Famous Armenians in America

WILLIAM SAROYAN

William Saroyan (August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an American author who wrote many plays and short stories about growing up impoverished as the son of Armenian immigrants.

William's father died in 1911 and his mother, unable to care for him, placed him and his brothers in an orphanage. Six years later, his mother was able to reunite the family after she obtained work in a cannery in Fresno , California .

Many of Saroyan's stories were based on his childhood experiences among the Armenian-American fruit growers of the San Joaquin Valley , or dealt with the problems faced by immigrants. The short story collection MY NAME IS ARAM (1940), an international bestseller, was about a young boy, Aram Garoghlanian, and the colorful characters of his immigrant family.

Among Saroyan's best known plays is THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE (1939), set in a waterfront saloon in San Francisco . It won a Pulitzer Prize. Saroyan refused the honor, on the grounds that commerce should not judge the arts, but accepted the New York Drama Critics Circle award.

A lot of the most well known Armenian poetry has been written by William Saroyan. But no other has had the significance that "The Armenian and the Armenian" has had. The Setting of the poem is that of the events taken place during the Armenian Genocide on April 24, 1915 by the young Ottoman Empire in which over 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated. The poem is known for the emotions of Saroyan that are expressed in relations to Armenian culture.

"I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread and water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia ."

Many of Saroyan's later plays, such as THE PARIS COMEDY (1960), THE LONDON COMEDY (1960), and SETTLED OUT COURT (1969), premiered in Europe . A number of his plays, now housed at Stanford University with his other papers, have never been performed

In 1943 Saroyan married the seventeen-year-old Carol Marcus; they had two children, Aram and Lucy. The couple later divorced. Lucy became an actress. Aram became a poet, who published a book about his father.

Saroyan died from cancer at the age of 72 on May 18, 1981 in his hometown of Fresno , California . "Everybody has got to die", he had said, "but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case." Half of his ashes were buried in California , and the rest in Armenia .