William Saroyan was an Armenian-American writer born in 1908 in Fresno, California. He published his first works in the late 1920s and early 1930s and worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Some of his most famous plays and films from the late 1930s and early 1940s brought him critical acclaim, including receiving an Academy Award. Saroyan went on to write novels, stories, plays and lyrics. He passed away in 1981 at age 72, with his ashes buried in both California and Armenia. Saroyan made significant contributions to American literature over his career.

1. WILLIAM SAROYAN
SHORAGHYAN ANGIN
10-2 CLASS

2. William Saroyan was born on August 31,
1908 in a Californian town of Fresno, in
an Armenian family of Armenak Saroyan
and Takoohi Saroyan. William Saroyan’s
first literary works were published
between 1928 and 1936 and he then
worked as a Hoolywood writer for B. P.
Sculberg and Columbia Pictures.

3. In 1939 and 1940 William Saroyan’s “My Heart’s in the Highlands” and
“The time of your life” were staged for theater and “ Love’s Old Sweet
Song” opened on Broadway and he received New York Critics Circle
Award. In 1942 William Saroyan made a short subject film “The Good
Job” for Louis B. Mayer.

4. In 1943 William Saroyan’s MGM sreenplay “The Human
Comedy” was novelized, published and received great
reviews. In 1944 Saroyan received the Academy Award for
Best Writing Original Story for “The Human Comedy”.
Together with composer Ross Bagdasarian, Saroyan wrote
the lyrics of a famous 1 hit song “Come On-a My House”
performed by George Cloney’s aunt Rosemary Clooney
and used by Akira Kurosoua in Ikiru (1952) and also heard
in Madonna’s 2002 film “Swept away”.

5. William Saroyan passed away in 1981 at age 72. “Everybody has got
to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my
case.” Half of his ashes were buried in California, and the other half
in Armenia’s capital at the Pantheon near Paradjanov and
composers` Aram Khachatrian and Komitas.

7. • In 2007, his book “The laughing Matter” was made
into a Cannis Film Festival- winning Russian film
“Izgnanie” (Banishment). William Saroyan’s son`
Aram Saroyan, and grand-daughter, Strauberry
Saroyan, are also revered writers.

8. Some Quotes Of William Saroyan
•“The greatest happiness you can
have is knowing that you do not
necessarily require happiness.”
•“Good people are good because they've
come to wisdom through failure.”
•“In the time of your life, live—so that in that
wondrous time you shall not add to the misery
and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the
infinite delight and mystery of it."