William SaroyanArmenian-American writer1908-1981

William Saroyan’s parents came from

Armenia.

Armenia

Armenia has been Christian for about 1700 years.

100 years ago, Armenia was part of the Turkish Empire.

The Armenians were persecuted by

the Turks.

Many of them died, and many of them

emigrated.

A large Armenian community settled

around Fresno, California.

Fresno County

Saroyan was born in 1908. His father died in 1911, and for six

years of his boyhood he and his brothers lived in an

orphanage because his mother could not support them.

Then his mother got a job in a cannery, so the

family was reunited.

Saroyan quit school when he was 15.

                        

     

He began writing storiesas a young man.

He often wrote about Armenian families, and the

immigrant experience.

Saroyan wrote hundreds of stories, novels and plays.

After 1958, he lived mostly in Paris, but he came home to Fresno to die of cancer in 1981.

Half of his ashes are buried in California,

and half of them were sent to

Armenia.