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This Quiet Dust: And Other Writings Paperback – January 4, 1993

by William Styron (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 10 ratings
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"Styron is pre-eminent . . . in his instinct for tragedy and in his respect for the sheer force of human feeling."—Alfred Kazin
 
In an age when much American writing was either glacially noncommittal or heremetically personal, William Styron persisted in addressing great moral issues with incendiary passion. Seriousness and ardor characterize all the essays in This Quiet Dust, the first book of nonfiction by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lie Down in Darkness and Sophie's Choice.

In this edition, which has been updated with the inclusion of six previously uncollected essays, Styron covers a wide range of concerns; yet whether he is recounting his search for the historic Nat Turner, peering into the abyss of Auschwitz, navigating the battlefields of Vietnam and Chicago in 1968, or offering fresh assessments of Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, James Jones, and Robert Penn Warren, Styron is always a consummate literary stylist. One who is as engaging as he is engaged.

"[Styron is] the most accomplished craftsman, and one of the most penetrating witnesses of our life."—Associated Press
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    368 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    January 4, 1993
  4. Dimensions
    5.19 x 0.83 x 8 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0679735968
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0679735960
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Styron is pre-eminent...in his instinct for tragedy and in his respect for the sheer force of human feeling." -- Alfred Kazin

In an age when much American writing is either glacially noncommittal or heremetically personal, William Styron persists in addressing great moral issues with incendiary passion. Seriousness and ardor characterize all the essays in This Quiet Dust, the first book of nonfiction by the Pulitzer Prize -- winning author of Lie Down in Darkness and Sophie's Choice.

In this new edition, which has been updated with the inclusion of six previously uncollected essays, Styron covers a wide range of concerns; yet whether he is recounting his search for the historic Nat Turner, peering into the abyss of Auschwitz, navigating the battlefields of Vietnam and Chicago in 1968, or offering fresh assessments of Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, James Jones, and Robert Penn Warren, Styron is always a consummate literary stylist, one who is as engaging as he is engaged.

"[Styron is] the most accomplished craftsman, and one of the most penetrating witnesses of our life." -- Associated Press

From the Back Cover

"Styron is pre-eminent...in his instinct for tragedy and in his respect for the sheer force of human feeling." -- Alfred Kazin

In an age when much American writing is either glacially noncommittal or heremetically personal, William Styron persists in addressing great moral issues with incendiary passion. Seriousness and ardor characterize all the essays in This Quiet Dust, the first book of nonfiction by the Pulitzer Prize -- winning author of Lie Down in Darkness and Sophie's Choice.

In this new edition, which has been updated with the inclusion of six previously uncollected essays, Styron covers a wide range of concerns; yet whether he is recounting his search for the historic Nat Turner, peering into the abyss of Auschwitz, navigating the battlefields of Vietnam and Chicago in 1968, or offering fresh assessments of Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, James Jones, and Robert Penn Warren, Styron is always a consummate literary stylist, one who is as engaging as he is engaged.

"[Styron is] the most accomplished craftsman, and one of the most penetrating witnesses of our life." -- Associated Press

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; Reprint edition (January 4, 1993)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679735968
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679735960
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.19 x 0.83 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

About the author

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William Styron

William Styron

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William Styron (1925-2006) , a native of the Virginia Tidewater, was a graduate of Duke University and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. His books include Lie Down in Darkness, The Long March, Set This House on Fire, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice, This Quiet Dust, Darkness Visible, and A Tidewater Morning. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Howells Medal, the American Book Award, the Legion d'Honneur, and the Witness to Justice Award from the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation. With his wife, the poet and activist Rose Styron, he lived for most of his adult life in Roxbury, Connecticut, and in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, where he is buried.

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4.7 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

R. W. Rasband
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Literary Essays; Iffy Politics
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2004
William Styron is one of America's greatest contemporary writers. I read "The Confessions of Nat Turner" in high school and was blown away by his ability to bring history alive, to reproduce the sights, smells, sounds, the place entire. He also has that wonderful rolling Southern rhetorical cadence and style of many of the writers from his region that almost certainly derives from the King James Bible, one of the masterpieces of the English language and a book much beloved in the South. Styron in many of his books rails against what he perceives to be the cruelty of God, but as he himself admits in one of the essays here, he can't get away from the moral precepts of the Bible; they inform everything he writes.

So, Styron's great strenghts are his rhetorical brilliance, his moral perspective and forcefulness as a tragedian, and his uncanny sense of place. These make him invaluable as a historical novelist. His weakness is, as one critic put it, is that sometimes he tries to make the rhetoric do the work of thought. That is, the beauty of his language occasionally obscures ideas that are half-baked or ill-conceived. (A good example of this is his popular memoir of his clinical depression, "Darkness Visible", which is terrifyingly vivid about how depression feels but offers almost no insight into what causes it or how his went away.) This quality mars a few of the essays in this volume, particularly "Chicago 1968", an account of his experiences at the Democratic Convention of that year that is screechingly dated and unintentionally funny. Styron is just bound and determined to be on the side of the Radically Chic Righteous Young Yippies, no matter what.

But when he sticks to history, literary subjects, and his own books that he knows so well, his essays are a treat. The title essay hauntingly explores the legend of Nat Turner, and in an addentum he gives his side of the fierce controversy that raged over his novel. (I was gratified to learn that one of the great historians, Eugene Genovese, took Styron's side in that debate.) In "Hell Reconsidered" he writes of his discovery of the theologian Richard Rubenstein's stunning little book "The Cunning of History" and its influence on the novel he was then writing, "Sophie's Choice." Rubenstein writes that Auschwitz was the summation of some parts of Western culture, not an aberration. His terrifying pessimism can be a curative thing in a time when God is left out of the human equation.

There are also entertaining considerations of Scott Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren and "All the King's Men", and the camp classics "The Big Love" and "Candy." (Some of these essays have a distinctly '60's feel about them. Wasn't it Lenny Bruce who said there's nothing sadder that an elderly hipster? A lot of hip stuff written then now just seems tacky; it's not only some of Styron's essays here. Just try to re-read Terry Southern sometime and prepare to be shocked by the sexism.) If you are a fan of Styron's you should read this book. If you are new to him, this is a good shorter introduction before you wade into the wonders of "Lie Down in Darkness", "The Confessions of Nat Turner", and the magnificent "Sophie's Choice."
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Steve
3.0 out of 5 stars Styron should stick to fiction...
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2000
It is both a curse and a blessing that William Styron is not a more prolific novelist: while his fans must endure years - decades, even - without a new work in which to immerse ourselves, when his novels do emerge, they are painstakingly crafted and tremendously affecting. While waiting for his next book, I decided to polish off "Quiet Dust." Although some of the articles and essays therein are indeed fascinating, the whole of it leaves me grateful that Styron usually sticks to fiction. Styron is at his best when delivering tributes to literary icons such as Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and James Jones, or when recounting memories and stories of the American South. It is when he forays into political issues (describing his crusade to save a CT killer from death row, his experience during the 1968 Chicago riots, his unqualified reverence of Kennedy and unqualified abhorrence of everything Republican) that one is struck by the incongruity of his narrative style (which is suited beautifully for fiction, but seems overwrought and clunky when employed for nonfiction purposes) and his oftentimes embarassingly facile understanding of and "insights" into politics. None of this at all diminishes his standing as one of America's greatest living novelists; but it does make us appreciate the fact that he has spent most of his life engaged in literary pursuits instead of political crusades.
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keetmom
4.0 out of 5 stars Polished and penetrating writing
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2015
"This quiet dust" reflects the wide range of William Styron's experiences and interests. Many of the essays are drawn from his research for his best selling novels and delve deeply into the experience of slavery in the US South and the horror of Auschwitz, while others follow his travels, reflections on war and his educational and writing experiences. His writing is always polished and his descriptions penetrating. I found his tributes to the writers who influenced him and especially his account for Life Magazine of Faulkner's funeral very moving. There is more than enough here to interest most readers unless you take exception to his particular brand of liberal politics forcefully expressed
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