1. Student: Shibaeva Darya, 4 course Teacher: Matveeva Elena Fyodorovna William Saroyan

2. 0 William Stonehill Saroyan was born in Fresno, California, on Monday, August 31, 1908. He was the 4th child of Armenian immigrants, Armenak Saroyan, preacher and poet, and his wife Takoohie, of Bitlis.

3. 0 On Monday, May 18, 1981, William Saroyan died of prostate cancer at the age of 72, about a mile from where he was born. "Everybody has got to die," he said, "but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?"

4. 0 Saroyan is unique among writers. He acknowledged the Armenian culture as an important source of literary inspiration, especially notable in the book-of-the- month choice, My Name Is Aram, in 1940.

5. 0 Another book-of-the- month choice, The Human Comedy, published in 1943, was dedicated to his mother and made into an MGM movie which won him an Academy Award Oscar, for Best Writing Original Screen Story.

6. 0 William Saroyan achieved great popularity through the thirties, forties and fifties. During his lifetime, he published over sixty books.

7. 0 His works have been translated into more than two dozen languages and have sold millions. To fully enjoy Saroyan, either in prose or on the stage, you have to be "with" him. This may require effort, but once you are with him, he can take you places you have never been before.

8. 0 He married Carol Marcus in 1943. They had two children, Aram and Lucy, and divorced after six years. Though they were to remarry, the union was one doomed to failure. They divorced for the second and final time two years later.

9. 0 Though interest in his work declined, Saroyan remained a popular figure and continued to write. He began to write in the genre of memoir, including A Bicycle Rider of Beverly Hills (1952) and Short Drive, Sweet Chariot (1966). His last major book Obituaries (1979) received a National Book Award nomination.