Selected Letters of William Styron (100 page)

†QQQ
This note accompanied the manuscript of Styron’s eulogy for Willie Morris, which was published in
The Oxford American
, September/October 1999, and in a book of tributes called
Remembering Willie
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000).

†RRR
Styron had asked Bunker to procure a suicide cocktail for him and Bunker urged him to take a few days to think it over.

†SSS
The unfinished manuscript of Styron’s
The Way of the Warrior
.

†TTT
Bunker replied, “I have to tell you that you’re one of the best friends I’ve had in my entire life. You’ve done so many favors for me that I can’t begin to count them. There is nothing [in] the world that I would not do for you.”

†UUU
“An Evening with William Styron” was held in the grand lobby of the Library of Virginia on December 2, 2000, when Styron was quite frail from the depression, which, he explained, had “mutated into a physical decline.” This celebration featured tributes by Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Jim West, Peter Matthiessen, Mike Wallace, and Bruce Hornsby.

†VVV
Brooke Allen reviewed Ozick’s
Fame and Folly
for
The New York Times Book Review
on June 9, 1996.

†WWW
Ozick’s essay “A Liberal’s Auschwitz,” in her collection
The Pushcart Prize
, took writers like Styron to task for not emphasizing the Holocaust’s “specifically Jewish martyrdom.” Robie Macauley’s review of that essay in the June 27, 1976,
New York Times
prompted Ozick to clarify her position and Macauley to defend Styron in the August 8, 1976, Letters to the Editor.

†XXX
Jeffrey Gibbs (b. 1971), Florida-born poet and writer who read
Sophie’s Choice
as an undergraduate in 1992 and credits the book with changing his life.

†YYY
Styron attached a photo of himself in the gazebo in Styron Square and another photo of him and Jim West in front of the sign for the city of Newport News.

†ZZZ
Styron sent this note to his biographer and friend Jim West with a note dated June 5, 2000: “Jim: I’m having a very bad time. I hope to make it through but in case I do something to myself I trust you will make the enclosed letter public and also bring it to the attention of Random House. As ever, Bill.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 

F
IRST
, I
WOULD LIKE
to make special acknowledgment of Edmond Miller. When Ed learned that I was casting a net far and wide to retrieve my husband’s existing correspondence (Bill, in my memory, never kept copies), he generously pointed me to certain letters in Duke University’s Rubenstein Library and suggested plumbing other writers’ archives at Yale, Princeton, the University of Texas, the University of Mississippi, the University of North Carolina, and the Morgan Library. I am most grateful to him.

James L. W. West III, Bill’s biographer, was an invaluable resource and frequent adviser who was in close contact with Bill and me for decades. The book Jim put together of Bill’s early correspondence with “Pop” inspired me to write an introductory essay on their unique father-son relationship and then to pursue this volume.

It is especially fitting that Bob Loomis ushered this project from a computer file into print. Beyond being Bill’s classmate at Duke and his incredible editor for almost fifty years, Bob was ever ready to encourage us. He approached Bill’s private correspondence as he did Bill’s fiction, with great sensitivity and steadfast principle. Ben Steinberg has been a splendid ally at Random House, where we also profited from the sharp touch of copy editors.

I am indebted, too, to Robert Byrd, head of the Special Collections Library at Duke University, and to his responsive staff, especially Will Hansen, who found and sent me documents I needed when I could not return to Durham myself. I am also indebted to Richard Workman and Katherine Kelly, who were at the Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, when I visited; to the patient personnel who guided me through Harvard’s Houghton Library and its Law School Library, as well as those at the Library of Congress; to James Baldwin’s sister Gloria Smart; and to our dear neighbor and pal Mia Farrow, who lifted my spirits by presenting me instantly
with Bill’s original handwritten letters to her. There are many others whose friendship I so value: they sustained me through the search.

Finally, Blake and I agree that this collection would never have seen the light of day without the endless hard work and imaginative contributions of Christina Christensen. She has our deep appreciation.

R
OSE
S
TYRON
    
April 2012

I
FEEL FORTUNATE
to give credit to the many institutions that generously supported this work over the years. The John Hope Franklin Fellowship program at Duke University, the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University, and the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill all provided crucial assistance for my work in Bill’s papers. Above all, this volume would likely have taken another decade if it had not been for the unstinting support and flexibility of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney: in particular, I am grateful to Margaret Levi, Rebecca Sheehan, Sean Gallagher, Andres Vigano, Geoffrey Garrett, Brendon O’Connor, and Craig Purcell. A special related thank-you to Shane White for all of his support and interest in this and other projects. I am also grateful to my colleagues at the University of South Carolina, where this project finally made it into print.

My advisers and mentors have provided encouragement and enthusiasm throughout this process. I owe particular debts of gratitude to Joe Flora, Harry Watson, Tim Marr, Glenda Gilmore, Anne Fadiman, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown. John Stauffer has selflessly given me inspiration, support, and counsel; I cannot wait to share this work with him. Last but by no means least is David Blight, who, aside from being my model of scholarship and teaching, is the best cornerman any young academic pugilist could hope for. David has gone out of his way to help me stretch beyond staid disciplinary boundaries and always proves a wise and loyal friend.

Simply put, this collection would not have been possible without James L. W. West III. In addition to donating a wide assortment of Xeroxed letters,
Jim patiently read galleys of the manuscript and generously shared his unparalleled expertise. Rose and I are very grateful for his countless contributions.

I must thank Rose for the opportunity to edit this collection. I had become consumed with all things Styron after my first month in Bill’s papers at Duke and I leapt at her invitation. Rose is an astounding person, all the more so for being able to remember a dinner party in Rome in 1952 or the identity of a nickname in a letter five decades old. It has been a privilege to edit these letters with her.

My deepest thanks are to my wife, Abbey, who not only put up with the endless transcriptions and piles of Xeroxes on the kitchen table, couch, and floor, but also endured the 100,000-plus miles of travel the collection entailed. While sharing my enthusiasm, offering a critical ear, and listening to lots of talk about William Styron in 1948, 1968, and beyond, she also gave birth to our son, Bear. I would be lost without Abbey’s loving support. Someday I hope she or Bear will crack this book open to see the fruits of those many late nights and early mornings.

R. B
LAKESLEE
G
ILPIN
    
April 2012

FIRST AMERICAN EDITIONS OF WILLIAM STYRON’S BOOKS
 

R
OSE
S
TYRON
is a poet, journalist, translator, and human rights activist. She has published three books of poetry:
Thieves’ Afternoon, From Summer to Summer
, and
By Vineyard Light
. At the forefront of the field of international human rights since she joined the board of Amnesty International USA in 1970, she has chaired PEN’s Freedom to Write Committee and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Currently, for the Academy of American Poets, she co-chairs, with Meryl Streep, Poetry and the Creative Mind.

R. B
LAKESLEE
G
ILPIN
is the author of
John Brown Still Lives! America’s Long Reckoning with Violence, Equality, and Change
, winner of the C. Vann Woodward Prize for the best dissertation in Southern history. His writing has appeared in
The Boston Globe, The American Scholar
, and
The New York Times
. An assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, Gilpin specializes in the history, literature, and culture of the American South. He is currently at work on a new biography of William Styron.