A Daring Young Man: A Biography of William Saroyan (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "WILLIAM SAROYAN was wholly a writer, a man with a gift for communicating emotion through language and an extravagant ambition to put it to use,..." (more)
Key Phrases: get away old man, highest jumper, daring young man, New York, San Francisco, Time of Your Life (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Famous for his literary portrayal of failures and angry men, playwright William Saroyan (1908-1981) might have appreciated Leggett's depiction of his life as a "tragedy of rage and rejection." Leggett has experience with tragic author figures (he wrote an acclaimed biography of Ross Lockridge Jr. and of Thomas Heggan), and he describes in painstaking detail the hubris and callousness not to mention the gambling debts that destroyed Saroyan's once-charmed career. Though he became an international celebrity and consorted with literary and Hollywood luminaries from Hemingway to Greta Garbo, his impetuousness also caused him to lose his money and become estranged from most of his friends. Leggett offers keen insights into the motivations that drove Saroyan's outrageous behaviors, arguing, for example, that Saroyan rejected the Pulitzer in 1940 (for his play The Time of Your Life) because he saw all honors as "transactions in which he seemed to lose some precious independence and to catch an offensive whiff of servility." At times, such insights get lost amid the minutiae of Saroyan's career. As well, Leggett offers some implausibly detailed reports about Saroyan's internal state (for instance, Saroyan "managed to contain his joy... and thanked Arthur Freed in the most casual way," when the MGM exec praised a screenplay in a telephone conversation). Still, fans of publishing history will enjoy Leggett's play-by-play of Saroyan's career, and literary biography buffs will embrace the book as a cautionary tale. Photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

As Leggett (Ross and Tom) points out in this unflinchingly honest biography of the "Wonder Boy from Fresno," Saroyan was once all the rage but has now been largely forgotten except by academics, collectors, and zealots. Drawing upon Saroyan's notes, letters, and diaries, Leggett traces the development of Saroyan's writerly gifts from his childhood to his death. When his father died, Saroyan's mother placed him and his brother and sister in an orphanage, where Saroyan developed a self-sufficiency and hatred of institutions that followed him throughout his life. His fame rose meteorically, and he published his best plays, stories, and novels-Time of Our Life, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, and The Human Comedy-before he was 30. His fame then faded as he descended into an inferno of gambling debts and failed relationships that marred his writing: chronicled here are Saroyan's relationships and conflicts with writers and actors who include Capote, Hemingway, Cagney, and Irwin Shaw. Leggett's thoughtful, critical readings provide a definitive and lucid portrait of the tragicomedy of Saroyan's life. Highly recommended for all libraries.
--Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (November 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375413014
• ISBN-13: 978-0375413018
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #796,930 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, entertaining and original , May 12, 2007

By	V. Ghazarian "RG" (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I enjoyed the author's style, it was original and well written. It is more than a biography, it explores Saroyan's highly obsessive and speculative mind.