Introduction


William Styron
William Styron played the race card...but the only problem was that Styron was white. His most celebrated novel, The Confessions of Nat Turner, was also his most controversial. Though it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968, many critics rebuked him for perpetrating negative portrayals of African Americans. Part of the furor over the book stemmed from its structure. Styron chose to write the novel in a first-person point of view from Turner’s perspective. Some felt this crossed the line between presumption and mockery. Still, the novel was a huge success, and certain members of the African-American literary community came to Styron’s defense, most notably the author James Baldwin. In a career of both highs and lows, Styron forged one of the most unique voices in contemporary literature—even if it occasionally got him into trouble.

Essential Facts

  1. Styron published his first novel, Lie Down in Darkness, when he was just twenty-six years old.
  2. Styron did not immediately reap the benefits of Lie Down in Darkness, because he was called into military service shortly after its publication.
  3. Styron’s autobiography, Darkness Inside, chronicles his long and difficult struggle with clinical depression.
  4. In 1953, Styron and a group of writers living in Europe, including Harold Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton, founded the Paris Review.
  5. Styron’s novel Sophie’s Choice was made into a film in 1982. The film was widely praised and earned Meryl Streep an Academy Award for performing in the title role.