Novelist William Clark Styron (1925–2006) was born on this day in Newport News, Virginia. His Southern roots ran deep, tracing back to the 1600s. An only child, he lost his mother to cancer when he was just 13.

"Writers ever since writing began have had problems, and the main problem narrows down to just one word: life," he once said.

Styron's passion for writing was ignited by reading William Faulkner and Thomas Wolfe. He said, "I gobbled it all up... digesting the entire Wolfe oeuvre in something less than two weeks."

After studying at Duke University and serving as a Marine in World War II, he earned critical acclaim for his debut novel Lie Down in Darkness (1951). "A great book," he said, "should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it."

His Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Confessions of Nat Turner (1967) and Sophie’s Choice (1979) revealed deep emotional and historical truths, showing Styron’s commitment to themes of justice, hope, and redemption.

Though he struggled with depression, he wrote slowly and deliberately in longhand, aiming for perfection in every sentence. "The need to be perfect each paragraph—each sentence—even as I go along," he admitted.

Fellow writer Norman Mailer called Styron’s work, “exquisite in its elegiac sense... no other American writer of my generation has had it so omnipresent.” Styron remains a luminous celebration of resilience and legacy.