December 30, 2006

A Tribute to William Styron

On Wednesday, December 13, a gray, rainy evening, writers and readers gathered at the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library to pay tribute to novelist William Styron (June 11, 1925 - November 1, 2006). The mood in the library's majestic Abbey Room was subdued but celebratory, with many authors who had not seen each other in some time embracing. The tribute was co-sponsored by PEN New England and the BPL.

Bernard Margolis, President of the BPL, welcomed the assembled to the warmth and grandeur of the room, alluding to the richly colored murals depicting "The Quest of the Holy Grail." Michael Lowenthal, member of the PEN/NE Executive Committee—who had conceived of the event within days of Styron's passing and produced the evening with the help of fellow novelist and PEN member Jennifer Haigh—made welcoming remarks, followed by a string of readings and remembrances. These were not overly solemn.

Robert Brustein—author, critic, educator, and director—recalled Styron on Martha's Vineyard, including the author's culinary accomplishments (ham laced with bourbon was a specialty of the house), his aversion to submerging his body in the ocean, and immutable resistance to playing tennis, though a court was next door to his home. Jennifer Haigh described her own domestic bookstore of Styron's works; the copies of Lay Down in Darkness she keeps at home to give to friends, "especially those in trouble," and the venerable, marked-up copy that stays near her writing desk. She ended her remarks by reading a passage from the book. Author and educator Kenneth Greenberg, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Suffolk University and editor of Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory (the actual confessions predating Styron's novel), described Styron's singular literary achievements. Greenberg read from Styron's eulogy of his longtime friend, writer James Baldwin—words intended as testimony to Baldwin that remain also as testimony to Styron, including to his commitment to bridging racial divides.

White-haired Norman Mailer, stooped and walking with two canes—winner of two Pulitzer Prizes (The Armies of the Night, The Executioner's Song) and former President of PEN America—showed no sign of age in his comments, which included memories of the prickly rivalry between him and Styron, their falling-out ("I lost his company for 24-years," said Mailer) and the eventual, careful, courtly way they rescued a fallen friendship through letters. Journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks praised the power of Sophie's Choice, the way it spoke to her so directly on the other side of the world, as a cub reporter in Australia, inspiring and dedicating her to the truth of literature. A third Pulitzer winner, chief book critic of the Boston Globe, Gail Caldwell, enriched the evening with her vivid remembrance of Darkness Visible, her conversation about depression with Styron, and the muscular psychic courage he employed to battle his way out.

Styron's red-haired daughter, Susanna Styron, a filmmaker, closed the evening with a level-headed testimony to her father's high standards for the research necessary to his work, and how he extended his standards to her own work. He created "new perspectives" on the South, the family, mental illness, and the Holocaust, said Susanna, describing her father's long mission: working towards the truth.

Rose Styron sat composed and occasionally smiling—and laughing out loud during Norman Mailer's account of a competitive croquet game between him and Styron—taking in the evening's tributes to her late husband and to herself. In addition to her own work as a writer, Mrs. Styron is a human rights activist, whose activities have included the chairmanship of PEN America's Freedom-to-Write Committee. Rose Styron shared life with William Styron for more than 53 years, staunch aide and ally in pursuit of truth.

Works by William Styron:

Lie Down in Darkness (1951)
The Long March (1952, serial; 1956, book)
Set This House on Fire (1960)
The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967)
In the Clap Shack (1973)
Sophie's Choice (1979)
The Quiet Dust, and Other Writings (1982, expanded 1993)
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990)
A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth (1993)

(Report by Lynda Morgenroth)

December 1, 2006

Children's Book Caucus Discovery Award

Each year, the PEN New England Children's Book Caucus honors emerging writers and writer/illustrators with its Susan P. Bloom Children's Book Discovery Award. Winners will present their work to the public at the PEN New England Children's Book Discovery Evening in April 2007, and winning manuscripts will be read by editors from Candlewick, Houghton Mifflin, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, or Little, Brown and Company.

Full details and submission guidelines are available now in the Children's Book Caucus section.