The Fresno Bee (California)
May 1, 2008 Thursday
The story behind the untold story
by Guy Keeler, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
May 1–William Saroyan’s dream of becoming a writer sprouted in Fresno
and blossomed in San Francisco. Like the first flower of spring, he
seemed to burst on the literary scene overnight.
But from the time he signed up for a typing class at Fresno Technical
School around 1920 until Story magazine published "The Daring Young
Man on the Flying Trapeze" in 1934, he wrote many things that never
saw print.
Beginning today, The Bee will present one of Saroyan’s early,
unpublished works. "Follow," a virtually unknown novella of about
26,000 words, will appear in 13 installments through June 1.
Publication of the novella was arranged through the Stanford
University Libraries, which keeps the work in its collection of
Saroyan papers.
"William Saroyan was a truly prolific writer, and there is a vast body
of unpublished work in his archives," said Annette Keogh, William
Saroyan Curator for American and British Literature at Stanford. "Many
know him through the Saroyan classics, but there is so much in the
archives that is very good. Anything that draws new readers to
unpublished Saroyan material is an exciting thing."
"Follow" was brought to The Bee’s attention by Bill Secrest Jr., who
learned about the novella last year from Aram Saroyan, the son of
William Saroyan. Secrest, history librarian for the Fresno County
Public Library and a member of the William Saroyan Society and the
William Saroyan Centennial Committee, was looking for ways to create a
tangible Saroyan tribute.
"When Bill told me the centennial was coming up, I thought of
‘Follow,’ " Aram Saroyan said. "I had read it about 10 years ago while
going through some of my dad’s archive material. It’s a beautiful
piece of work. I haven’t read anything among his unpublished works
that I like better."
The novella bears the address of a second-story apartment on Carl
Street in San Francisco, a block south of Golden Gate Park and seven
blocks from the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets. Saroyan shared
the place with his mother, Takoohi, brother Henry and sister
Cosette. At the time he wrote "Follow," he had returned from an
unsuccessful quest to become a writer in New York and was continuing
to pursue his dream in the security — and obscurity — of his
mother’s San Francisco flat.
Saroyan typically put a date on everything he wrote, said Dickran
Kouymjian, a Saroyan friend and retired chairman of the Armenian
Studies program at California State University, Fresno. But he also
sent manuscripts to typing services, which produced undated copies for
him. No date appears on any of the copies of "Follow" at Stanford.
When writing from personal experience, which he often did, Saroyan
liked to get things down on paper while the memories were fresh,
Kouymjian said. Since Saroyan returned from New York in 1929, he might
have written the novella that year or in 1930.
"Follow," which begins in the summer of 1924, tells the story of
16-year-old Aram Diranian, who breaks away from his Fresno roots to
seek adventure and a new life in New York.
Secrest said those who knew Saroyan or have read about his life will
be intrigued by the autobiographical tidbits in "Follow." He describes
his boyhood home on San Benito Avenue, with its walnut tree, crickets,
spiders and mice. He tells about eating oatmeal and bread for
breakfast and lamb stew or cabbage soup at night. He also mentions
writers who captured his attention — H. L. Mencken, Walt Whitman,
Sherwood Anderson, Mark Twain and Jack London, to name a few — and
yearns to get away from his hometown.
"The thrust is similar to James Joyce’s ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man,’ " Secrest said. "It’s about a young fellow trying to feel
his way around in the world. It’s a classical coming-of-age piece."
Aram Saroyan said readers familiar with his father’s published work
will find, in "Follow," some rehearsals of scenes that show up in
later Saroyan books and plays. The novella also showcases Saroyan’s
early writing skill.
"On the first page, you see the work of a writer who is barely 21
years old," Aram Saroyan said. "The prose is so beautiful and
lyrically done that it already has the stamp of the writer that my
father would become."
Aram Saroyan calls "Follow" the best of his father’s apprentice works,
a collection of several unpublished book-length manuscripts in the
Saroyan archives at Stanford. He is not surprised the manuscript is
still around after eight decades, adding, "My father kept
everything. He was a pack rat."
Aram Saroyan said he has found no evidence that his father ever
submitted "Follow" for publication. Although William Saroyan was to
gain fame as a master of the short story, he might have produced
"Follow" in an effort to write longer pieces. An editor’s letter in
the archives, urging his father to write a novel, might have motivated
the work, Aram Saroyan said.
Secrest said the autobiographical aspects of "Follow" might offer
another clue to why it was written.
"One thing about Saroyan, he was at the typewriter every day," Secrest
said. "Writing was something he ate, lived and dreamed about. It was
catharsis and therapy. I think in ‘Follow’ there may have been
something in Saroyan that needed to come out."
Betsy Lumbye, executive editor and senior vice president of The Bee,
and Managing Editor Jack Robinson had been looking for unpublished
Saroyan material to share with readers when they first read "Follow."
"It’s a rare honor and a privilege to be able to unveil an unpublished
work by an author of William Saroyan’s stature," Lumbye said. "It
means a lot to me, personally, because I first read "The Human Comedy"
when I was growing up in Virginia in the 1960s and was captivated by
the place and people he depicted."
"Follow" also will appear on The Bee’s Web site, which could generate
an even wider worldwide audience.
"We were immediately taken with the piece," Robinson said. "It works
as a story, and it also says a lot about Saroyan the man. He was so
young at the time that he had to rely heavily on his own experience
for material. His passionate character just shines off the page."