Styron, William

(born June 11, 1925, Newport News, Va., U.S.—died Nov. 1, 2006, Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) U.S. novelist. Educated at Duke University, Styron served in the U.S. Marine Corps and became part of the American expatriate community in Paris in the 1950s. His first novel, Lie Down in Darkness (1951), tells of a disturbed young woman who commits suicide. His fourth, Confessions of Nat Turner (1967, Pulitzer Prize), is an account of a slave rebellion in 1831. His later work includes the novel Sophie's Choice (1979), examining the Holocaust, and Darkness Visible (1990), a nonfiction account of his struggle with depression. His works often treat violent themes with a rich prose style.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica