William Styron The Long March
William Styron - The Long MarchWilliam Styron was born in Newport News, Virginia on June 11th, 1935. His father, William Clark Styron, was a shipyard engineer who had come to Virginia from Washington, a port town on the Pamlico River in North Carolina. His mother, Pauline Margaret Abraham Styron, was a member of a Pennsylvanian family from Uniontown, a small city in the coke-manufacturing area southeast of Pittsburgh. At an early age William showed an aptitude for the written word, he began writing and publishing short stories for his high school newspaper at the age of thirteen. Styron’s early life was peaceful and happy, but by the age of fourteen Styron’s mother had died of cancer. This traumatic event coupled with her decline during adolescence left permanent scares that helped shape his personality and his writing.
In order to evade his stern new stepmother Styron entered a boy’s prep school near Urbanna called Christchurch where he published the previously mentioned short stories. After graduating from high school, Styron entered Davidson College in 1942. It was here that he began writing seriously, contributing frequently to the school newspaper and composing poems for the literary magazine. He was then transferred to Duke University in June 1943 to enter the Navy’s officer training (V-12) program. At Duke Styron published a number of short stories in “The Archive,” Duke’s literary magazine.
Styron stayed at Duke until October 1944, when he was ordered to Parris Island for boot camp. He moved on to Camp Lejeune and to Quantico for further military preparation and emerged as a Marine Second Lieutenant in July 1945. After his discharge from military service, Styron returned to Duke and completed his degree. His mentor at Duke, Prof. William Blackburn, helped him land a position in New York City as an associate editor at McGraw-Hill Publishers. In New York Styron attempted to begin a novel but stalled out; after being fired from his publishing job he drifted about living in various cities. He finally settled with friends in Valley Cottage New York, and using his G.I. bill and father for financial support, began to write his first novel.
With the help of a talented editor, Hiram Hayden, Styron completed his manuscript in the spring of 1951. Styron was rushed to finish this novel. This was because of the start of the Korean War. After World War II Styron remained in the reserves and was called back into service. Luckily Styron was quickly discharged due to a vision defect in his right eye. Once back from service, Styron returned to New York for the publication of his novel Lie Down in Darkness in September 1951. The book quickly received high praise from reviewers and won the Prix de Rome of the...
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