A vital illuminating collection of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winnerrsquos elegant passionately engaged nonfiction My Generation is the definitive gathering of William Styronrsquos nonfiction exposing the core of this greatly gifted highly convivial and profoundly serious artist from his literary emergence in the s to his death in Here are fifty years of Styronrsquos essays memoirs reviews op-eds articles eulogies and speeches reflecting the same brilliant style and informed thinking that he brought to his towering fiction and to a deeply committed public life Including many newly collected and never-before-published items this compendium ranges from the original mission statement of The Paris Review which Styron helped found in to a tribute to his friend Philip Rothmdashcreating an essential overview of arts and letters during the postndashWorld War II years In these pages Styron writes vividly of childhood days in Tidewater Virginia spent going to movies not reading books ldquoIt does not mean the death of literacy or creativity if one is drenched in popular culture at an early agerdquo He recalls being among the group of soldiers who would have been sent to invade Japan and were saved by Trumanrsquos decision to drop the atomic bomb which Styron feels was the right choice ldquoeven though its absolute rightness can never be provedrdquo And he writes as few others have about midlife battles with clinical depression ldquoa pain that is all but indescribable and therefore to everyone but the sufferer almost meaninglessrdquo Here too are Styronrsquos personal encounters with world leaders fellow authors and friends each of whom comes memorably to life Styron recalls sharing contraband Cuban cigars with JFK ldquoa naughty memento a conversation piece with a touch of scandalrdquo getting lost in the snow with Robert Penn Warren and party-hopping with the young James Jones an experience he likens to ldquokeeping company with a Roman emperorrdquo The beginnings of his masterpieces The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophiersquos Choice are chronicled here along with the controversy that greeted the former upon its publication Throughout Styron celebrates the men and women of his generation whose lives were forged in the crucible of World War II Whether hersquos recounting a walk with his dog musing on the Modern Libraryrsquos list of the hundred best English-language novels of the twentieth century or contemplating Americarsquos fraught racial legacy from his point of view as the grandson of a woman who owned slaves William Styron writes always in urgent finely calibrated prose These fascinating pieces bring readers closer to this great writer and the world he observed interacted with and changedPraise for My Generation ldquoWilliam Styronrsquos My Generation Collected Nonfiction is both unsurpassably charming and unflinchingly honest whether recounting the fallout from The Confessions of Nat Turner or reminiscing about the slave-owning grandmother who warned him never to forget he was a SouthernerrdquomdashVogue ldquoAt its most accomplished Styronrsquos non-fiction mixes a conscientious richly traditional prose style with a strong current of fellow feeling a certain awe at the human condition which is what gives power to his best fiction Styron stood tall in his generation and the best of him will stand up over timerdquomdashUSA Today ldquoA must for every Styron fanrsquos libraryrdquomdashBBC.
