Editing William Styron (section)

==Early life==
Styron was born in the [[Hilton Village]] historic district<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1997/vp971102/11020135.htm|title=THE RETURN OF A VILLAGE HISTON'S BOOSTERS SEE POTENTIAL IN ITS QUAINT WWI STRUCTURES|website=scholar.lib.vt.edu}}</ref> of [[Newport News, Virginia]], the son of Pauline Margaret (Abraham) and William Clark Styron.<ref name="dies"/> His birthplace was less than a hundred miles from the site of [[Nat Turner's slave rebellion]], the inspiration for Styron's most famous and controversial novel.

Styron's mother was from the [[Northern United States|North]] while his father was a   [[Southern United States|Southern]] [[Liberalism|liberal]], laying out broad racial perspectives in the household. Styron's father, a shipyard engineer, suffered [[clinical depression]], as would later Styron himself.   In 1939, at age 14, Styron lost his mother after her decade-long battle with [[breast cancer]].

Styron attended public school in Warwick County, first at [[Hilton Elementary School (Newport News, Virginia)|Hilton School]] and then at Morrison High School (now known as [[Warwick High School (Newport News)|Warwick High School]]) for two years, until his father sent him to [[Christchurch School]], an [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal]] [[college-preparatory school]] in the [[Tidewater region of Virginia]]. Styron once said "of all the schools I attended ... only Christchurch ever commanded something more than mere respect—which is to say, my true and abiding affection."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://articles.dailypress.com/1990-07-01/news/9006280277_1_classmate-teachers-principal|title=Daily Press: Hampton Roads News, Virginia News & Videos|access-date=September 4, 2015|archive-date=September 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923085553/http://articles.dailypress.com/1990-07-01/news/9006280277_1_classmate-teachers-principal|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On graduation, Styron enrolled in [[Davidson College]]<ref name="Eric Homberger">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/nov/03/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries|title=Obituary: William Styron|first=Eric|last=Homberger|work=The Guardian|date=November 3, 2006|access-date=November 19, 2014}}</ref> and joined [[Phi Delta Theta]]. By age eighteen he was reading the writers who would have a lasting influence on his own work, especially [[Thomas Wolfe]].<ref name="Eric Homberger"/> Styron transferred to [[Duke University]] in 1943 as a part of the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] and [[United States Marine Corps|Marine Corps]] [[V-12 Navy College Training Program|V-12 program]] aimed at fast-tracking officer candidates by enrolling them simultaneously in basic training and bachelor's degree programs. There he published his first fiction, a short story heavily influenced by [[William Faulkner]], in an anthology of student work {{citation needed|date=October 2012}}. Styron published several short stories in the university literary magazine, ''The Archive'', between 1944 and 1946.<ref name=StyronPapers /> Though Styron was made a [[lieutenant]] in the [[United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marine Corps]], the Japanese surrendered before his ship left [[San Francisco]]. After the war, he returned to full-time studies at Duke and completed his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in [[English studies|English]] in 1947.<ref name=StyronPapers>{{cite web |url=http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/styronwilliam/ |title=William Styron Papers, 1855–2007 and undated |publisher=Rubenstein Library, Duke University}}</ref>