Spirit of America Bookstore
William Saroyan
[1908-1981]
 | short profile |
"The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with
everything and everybody. The writer is everybody's best friend and only true enemy – the good
and great enemy. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer
is a rebel who never stops." — William Saroyan (in "The William Saroyan Reader" 1958)
B I O
t e x t
h e r e
In 1943, Saroyan married 17-year-old Carol Grace Marcus; they had two children: son Aram (b. 25 September 1943) and daughter Lucy (b. 17 January 1946). When Carol revealed that she was Jewish and illegitimate, Saroyan divorced her (1949); they remarried in 1951 and within months she divorced him (1952).
official William Saroyan website
William Saroyan entry at Wikipedia
William Saroyan's credits [since 1943] at Internet Movie Database
William Saroyan Society
Wm. Saroyan Literary Foundation [est. 1966]
browse William Saroyan category (44 books) at Amazon
search William Saroyan books (over 600 titles) at Amazon
![won the Academy Award for Best Original Story for "The Human Comedy" [1943]](images/oscar_sm.gif){kind=small} | William Saroyan won an Oscar® for Best Original Story for "The Human Comedy" [1943] He also received |
Short Stories
"The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trapeze" [1934]
"Inhale and Exhale" [1936]
"Three Times Three" [1936]
"Little Children" [1937] B000OK2A8G
"The Trouble With Tigers" [1938]
"Love Here Is My Hat and Other Short Romances" [1938] B000RQ6T6Q
"Peace It's Wonderful and Twenty-Six Other Stories" [1939]
"Saroyan's Fables" [1941]
"The Best Stories of William Saroyan" [1943]
includes: "The Barber Whose Uncle Had His Head Bitten Off By A Circus Tiger"; "The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trapeze";
"Little Dog Laughed At Such Sport"; "London, Ah, London"; "Our Friends The Mice"; "Raisins"; and "Seventy Thousand Assyrians"
Faber & Faber pb [12/64] out of print/scarce
"Dear Baby" [1944] hb=B000OHH0WK + B0007DNE8U
"Some Day I'll Be A Millionaire: 34 More Great Stories" [1944] pb=B000NREPDI
 | "Tales For Males: Selected For Man's Enjoyment" [1945] Edited by Ed Fitzgerald Cadillac Publng hardcover [1/45] out of print/rare stories by Konrad Bercovici, James M. Cain, Morley Callaghan, George S. Chappell, John Collier, Clarence Day Jr., John Fante, W.C. Fields, Corey Ford, Benjamin Franklin, C.A. Hamilton, Fred C. Kelly, Arthur Kober, Ring Lardner, Dorothy Parker, William Saroyan, Bernard Sobel, Donald Ogden Stewart, Frank Sullivan, James Thurber, George Weller and others |
"The Insurance Salesman and Other Stories" [1946]
"The Assyrian and Other Stories" [1950]
"The Whole Voyald and Other Stories" [1956]
"My Kind of Crazy, Wonderful People: Seventeen Stories & A Play" [1964] B0006BPMS8
 | "The Man With The Heart In The Highlands and Other Stories" [1968] Introduction by Herb Caen; includes "The Broken Wheel"; "The Brothers and Sisters"; "Dear Baby"; "The Death of Children"; "The Great Leapfrog Contest"; "The Humming- bird That Lived Through Winter"; "The Living and The Dead"; the title story; "Many Miles Per Hour"; "The Messenger"; "The Oranges"; "The Parsley Garden"; "The Peasant"; "Secrets of Alexandria"; "The Stolen Bicycle"; "Sweetheart, Sweetheart, Sweetheart"; and "The World's Champion Elevator Operator" New Directions 7¾x5 pb [5/92] for $11.95 W,W. Norton hardcover [2/90] out of print/used |
 | "Madness In The Family" [17 stories 1988] Edited by Leo Hamalian includes the title story, "Fire", "The Last Word Was Love" and fourteen more New Directions Publng 7¾x5¼ pb [5/90] out of print/used New Directions Publng 8¼x5¾ hardcover [4/88] out of print/used |
 | "Fresno Stories" [11 stories 1994] includes "A Fresno Fable"; "Cowards"; "The Duel"; "Fire"; "The Great Leapfrog Contest"; "The Inscribed Copy of The Kreutzer Sonata"; "The Last Word Was Love"; "Madness In The Family"; "The Man With The Heart In The Highlands"; "Many Miles Per Hour"; and "Sweetheart, Sweetheart, Sweetheart" New Directions / Bibelot 6¾x5¼ pb [11/94] for $8.00 |
not sure yet what category
"A Christmas Psalm" [1935] B00085W1S6
"Pheasant Hunter"
"Hello Frankie!"
"Sweeney In The Trees"
Fiction
"Those Who Write Them and Those Who Collect Them" [1936]
"The Summer of The Beautiful White Horse" [1938]
"A Native American" [1938] B0006AOSHK
"My Name Is Aram" [1940]
"The State of The Nation" [1940]
"The People With Light Coming Out of Them" [1941]
"Razzle Dazzle: The Human Opera, Ballet & Circus" [1942] B0007FJO46 + B000LA97RG
"The Human Comedy: A Novel" [1943] mass pb=B000RWGDH0
written first as a screenplay; when producer L.B. Mayer balked at the script's length, Saroyan was removed from the project;
he wrote the novel based on his script and published the book just before the M.G.M. movie was released
"The Adventures of Wesley Jackson" [1946] 2006 Span pb=8496489590
"Tracy's Tiger" [novella 1951]
 | "Rock Wagram: The Private Life of A Hollywood Star" [1951] Written in 39 days, the tale of ex-GI and former bartender Arik Vagramian, who changed his name to Rock Wagram and has become a successful actor in Hollywood, and his struggles to maintain his career, his marriage, and his role as father to two children. Signet mass pb [1952] out of print/used Doubleday hardcover [1951] out of print/used Doubleday hardcover [1951] out of print/used Doubleday hardcover [1951] out of print/used |
"The Laughing Matter: A Serious Story" [1953] B000JG8BOW + in pb as "A Secret Story" B000DCO59W
"Love" [1955] B0007F8J2E
"Mama I Love You" [1956]
"Papa You're Crazy" [1957] 9997413547
  | "The William Saroyan Reader" [1958] Introduction by Aram Saroyan includes 1951 novella "Tracy's Tiger", short stories "The Adventures of Wesley Jackson", "Finlandia", "Oranges", "The Man With His Heart In The Highlands", "70,000 Assyrians", "A Cold Day", "The Living and The Dead", plus his Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Time of Your Life", "Saroyan Prizes", "A Writer's Declaration", and many more Barricade Books 8x5½ pb [12/94] for $10.85 George Braziller hardcover [6/58] out of print/used |
"Gaston" [1962]
"Boys and Girls Together: A Novel" [1963] B0017WTHI6 + B000NYDGTU + pb=1569800472
"One Day In The Afternoon of The World" [1964] B0007DK84I
"Short Drive, Sweet Chariot" [1966] B000NYCYKW + 0671752286 + B00005WU6J
"The Tooth and My Father" [1974]
"An Act or Two of Foolish Kindness" [1977]
"Obituaries" [1979] or 1965?
"Births" [1983]
"My Name Is Saroyan: A Collection" [1983]
"He Flies Throught The Air With The Greatest of Ease: A William Saroyan Reader" []
http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9781597140904-1
 |
"Saroyan: The New Saroyan Reader - A Connoisseur's Anthology of The Writings of William Saroyan" [1984] Edited by Brian Darwent short stories & selections from autobiographical works Associated Publrs Group 9x6 pb [11/84] out of print/used Creative Arts Book Co. 9¾x6 hardcover [12/88] out of print/used |
 |
"Where The Bones Go" [2002] Edited by Robert Setrakian The Press at CSU Fresno 8¾x5½ ltd edition hardcover [10/2002] out of print/scarce publisher/titles info page |
Stageplays
Wm. Saroyan's Broadway play credits [1939-82] at Internet Broadway Database
"My Heart's In The Highlands" [1939]
After being taken to his first Broadway play, "Ceiling Zero", by Random House publisher Bennett Cerf, Saroyan said "So that's a Broadway show. For God's sake,
I could write a better one than that in twenty-four hours!" And he did: his first stageplay "My Heart's In The Highlands" was written in twenty-four hours.
credits at IBDb
"The Time of Your Life: A Comedy In Three Acts" [1939]
hb=B000OLP8G6 + pb=B000P8415M
winner of the New York Drama Critics' Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (Saroyan declined the award)
1939 credits at IBDb •
1940 credits at IBDb
"Elmer and Lily" [1939]
"The Hungerers: A Short Play" [1939]
"The Agony of Little Nations" [1940]
"Love's Old Sweet Song: A Comedy In Three Acts" [1940] 1406732214 + 9781406732214
credits at IBDb
"Hello Out There!: A One Act Play" [1941]
credits at IBDb
"The Beautiful People" [1941]
credits at IBDb
"Bad Men In The West" [1942]
"Across The Board On Tomorrow Morning" [1941]
"Talking To You" [1942]
performed together on Broadway 1942: credits at IBDb
"Coming Through The Rye" [1942]
"Get Away Old Man: A Play In Two Acts" [1943]
credits at IBDb
"Don't Go Away Mad" [1947]
"Jim Dandy: Fat Man In A Famine" [1947] B00005XK23
"Sam Ego's House: A Play In Three Acts & Seven Scenes" [1949]
"A Decent Birth, A Happy Funeral: A Play In Three Acts & Six Scenes" [1949]
"The Slaughter of The Innocents: A Play In Two Acts" [1952] or 58?
"The Stolen Secret" [1954]
"The Cave Dwellers" [1957]
credits at IBDb
"Once Around The Block: A Play In One Act" [1959?]
"The Paris Comedy" [1960]
"The London Comedy" [1960]
book "Sam, The Highest Jumper of Them All, or The London Comedy" [1961] B0000CL25H
"Hanging Around The Wabash" [1961]
"Settled Out of Court: A Play In Three Acts" [1969] based on the book by Henry Cecil
"The Dogs, or The Paris Comedy" [1969]
"Armenians" [1971] {see Trilogy below}
"Assassinations" [Paris 1974]
"Jim, Sam & Anna" [Paris 1974]
 | "An Armenian Trilogy: Three Plays" [1986] Edited by Dickran Kouymjian These plays – reviewed as undramatic, rhetorical, and plotless – examine what it means to be an Armenian in the 20th century. "Armenians" [1971] discusses the Armenian genocide, as viewed from 1921 Fresno; "Bitlis" reexamines the issue thru Saroyan's first trip back to Armenia in 1964; "Haratch" is set in the offices of an Armenian newspaper in 1979 Paris California State Univ Fresno 8¾x5½ pb [9/86] out of print/used California State Univ Fresno8 ¾x6 hardcover [9/86] out of print/used | |
 | "Warsaw Visitor and Tales From The Vienna Streets: The Last Two Plays of William Saroyan" [1990] Edited & with an Introduction by Dickran Kouymjian "Warsaw Visitor" is a retelling of the Faust legend with Saroyan himself as Faust; "Tales From The Vienna Streets" [1980] is a rare (for Saroyan) excursion into the sociopolitical arena California State Univ Fresno 9x5¾ pb [2/90] for $29.00 |
"The Parsley Garden" [1992] 0886823552
Motion Pictures, Television & Other Works
William Saroyan's credits [since 1943] at Internet Movie Database
"Hilltop Russians In San Francisco: A Record of The Potrero Hill Colony" [1941]
by William Saroyan & Pauline Vinson (Hardcover - 1941) B000NUST5A
"The Human Comedy" movie [1943]
won him the Academy Award for Best Original Story Writing
"The Oyster and The Pearl" [1953 TV play]
"Omnibus" [1955]: a dramatization of Saroyan's Fresno childhood stories, starring Sal Mineo
"The Unstoppable Gray Fox" ½-hour teleplay [General Electric Theater 1962]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0586370/
"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]
by William Saroyan, photography by Arthur Rothenstein B0011CX9DQ
B0006BRK3I B000JVGZF4
The Time of Your Life (1976) (TV) Narrator http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0217094/
William Saroyan: I Saw the Mighty Armenia (1977) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307117/
Memoirs & Autobiography
"The Bicycle Rider In Beverly Hills" [book-length memoir 1952]
"Places Where I've Done Time" [1957 & 1972]
0706700546 + pb=4407125225 + hb=B000O88GVS
"Here Comes, There Goes, You Know Who: An Autobiography" [1961] B000OL0CNK
"Not Dying: An Autobiographical Interlude (with drawings by the author)" [1963]
B000Q42D32 + B000IUOFM6
"I Used To Believe I Had Forever, Now I'm Not So Sure" [1968]
B000OHCZ7K + B0006BW6MI
"Letters From 74 Rue Taitbout, or, Don't Go, But If You Must, Say Hello To Everybody"
[1968] B0006BZ2YW
"Days of Life and Death and Escape To The Moon" [1970] B0006CZIU4
"Sons Come and Go, Mothers Hang In Forever" [1976] Illustrated by Al Hirschfeld
B000NQK4R0 + many hb=0070547483
"Chance Meetings: A Memoir" [1978] pb=0393009696 + hb=B000JWHKB6
"Saroyan Memoirs" Nov 1994 pb=1858632188
Works About Wm. Saroyan
"A Bibliography of William Saroyan, 1934-1964" [1965] by David Kherdian
Roger Beacham hardcover [1/65] out of print/scarce
"William Saroyan: I Saw the Mighty Armenia" [1977] /tt0307117/
documentary by Armenian master cinematographer Mikhail Vartanov
 |
"William Saroyan" [1965] by Howard R. Floan Twayne Publrs hardcover [1/66] out of print/used Twayne Publrs 8x5 pb [1/65] out of print/used |
 |
"Last Rites: The Death of William Saroyan" [Wm. Morrow 1982] by {son} Aram Saroyan Wm. Morrow pb [2/84] out of print/used Wm. Morrow hardcover [7/82] out of print/used |
 | "William Saroyan" [1983] by Aram Saroyan Harcourt pb [9/83] out of print/used Harcourt Brace Jovanovich hardcover [9/83] out of print/used |
"William Saroyan: My Real Work Is Being" [1983] by David Stephen Calonne
Univ NC Press hardcover [12/83] out of print/used
 |
"Saroyan: A Biography" [1984] by Barry Gifford & Lawrence Lee Da Capo Press 8x5½ pb [12/2005] for $11.96 Univ CA Press 8¼x5½ pb [4/98] for $17.95 Harper & Row hardcover [10/84] out of print/many used |
 |
"William Saroyan" (Western Writers Series) [1984] by Edward Halsey Foster Boise State Univ 8x5½ pb [9/84] out of print/used |
"Willie & Varaz: Memories of My Friend William Saroyan" [1985] by Varaz Samuelian
A.G. Access Corp. hardcover [5/85] out of print/scarce
 |
"William Saroyan: The Man and The Writer Remembered" [1987] Edited by Leo Harmalian Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press hardcover [12/87] for $38.50 |
"William Saroyan: A Reference Guide" [1988] by Elizabeth C. Foard
Macmillan / G.K. Hall 9¾x6½ hardcover [12/88] out of print/used
 |
"William Saroyan: The Man, The Writer" [April 1991] Documentary film produced by Dr. Susie Kalinian; written & directed by Paul Kalinian; narrated by Mike Connors video/DVD not available • full credits from IMDb • official movie site |
 |
"William Saroyan: A Study of The Short Fiction" [1991] by Edward Halsey Foster Twayne Publrs 8¾x5¾ hardcover [10/91] out of print/used |
 | "William Saroyan: A Research & Production Sourcebook" [1994] by Jon Whitmore Greenwood Press 9½x6½ hardcover [12/94] out of print/used |
 |
"Critical Essays On William Saroyan" [1995] Edited by Harry Keyishian Prentice Hall / Twayne Publrs hardcover [10/95] for $52.00 |
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"The World of William Saroyan: A Literary Interpretation" [1998] by Nona Balakian Bucknell Univ Press 9½x6½ hardecover [4/98] for $45.00 |
 |
"A Daring Young Man: A Biography of William Saroyan" [2002] by John Leggett Knopf 9½x6½ hardcover [11/2002] out of print/many used |
 | "William Saroyan: Places In Time" [2008] Text by Janice Stevens, with 55 watercolor illustrations by Pat Hunter Linden Publng / Craven Street Books hardcover [9/2008] for $17.79 |
"Saroyan and The Dream of Success: The American Vaudeville As A Political Weapon" [2002]
by Mauricio D. Aguilera Linde
Family & Friends
twice-wife Carol Grace Marcus Saroyan Matthau [1924-2003]
son Aram Saroyan [b. 1943] official website
daughter Lucy Saroyan [1946-2003]
L i n k s
official William Saroyan website
Aram Saroyan's official website
William Saroyan entry at Wikipedia
William Saroyan's credits [since 1943] at Internet Movie Database
William Saroyan Society
The Wm. Saroyan Foundation [est. 1966]
The William Saroyan Literary Foundation Intl. of San Francisco
Wm. Saroyan Centennial [2008]
Wm. Saroyan Centennial Events Calendar [July-Sept 2008]
Wm. Saroyan Centennial brochure {Adobe pdf file}
Wm. Saroyan Chronology by the Fresno County Public Library
The William Saroyan Collection at Stanford University
Wm. Saroyan Collection at the Fresno County Public Library
Wm. Saroyan Collection at C.S.U. Fresno
Wm. Saroyan International Prize for Writing at Stanford University
Wm. Saroyan Prize for Playwriting
William Saroyan Theatre [est. 1966] at the Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center
http://www.armeniandrama.org/people.php?p=william-saroyan&a=2
http://www.electroasylum.com/saroyan/
here on the William Saroyan [1908-81] Page at Spirit of America Bookstore
top of page • short profile • short stories • other fiction • stageplays • other works
works about William Saroyan • family & friends • links
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