Acclaimed American author William Styron, a Duke alumnus who died in 2006, once said he would not have become a writer had he not spent time in Duke's libraries as a student.
Styron's wife Rose and R. Blakeslee Gilpin, a University of South Carolina history professor, shared this and other anecdotes about the man behind "Sophie's Choice" and "The Confessions of Nat Turner" at a Wednesday night Book Talk in the Gothic Reading Room in Perkins Library.
The public event featured a book reading and discussion of the editing process. The informal conversation centered on "The Selected Letters of William Styron," an anthology of his private correspondences edited and compiled by Rose Styron and Gilpin after his death.
Attendees were able to view some of Styron's personal papers, which Rose donated his personal papers to the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
While sorting through his possessions after his death, Rose found drawers stuffed with letters from literary giants such as Carlos Fuentes and James Baldwin, Duke professors and aspiring writers.
"I thought he was upstairs writing his novels, but instead he was responding to letters," Rose said.
Rubenstein curator Will Hansen said "Selected Letters" brings together the contents of the Styron Papers at Rubenstein in a funny, thought-provoking and meaningful way.
"The publication brings together for the first time many of the responses that Styron sent to others," Hansen said. "These letters shed light not only on Styron's work, but on many important political, literary and cultural figures in the mid-20th century."
After collecting Styron's responses from Rubenstein and recipients of his letters, Rose Styron worked with Gilpin, a Styron enthusiast, to edit the letters into a single volume.
Gilpin said he transcribed the handwritten letters while Styron helped him interpret the names and events described in the correspondences. He said editing the book gave him, as a fan, a more complete portrait of Styron.
"A three-dimensional person emerges out of this whole world (of letters)," Gilpin said. "(You can see) the tension between his private and public selves, his family self and his professional self in these letters."
Durham resident and Styron fan Brett Yates said the talk helped him see the author as a man rather than a monumental literary figure.
"A lot of his books are very serious," Yates said. "The selections from the (letters) were a lot funnier than I expected, so the talk made me see a different side of him."