Born in Fresno, California to Armenian immigrants, Saroyan was sent to an orphanage with his siblings when he was three years old after the death of his father. Five years later, when his mother found work in a factory, the family was reunited, but the time in the orphanage had a profound influence on Saroyan. Before his death, Saroyan’s father was a writer, and when William’s mother showed him some of his father’s writing, he decided to be a writer himself.

Many of Saroyan’s stories deal with the rootlessness of immigrants and the offspring of immigrants.

–Christie Finn