William Styron was one of the flamboyant literary figures of the 20th Century. He was a Southerner whose novel Lie Down in Darkness received immense acclaim when he was just 26 years old. He would go on to write the Confessions of Nat Turner, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1968.
But for the last 27 years of his life, Styron did not write a novel. He battled depression, and wrote a seminal work about it, Darkness Visible, in 1990.
Styron's literary voice, and life, were large. He and his wife, Rose, knew everyone, it seemed. They were hosts to presidents, poets and performers.
Now, six years after Styron's death at age 81, Rose Styron and editor R. Blakeslee Gilpin, have compiled more than 1,000 of his letters in the Selected Letters of William Styron.
Rose Styron spoke with Jacki Lyden, host of weekends All Things Considered, about the collection.
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