THE BANCROFT LIBRARY ACCEPTS GIFT OF WILLIAM SAROYAN ARCHIVES
UC Berkeley
05/19_William_Saroyan.shtml
May 19 2010
CA
BERKELEY — The Bancroft Library at the University of California,
Berkeley, has received a spectacular gift of hundreds of books,
drawings, correspondence and other personal communications to and
from one of America’s best-known writers, the Armenian-American author
and playwright William Saroyan.
William Saroyan (Photo courtesy of The Bancroft Library)The rich
collection includes approximately 48 cartons with 1,200 books and
other archival materials assembled by his niece, Jacqueline Kazarian,
of San Francisco, who also is the founder of the William Saroyan
Literary Foundation International. A celebration of the gift is set
for noon on Friday (May 21) at The Faculty Club on campus.
"UC Berkeley is such an incredible place of learning and growing
and intellectual exploration," said Kazarian, who earned degrees in
communication and decorative arts at UC Berkeley in the early 1950s.
"I know that my uncle wanted his library, manuscripts and galleys to
go to Berkeley. Students will be inspired by the collection."
Apart from this gift, The Bancroft Library already retains significant
holdings of Saroyan’s work that it collected over the course of his
life and career, and it continues to add to that collection. Most
of the latest materials come from Saroyan’s home on San Francisco’s
15th Avenue that is now a Saroyan museum directed by Kazarian. Those
materials were supplemented by Kazarian’s extensive personal
collection, as well as by items of Saroyan’s that she acquired through
a prominent Boston archivist and via a Saroyan friend.
"Jacqueline Kazarian’s new gift is the largest and most substantial
augmentation to the Saroyan collections at Bancroft that we have ever
received," said Peter Hanff, Bancroft’s deputy director.
Saroyan, born in Fresno, Calif., in 1908, drew extensively on
his Armenian-American heritage and childhood experiences for his
books, plays and short stories. Much of his writing was considered
impressionistic and reflected a hearty optimism often hard to find
during the gritty Great Depression. He died in 1981 at the age of 72,
with his niece at his side.
The author’s classic manual typewriter, as displayed at his San
Francisco home. (Photo courtesy of The Bancroft Library)When Story
magazine editors Martha Foley and Whit Burnett printed Saroyan’s "The
Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" in 1934, it was an immediate
success, triggering Saroyan’s fame and standing as one of his many
literary achievements.
"Uncle Bill’s writing revolutionized the short story," said Kazarian,
adding that she has always found his work "almost spiritual and
fable-like."
His five-act play, "The Time of Your Life," is the only American
play to have won both the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and
the Pulitzer Prize. Saroyan’s work as a screenwriter with Hollywood
director Louis B. Mayer on the film "The Human Comedy" won an Academy
Award in 1943, and Saroyan later wrote a widely acclaimed book with
the same title.
Kazarian’s gift to The Bancroft Library includes multiple first
editions of Saroyan’s works, such as "The Daring Young Man on the
Flying Trapeze," "My Name is Aram" (1940), "The Human Comedy" and
"Obituaries" (1979), and many materials personally inscribed by the
writer. Also among the new items according to Steven Black, the head
of acquisitions for Bancroft, are letters, telegrams and notes written
by Saroyan to relatives and others close to him, mostly during the
1930s and 1940s.
"He personalized a lot of what passed through his hands," Black said,
noting that much of the material features marginalia reflecting
Saroyan’s thoughts and interests.
Antiquarian book dealer Peter Howard of Berkeley, poring through
Saroyan materials. (Photo courtesy of The Bancroft Library)There also
is a copy of Henry Miller’s "Aller Retour New York," an 80-page journal
about a 1935 visit by Miller to New York City and his journey aboard
a Dutch ship back to Europe. It is inscribed by Miller to Saroyan.
And a Saroyan scrapbook in the collection contains press announcements
about the Pulitzer Prize for his book, "The Time of Your Life." He
scoffed at the award, contending that the arts should not be judged
by commerce.
The new Bancroft collection also contains a pre-publication proof of
"Burnt Norton," the first poem of T.S. Eliot’s "Four Quartets," which
Black said the publisher may have given to Saroyan "when he crossed
the pond" on a trip from his temporary home in France to England.
There also is a wide range of magazines, including issues of Horizon
and the Partisan Review, a leading publication of the Anglo-American
intelligentsia during the 1930s and ’40s, Black said.
The first major deposit at The Bancroft Library of Saroyan’s papers
was recorded in October 1980, and the library agreed to organize the
collection and give Saroyan a general description and an index. After
Saroyan died in 1981, the Saroyan Foundation paid the library to
continue assembling the papers for official archives, which the
foundation ultimately decided to place at Stanford University. That
happened in 1996.
Kazarian’s donation is in honor of Berkeley antiquarian book dealer
Peter Howard, who has provided appraisal assistance to Bancroft on
Saroyan materials and other collections for decades. While director
of The Bancroft Library, the late James D. Hart also developed strong
professional and personal ties to Saroyan over the years, according
to Kazarian and Black.
William Saroyan’s niece, Jacqueline Kazarian, surveys materials in
his home. (Photo courtesy of The Bancroft Library)"Now, the Saroyan
family materials come to a place that Saroyan himself would have
been happy to see accepting them," Black said, noting that Bancroft
is proud to have so much of Saroyan’s "intellectual remains" to be
able to share with the public.
Scheduled to speak about the acquisition at Friday’s event are
Jacqueline Kazarian; David Calonne, vice president of education for
the Saroyan Literary Foundation International and a Saroyan scholar;
San Francisco novelist Herbert Gold; theater director Val Hendrickson
reading Saroyan’s short story, "Common Prayer," and the credo to
"The Time of Your Life"; and Charles Faulhaber, director of The
Bancroft Library.
UC Berkeley already is home to an Armenian Studies Program, which
is focused on contemporary Armenian history, politics, language and
culture. And Bancroft, a rich, special collections library containing
historical and literary documents and other materials relating to
California, the West, Mexico and Latin America, is known for its
strong collections on California writers, including Jack London,
Robinson Jeffers, Bret Harte, Frank Norris and others.
More information about The Bancroft Library is online. Bancroft is
celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.