Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
Barlow Der Mugrdechian
Advisor
The Fresno County Public Library officially announced the acquisition of three major archives related to the life of Fresno’s most famous native son, William Saroyan, at a reception held on Thursday, November 17.
John Kallenberg, President of the William Saroyan Society, introduced Bill Secrest Jr., archivist of the California History and Genealogy Room, and head of the Saroyan collection.
Secrest thanked the Saroyan Society for its support of the Library in obtaining the new materials. The Library, under the direction of County Librarian Karen Bosch Cobb and California History and Genealogy Room Supervisor Ray Silvia, had made a major commitment to strengthening the William Saroyan collection at the Library. Private donations and Library support made the new acquisitions possible.
Secrest discussed how the Library had negotiated for the three major acquisitions over the past eighteen months. “We were in the right place, at the right time,” said Secrest.
The Rosheen Marcus Archive contains papers from the estate of the late Rosheen Marcus, mother of Carol Marcus Saroyan and William Saroyan’s mother-in-law. The major part of the collection includes hundreds of documents, mainly correspondence between Carol Marcus Saroyan and her mother, in the period 1942-1951, while Carol was still married to William Saroyan. The papers document their marriage through letters and photos.
The second major archive, is the Leonard Lyons Archive consisting of the papers of Leonard Lyons, a New York society columnist. This very rich archive includes some correspondence, between 1937-1976, spanning most of Saroyan’s public career.
The third archive, called the Carol Matthau-Aram Saroyan Archive, documents Aram Saroyan’s letters to his mother, after she had already divorced William Saroyan. The letters cover all sorts of family matters, during the period of 1965-1987. Aram Saroyan was instrumental in the process of acquiring the archive, which also includes legal documents and other unpublished materials.
Secrest said that he is proud to say that the new acquisitions make the Saroyan holdings of the Library the second best collection of such materials apart from the Stanford Library, where the bulk of Saroyan’s literary legacy is kept.
The new archives focus on manuscripts, supplementing the printed works and magazine holdings of the Library on Saroyan. Secrest looks to the future to continue to look for manuscripts to enrich the collection, even though these types of materials are becoming harder to find.
The three new archives will be a part of the larger William Saroyan collection at the Fresno County Public Library.