William Styron, widely considered one of the preeminent American writers of his generation, was born on June 11, 1925, in Newport News, Virginia, to W.C. and Pauline Styron. After high school, he attended Duke University, where he worked on his B.A. in literature.
Styron’s first novel, Lie Down in Darkness, published when he was twenty-six years old, was a critical and commercial success, and the culmination of years spent perfecting his manuscript. After its publication, Styron lived in Europe for two years, where he was a founding member of The Paris Review. He also met and married his wife, Rose, with whom he went on to have four children. Styron’s second major novel, Set This House on Fire (1960), drew upon his time in Europe. He spent years writing the subsequent novel,The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), which became his most celebrated—and most controversial—work, ultimately winning the Pulitzer Prize. Styron followed with another bestseller, Sophie’s Choice (1979), the winner of the 1980 National Book Award. That novel was made into an Academy Award–winning film of the same name. In 1985, Styron was beset by a deep clinical depression, which he wrote about in his acclaimed memoir, Darkness Visible (1990). His next book, A Tidewater Morning (1993), was perhaps his most autobiographical work of fiction.
Styron’s fiction and nonfiction writings draw heavily from the events of his life, including his Southern upbringing, his mother’s death from cancer in 1939, his family history of slave ownership, and his experience as a United States marine. His works have garnered broad acclaim for their elegant prose and insights into human psychology. William Styron died on November 1, 2006.