Literary San Francisco: William Saroyan

Pier 27
Flamboyant writer and humanitarian William Saroyan became a literary sensation at the age of 26 when his story, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, was published by Story magazine in 1932. Around that time he lived at this address, 348 Carl Street. His play, "The Time of Your Life," was drawn from characters and situations at a well known Pacific Avenue (then Pacific Street) pub owned by Izzy Gomez. In "The Time of Your Life," the principal setting is "Nick's," #3 Pacific. If the address still existed, it would be located at the end of a pedestrian walkway between Buildings 1 and 2 of the Golden Gateway Commons. Off stage action occurs at nearby Pier 27. Saroyan, who called himself "The World's Greatest Writer," won the Pulitzer Prize for the play but declined it and the $1,000 purse, insisting that commerce should not drive the arts. Saroyan's novel The Human Comedy draws from his own experiences as a messenger in his native Fresno. Unique among writers, Armenian American Saroyan advanced Armenian culture as an important source of literary inspiration. Saroyan once said, "No city invites the heart to come to life as San Francisco does. Arrival in San Francisco is an experience in living."

Copyright 2001 Hank Donat
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