The Suicide Run: Five Tales of the Marine Corps (21 page)

PUBLISHER’S
NOTE

The Suicide Run
consists of five narratives by William Styron, one previously unpublished and four never before collected. All five are drawn from Styron’s experiences in the U.S. Marine Corps. Together they present a complex picture of military life—its hardships, deprivations, and stupidities; its esprit, camaraderie, and seductive allure.

“Blankenship,” written during the summer of 1953, was first published in the journal
Papers on Language and Literature
in a special issue (Autumn 1987) devoted to Styron’s work. “Marriott, the Marine” and “The Suicide Run” were composed in the early 1970s as parts of “The Way of the Warrior,” a novel that Styron put aside to write
Sophie’s Choice
(1979). “Marriott” was first published in the September 1971 issue of
Esquire;
“The Suicide Run” appeared initially in the
American Poetry Review
for May/June 1974. “My Father’s House” is the opening section of an unfinished novel, begun in 1985, that Styron intended to base on his experiences during the spring and summer of 1946, just after he had been discharged from the Marine Corps. The middle portion of “My Father’s House” appeared in
The New Yorker
, under the title “Rat Beach,” in the double fiction issue for July 6/13, 2009. The vignette “Elobey, Annobón, and Corisco,” previously unpublished, was composed in 1995.

The text of “Blankenship” is based on the surviving typescript in the William Styron Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. The text of “Marriott, the Marine” is taken from its appearance in
Esquire
, with corrections from the manuscript in the Styron collection at the W. R. Perkins Library, Duke University. The setting-copy typescript of “The Suicide Run”—preserved in the archives of the
American Poetry Review
, Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania—is the source for the text published in this volume. Texts for “My Father’s House” and “Elobey, Annobón, and Corisco” have been established from extant manuscripts and typescripts in the Styron papers at Duke.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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, A Tidewater Morning
, and
Havanas in Camelot.
He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Howells Medal, the American Book Award, and the Légion d’Honneur. With his wife, the poet and activist Rose Styron, he lived for most of his life in Roxbury, Connecticut, and Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts.

Copyright © 2009 by the Estate of William Styron

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Four of the five stories in this work have been previously published: “Blankenship” originally appeared in
Papers on Language and Literature
, Autumn 1987; “Marriott, the Marine” originally appeared in
Esquire
, September 1971; “The Suicide Run” originally appeared in the
American Poetry Review
, May/June 1974; and the middle portion of “My Father’s House” originally appeared in
The New Yorker
, July 20, 2009.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Styron, William, 1925–2006
The suicide run : five tales of the Marine Corps/William Styron ;
[edited by James L. W. West III].
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58836-906-2
1. United States. Marine Corps—Fiction. I. West, James L. W. II. Title.
PS3569.T9S85 2009
813′.54—dc22 2008047610

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