Charles William Goyen (April 24, 1915 – August 30, 1983) was an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, editor, and teacher. Born in a small town in East Texas, these roots would influence his work for his entire life.

In World War II he served as an officer aboard an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific, where he began work on one of his most important and critically acclaimed books, The House of Breath. After the war and through the 1950s, he published short stories, collections of stories, other novels, and plays. He never achieved commercial success in America, but his translated work was highly regarded in Europe. During his life he could not completely support himself through his writing, so at various times he took work as an editor and teacher at several prominent universities. At one point he did not write fiction for several years, calling it a "relief" to not have to worry about his writing.

Major themes in his work include home and family, place, time, sexuality, isolation, and memory. His style of writing is not easily categorized, and he eschewed labels of genre placed on his works.

In 1963, he married Doris Roberts, the actress perhaps best known for her work in Everybody Loves Raymond; they remained together until his death in 1983.

Biography

Early years

Goyen was born in the small town of Trinity, Texas, on April 24, 1915, to Charles Provine and Mary Inez (née Trow) Goyen. His father worked at the local sawmill, and his mother's family ran the post office.

He was the oldest of three children and thought to be epileptic; he "was subject to sudden and prolonged spells of crying." In 1932 he graduated from Sam Houston High School. He attended Rice Institute (now University), where he earned a BA in literature (1937) and an MA in comparative literature (1939). He briefly pursued a Ph.D. at the University of Iowa. After the war he and Navy friend Walter Berns moved to Taos, New Mexico, where they lived near benefactor Frieda Lawrence (widow of D.H. Lawrence) to pursue writing. His drinking at times became debilitating. Of his mental state when he would work, Goyen stated: "Ghost and Flesh ... you can see in those stories ... wow ... quite surreal and I loved those, and when that was finished and published, I kind of went off the beam. I think the book made me quite mad; writing it, the obsession of that book;…"

In the early 1950s for about ten years, William Goyen and artist Joseph Glasco lived and traveled in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Europe together as partners. Their relationship is detailed in Michael Raeburn's biography of Joseph Glasco: Joseph Glasco: The Fifteenth American.

His interest in the theater and stage productions (original plays and adaptations of his own work) brought him into contact with the actress Doris Roberts, who starred in one of his plays. They married on November 10, 1963. In an interview after his death, Ms. Roberts said the greatest influence on her life was Goyen, referring to him as her "mentor".

In 1971, Goyen had a conversion experience, which he described in some detail:

This experience produced the nonfiction work, A Book of Jesus. Of this work Goyen said: "A very real man began to live with me, of flesh and blood. He did the same work on me that He did on the people of the New Testament that He walked among…." Other stories included "The Fallen Splendid House" in Southwest Review, in Spring 1949, and "A Bridge of Breath" in Partisan Review, in June 1949.

In the early 1950s he began to write plays and adaptations of his own works for the stage, and he eventually had several of his plays produced over many years: The Diamond Rattler (1960), Christy (1964), House of Breath Black/White (1971), and Aimee (1973). In 1954 the stage version of his first novel was produced off Broadway, and 1955 saw publication of his second novel, In a Farther Country, which had a hostile reception. His limited readership made commercial publishers wary, and even for Arcadio, his final novel, he had to search widely for an interested firm. By this time "no one would touch his writing." Critics have tried to define his style with labels such as Southern, Southern Gothic, modernist, postmodernist, contemporary, and magical realist. But Goyen insisted that his work should be considered outside any genre: "I'm really not very interested in contemporary fiction, anyway. I consider my fiction absolutely separate and apart from and unrelated to "contemporary American fiction." The monetary award is given annually and intended to support writers who have published at least one book of fiction, either a novel or a collection of stories.

Selected list of works

Novels

  • The House of Breath (1950)
  • In a Farther Country (1952)
  • The Fair Sister (1963)
  • Come the Restorer (1974)
  • Arcadio (1983)

Non-fiction

  • A Book of Jesus (1973)
  • Wonderful Plant (1980)

Short story collections

  • Ghost and Flesh: Stories and Tales (1952)
  • The Faces of Blood Kindred (1960)
  • The Collected Stories (1975)
  • Had I a Hundred Mouths (1988)

Plays

  • The House of Breath (1956)
  • The Diamond Rattler (1960)
  • Christy (1964)
  • House of Breath Black/White (1971)
  • Aimee (1973)

Translation

  • The Lazy Ones (author Albert Cossery) (1952)

Poetry

  • Nine Poems (1976)

References

  • William Goyen Collection and the Reginald Gibbons Collection of William Goyen at the Harry Ransom Center
  • William Goyen Collection at Rice University