Did you know?
William Styron was one of the most acclaimed writers of the 20th Century.
His fact-based novel “The Confessions of Nat Turner” about a failed slave uprising, ignited controversy in 1967. But it would also earn the highest form of praise — a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Styron’s next novel, too, was controversial, yet it became a best-seller.
“Sophie’s Choice” may have been banned in South Africa and Poland, and — for its strong language and its raw sexual themes — prevented from being placed on the shelves in high school libraries across the country — but Hollywood made full use of it. That 1979 book would become the backbone of the 1982 movie of the same name that would earn five Academy Award nominations and, for the film’s leading lady, Meryl Streep, one of her three Oscars.
But there’s much more to learn about William Styron, perhaps that you never knew. His mother was from Uniontown, and much of who Mr. Styron was was shaped here.
Pauline Margaret Abraham lived with her family at 203 W. Berkley St. in Uniontown. She, like her son, was blessed with a wealth of artistic talent. In fact, while she was just out of her teens, she’d spent nearly a year studying voice in Vienna, Austria. When she returned to Uniontown, she became highly sought after for her musical prowess.
“Miss Pauline Abraham won honors by a solo which was very pretty and called for encores,” said an article on the front page of the Feb. 13, 1908, edition of the Uniontown Daily News Standard.
That was just one of dozens of mentions about Abraham, who, as a valuable member the Uniontown Musical Society, sang to approving audiences with great regularity. She would later attend the University of Pittsburgh, and, according to one item published on Aug. 29, 1916, “Miss Pauline Abraham, daughter of Mrs. E.H. Abraham, Berkley Street, had left for Pueblo, Col., where she was to serve as music supervisor in the public schools.”
But soon after, she would return to the East Coast, and, during WWI, she would serve on the national council of the YWCA, in Newport News, Va. It’s there that she met William C. Styron Sr., a North Carolinian, who worked at the government shipyards at Newport News.
“Miss Pauline Abraham bride of W.C. Styron at beautiful wedding,” read聽 the society item in the Sept. 21, 1921, edition of the Uniontown Morning Herald.
It had been “a wedding, quiet and simple of appointments, but more than ordinary interest to the many friends of the bride who claimed is a Uniontown girl although it is some time since she has been home here,” said the article about the ceremony that had taken place at the First Presbyterian Church in Uniontown.
The young couple would make numerous trips back to Uniontown from Virginia, and most of them would be with their future author, who was born in June of 1925.
On Sept. 10, 1926, the Morning Herald published the “Personal” notice that “Mr. and Mrs. William Styron of Newport News, Va., have returned to their home after a two months’ visit with Dr. and Mrs. A.E. Crow of The Oaks.” (Mrs. Adelaide Crow was Pauline Styron’s sister and the wife of Dr. Arthur Crow of Uniontown.)
Not that it’s of any particular importance, but I think I’ve discovered the first ever newspaper reference to the future Pulitzer Price recipient.
“Mrs. William C. Styron and her son, Billy, of Newport News, Va., arrived in Uniontown last evening. They will spend a few weeks with Mrs. Styron’s brother-in-law and sister Dr. and Mrs. A.E. Crow of ‘The Oaks,'” read the Morning Herald’s “Personals and Locals” item on Nov. 5, 1927, when young William was a little over two years old.
There is some proof that much of William Styron’s early exposures to Uniontown helped influence his literary talents. He obviously inherited his artistic flair from his classically trained mother.
And there’s more. According to James L. West’s 1998 biography, “William Styron — A Life,” at an early age, he’d become quite familiar with the tumult between management and labor factions that produced a number of bitter strikes involving local coal companies.
The Abrahams, allies of coal barons like Henry Clay Frick, were always pro-management. Styron’s father, although he was part of the management in the Newport News shipyards, always took the side of labor.
When the Styron family came to Uniontown, there would be fierce family disagreements at the dinner table.
“William Styron (Jr.) learned about these matters during his visits to Uniontown. [He] often heard accounts of labor violence and of the local unrest,” wrote West.
“The battles at the dinner table were always heated and sometimes became ugly. Finally Pauline and her sister banned all talk of unions and strike from dinnertime discussions,” it was written.
It’s clear his father’s liberal inclinations took hold. Later in life, Styron would campaign for presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, and he served as an honorary pallbearer for Robert Kennedy.
Those political philosophies may well have been formed in Uniontown. But what if he used part of his Pulitzer Prize winning talents writing about Uniontown? You’ll find that out next week.