Saroyan: A Biography

Along with Ernest Hemingway, William Saroyan—winner of a Pulitzer Prize in drama for The Time of Your Life and an Academy Award for the screenplay of The Human Comedy,—was the most well-known American writer of the 1930s and 1940s. Peabody Award-winning journalist Lawrence Lee and award-winning novelist Barry Gifford heard Saroyan's story first-hand from Carol Matthau, the wife he rejected; the son and daughter he alternately smothered and pushed away; and colleagues like Artie Shaw, Celeste Holm, and Lillian Gish. Their revelations bring new depth to Saroyan's riveting story.

San Francisco Chronicle

A well-rounded, objective account of the life and character of this much-admired, much-maligned man....The best available picture of this major American writer. -- San Francisco Chronicle

Barry Gifford’s is a literary lion whose novels have been translated into twenty-five languages and who's been the recipient of awards from PEN, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Library Association, and the Writers Guild of America. His novel "Wild at Heart" was turned into a David Lynch film, and he co-wrote the screenplays for "Lost Highway" (1997) and "City of Ghosts" (2003). His more recent books, "Wyoming" and "The Phantom Father" were named the "Los Angeles Times" Novel of the Year and a "New York Times" notable Book of the Year, respectively.