
06/11/2025
Novelist and essayist William Styron was born 100 years ago in Newport News, VA. His birthplace is less than two hours’ drive from the location of Nat Turner's 1831 slave rebellion, the topic of Styron's fourth novel, “The Confessions of Nat Turner (DB36339),” a fictionalized first-person account by the leader of the deadliest slave uprising in US history. “Sophie’s Choice (BR18694, DB13812)”—Styron’s last novel—focuses on a love triangle in post-WWII New York City; the players are a struggling writer from the South, a Jewish scientist from Brooklyn and the Catholic survivor of a N**i concentration camp. The film adaptation received five Oscar nominations. Styron’s nonfiction work shedding light on his struggles with depression, “Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (DB32273),” remains a celebrated book of recovery, emphasizing the power of seclusion, perseverance and time to heal, as well as the stigma surrounding depression. Find other works by Styron by searching the NLS Catalog and BARD, www.loc.gov/nls/services-and-resources/catalog-and-bard?loclr=fbnls.
[Image: Portrait of William Styron by Bernard Gotfryd, 1967. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.]