William Styron, Trinity '47 and a star among a generation of gifted novelists that emerged from Duke following World War II, died of pneumonia Wednesday at his home in Martha's Vineyard, Mass.
The author of acclaimed novels including "Sophie's Choice" and "The Confessions of Nat Turner," which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1968, Styron kept close ties to his alma mater.
"His papers are at the Duke library, and he was very active with campus," said University Archivist Tim Pyatt, Trinity '81. "The year I graduated, he was the graduation speaker, and he gave what probably was one of the best graduation talks ever given at Duke."
In Styron's commencement speech, the Marine veteran-turned-novelist preached pacifism and urged the class of 1981 to "refuse to allow reasonless fear to compromise our peace and the peace of others."
English professor Victor Strandberg teaches Styron's novels in his classes. He had a chance to meet the writer in 1990, when Balkrishna Buwa, one of his graduate students, contacted Styron out of the blue to ask for an interview.
Styron invited Buwa and Strandberg to visit him in New York City and later brought them to his home in Connecticut.
The two subsequently published their interview with Styron in The Sewanee Review.
"It shows what a gracious man Styron was," Strandberg said. "He was one of the major authors of our generation-of the same magnitude, I would say, of John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates and Reynolds Price."
Pyatt said Styron was one of a number of acclaimed fiction authors who were mentored by former Duke English professor William Blackburn.
Blackburn taught at the University from 1926 until his death in 1972.
In the Sewanee Review interview, Styron described Blackburn as "a wonderful mentor" and said, "I don't know if I could have been a writer without Duke."
Blackburn's students included authors Mac Hyman, Trinity '47; Fred Chappell, Trinity '61, A.M. '64; Anne Tyler, Women's College '61; and Price, Trinity '55, now James B. Duke Professor of English.
"Styron continued to love Duke and come back," Pyatt said.
Pyatt added that Styron particularly liked the library's Walt Whitman collection and always stopped by the Whitman area of the Rare Book Room when he visited Duke.
Author Peter Matthiessen said his friendship with Styron began in the early 1950s.
The two were living in Paris at the time. Styron had just published his first novel, and Matthiessen was in the process of founding the Paris Review with other American literary expatriates, such as George Plimpton and Harold Humes.
"He was very powerful, and he had these concepts and stuck with them," Matthiessen said.
"I just saw him not very long ago, about eight or 10 days ago, and he was in the hospital and very frail," he added. "Even then, he was very sharp. We're going to miss him very much."
Styron is survived by his wife, poet Rose Styron, four children and eight grandchildren.?
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