magazine subscriptions and it may appear on other correspondence as well. 1.01 A miscellany Box 1, Folder 1 AAA - Abromson Box 1, Folder 2 Academy - Actors Box 1, Folder 3 Adair - A.D.W. Box 1, Folder 4 Afro - Aistrop Box 1, Folder 5 Ajderian - Aktiebolaget Box 1, Folder 6 Alameda - Altounian Box 1, Folder 7 Amateur - American Brotherhood Box 1, Folder 8 American Center - American Community Box 2, Folder 1 American Druggist - American Legion Box 2, Folder 2 American Museum - American Productions Box 2, Folder 3 American Reader - American Visitors Box 2, Folder 4 Americana - Amphoto Box 2, Folder 5 Anaheim - Anvil Box 2, Folder 6 A-1 - Aquarian Box 2, Folder 7 Arabian - Arlington Box 2, Folder 8 Armenian A - Armenian Literary Box 2, Folder 9 Armenian Mesrobian - Armenian National Box 2, Folder 10 Armenian Presbyterian - Armenian Youth Box 3, Folder 1 Armstrong - Artesian Box 3, Folder 2 Arthur - Arzoomanian Box 3, Folder 3 Asahi - Astoorian Box 3, Folder

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