ALumni neWS
The author pictured with poet, journalist and human rights activist rose Burgunder Styron ’46.
ALUMNI PROFILE:
rose Burgunder Styron ’46 BY JOHN MEARS ’67
the st. botolph Club, 199 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston, has a long history of artistic and literary members — among them, the writers Robert Frost and T. S. Eliot. The painters Claude Monet and John Singer Sargent held early exhibitions there. And so it is fitting that poet, journalist and human rights activist Rose Burgunder Styron ’46 accepted an invitation to talk with club members, myself included, about her life and distinguished career. She told us she became interested in poetry at a young age, although one of her earliest efforts, as a Friends School fourth grader, involved an unfortunate incident: She had brought in a poem to show her
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teacher, only to be accused of plagiarism. Despite this unpromising beginning, Rose went on to publish three volumes of poetry — “By Vineyard Light” (1995), “Thieves’ Afternoon” (1973) and “Modern Russian Poetry” (1972) — and is currently working on her fourth. Rose earned a B.A. in literature at Wellesley College and then studied poetry and criticism at the graduate level at Johns Hopkins. It was in a seminar there where Rose listened to a newly published writer speak about his first novel. The author was clearly very nervous during his appearance and Rose recalls he made only a faint impression on her. His name was William Styron.
After Hopkins, Rose traveled to Rome, where she had planned to complete a book on the life of Wallace Stevens and her own volume of poetry. A friend who taught at Hopkins wrote her to say she should contact the up-and-coming American writer then in Rome, the same William Styron who had crossed her path in Baltimore. He had been awarded the Prix de Rome and was residing at the American Academy’s magnificent location overlooking the Vatican. After making contact, Rose agreed to meet Bill in a basement café. She recalled her main concern was that she would not remember what Styron looked like. Entering the restaurant, she saw two men seated at a table: One was Truman Capote. Rose had little difficulty picking out her man. Rose and Bill hit it off, although Rose made one faux pas: She agreed with Truman that Bill’s “Lie Down In Darkness” was terrific, although she had not in fact read it. Asked out for a second date, Rose searched all over Rome to find Bill’s novel, which was then still on the bestseller list. She eventually found a copy in a plain cover at the American Library and stayed up late the night before the date to do her homework. She turned to Chapter One, then Chapter Two, only to discover that, he might be cute, but he sure can’t write. Next morning, Rose opened to the title page, and realized that, although the book had the same title, it was by a different author. She confessed to Bill and they laughed. All was forgiven. After two whirlwind months in the Eternal City, Rose and Bill became engaged. They drove to Paris for Christmas to join George Plimpton and Peter Matthiessen, with whom Bill had helped start the “Paris Review” months earlier. Letters from the States received there shocked them. Trying to overcome certain family objections seemed too problematic, and despite a marvelous time in Paris they decided to part. Rose went to live in Florence and Bill remained in Rome. By Easter, however, through friends’