William Saroyan in San Francisco at the California Book Society.
I discovered another presence in the literary hills of San Francisco....William Saroyan, whose books were produced in the 1930's He was rewarded a Pulitzer Prize, for his play, "The Time of your Life", (1939) set in a saloon, like the one in which he liked to drink Grappa, or Izzy Gomez's. Saroyan refused the Prize saying that "commerce cannot judge art".
Talked with an Armenian, at the reception, reminded of my own trip to Yerevan, and to Mt Ararat, and the Holy Church and the CEDAW training at the law offices and university. Armenia served as our model for the social work curriculum we created for the university in Tibilisi.
WS's cousin, still living in SF, talked about knowing WS growing up. WS is considered to have represented Armenian life in the USA, especially in his hometown of Fresno, where his mother worked in a cannery(yes, like John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row"...he live in Haight Ashbury, on 348 Carl Street(1932-39) , not far from Kay Boyle who lived in this neighborhood in her 60's and 70's having spent her 20's and earlier life in Paris.
Saroyan s most famous for his quotation: "Peace is better than war, love is better than hate and the world is infinitely sad and mad." Of San Francisco, Saroyan is quoted as saying, "SF was in my blood and bones." His advice to younger writers: "When you do something, do it with all your strength, whether sleeping, laughing, living."
Talked with an Armenian, at the reception, reminded of my own trip to Yerevan, and to Mt Ararat, and the Holy Church and the CEDAW training at the law offices and university. Armenia served as our model for the social work curriculum we created for the university in Tibilisi.
WS's cousin, still living in SF, talked about knowing WS growing up. WS is considered to have represented Armenian life in the USA, especially in his hometown of Fresno, where his mother worked in a cannery(yes, like John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row"...he live in Haight Ashbury, on 348 Carl Street(1932-39) , not far from Kay Boyle who lived in this neighborhood in her 60's and 70's having spent her 20's and earlier life in Paris.
Saroyan s most famous for his quotation: "Peace is better than war, love is better than hate and the world is infinitely sad and mad." Of San Francisco, Saroyan is quoted as saying, "SF was in my blood and bones." His advice to younger writers: "When you do something, do it with all your strength, whether sleeping, laughing, living."
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