Selected Letters of William Styron by William Styron Read Free Book Online Page B

how “gigantic” a stature I can ever realize, but I hope I will always have the assiduousness and will-power to learn, and to work toward doing the very best I can. As each day goes by I acquire more and more introspection into my own make-up, and I know that I have many faults and weaknesses—some of them very bad—but I hope to fight toward conquering these weak spots and foibles to the best of my ability. It’s a hard job, but I can succeed.
    I have two more exams, and then I leave for New York; but I’ll be back on the 26 th or 27 th . It will certainly be a pleasure to see Aunt Edith again, won’t it? It’s really been a long time …
    I don’t know what I’m going to do for the remainder of the summer—outside of going to Middlebury—but if I stay at home I fully expect to establish for myself a definite schedule for reading and writing. By establishing such a schedule I’ll go at least part of the way toward conquering my chief fault— laziness .
    I wish you would send me $25 for the trip before this Friday P.M., as I may need some extra money. I think I’ll have enough money anyway, but I would like to have $25 “just in case.” In case I don’t use it, I’ll return it. I’ll see you soon. Give my best to everyone.
    Your son,
    Bill jr.
    T O W ILLIAM C. S TYRON , S R .
    October 21, 1946 Duke University
    Dear Pop,
    It’ll be necessary to send in with my application for the Rhodes Scholarship State committee (I passed the local board) (a) a statement certified by you before a notary public that I was born on June 11, 1925, and (b) the names of two citizens who can attest to my character, sobriety, virtue, andall that sort of thing. I don’t have to have the statements, but merely the names of two reputable and fairly prominent people who will be willing to write a short panegyric if called upon by the Committee. However, I have to have the application in by November 2 nd , so please send these to me as soon as possible. My chances are mighty slim in getting anything out on this deal, but I don’t suppose it’ll hurt to try. x
    I’ve still got some money left from the check you sent me, but not much. My check from the V.A. will undoubtedly not get here until the first of next month, food still costs $1.50 a day, and Bobbie is coming down on Nov. 2 for the homecoming game. Please send me $15 with the letter, as I fear I shall be in desperate straits before the end of the month. At that, I’ll probably have to ask for more if my Veterans’ check doesn’t come before Bobbie gets here. y
    I’m fed up, disgusted, and totally out of sorts with Duke University and formal education in general, for that matter, and I hardly see why I’m taking a crack at this Rhodes scholarship when I’m such an execrable student. Only the fact that this is my last semester keeps me from packing up and leaving.
    I’ve come to the stage when I know what I want to do with my future. I want to write, and that’s all, and I need no study of such quaint American writers as Cotton Mather or Philip Freneau—both of whom we are studying in American Lit—to increase my perception or outlook on literature and life. For a person whose sole burning ambition is to write—like myself—college is useless beyond the Sophomore year. By that time he knows that further wisdom comes from reading men like Plato + Montaigne—not Cotton Mather—and from getting out in the world and living . All of the rest of the scholarship in English literature is for pallid, prim and vapid young men who will end up teaching and devoting 30 years of their sterile lives in investigating some miserably obscure facet of the life of a minor Renaissance poet. Sure, scholarship is necessary, but it’snot for me. I’m going to write, and I’ll spend the rest of my days on a cattle-boat or jerking sodas before I’ll teach.
    So far, though, I’m making good grades and I hope to get out of here soon .
    Give my best to everybody,
    Your son,
    Bill