1983_03 Insight March 1983

              Insight
March 2, IMS
Saroyan's son seeks
father's literary works
CAROLYN MORROW OCHELTftEE
Insight reporter
When William Saroyan's only son
asked to see his father's personal
literary collection after the author's
death, he was turned away by estate
attorneys.
probate. Damir explained probate as two years befroe probate closes, say
a "post-death administration of the attorneys.
decedent's assets. It is a time to make In the meantime, Setrakian has
sure that what he decided to do in his ordered that the Sayoran collection be
will is being done. shipped to Bancroft Library at tbe
"When that is finished, probate University of California, Berkeley for
a and the assets are transferred storage. Bancroft Library bouses the
to the persons or institutions named in university's rare and special collec-
The son, Aram Saroyan, said be   tbe will," he said. tions.
was obliged to complete his soon-to-         According to Damir and Robert James Hart, head librarian at
be-publisbed biography on his father   Setrakian, executor for the estate, Bancroft, said there are "literally
without any help from the multitude   probate is far from closing on William hundreds of wine-carton sized boxes"
of published and unpublished works   Saroyan's will. A partial appraisal of filled with Saroyan's work at tbe
William  Saroyan  kept  during  his   his estate-estimated at more than library.
lifetime.                                              $1.3 million-has been made. It in- "It  includes   correspondence,
"My lawyer received a letter say-   dudes more than $300,000 in several manuscripts,  notebooks, journals,
ing we were denied access to tbe   bank accounts, 200 ounces of gold photographs,  inscribed  copies of
files," Aram said. "It cost me $700 to   (now worth $101,840), and several books, all kinds of things," Hart said.
get that *no'answer and I was angry."   thousand shares of stock in utility and "Much of it is the sort of material you
Aram has not been singled out for   oil companies. wouldn't expect to have published.
denial to his father's personal literary          But appraisal of the literary side None of this  material will be
collection,   though,   according   to   of Saroyan's estate will not be so available  to  tbe public,  including
Robert Damir, attorney for the estate,   straightforward or quickly done as Saroyan's family members, until it
No one will be granted access to tbe   this. has been completely inventoried, in-
files until the works have been proper-         "We're dealing with worldwide dexed and cross-referenced, accor-
ly appraised and indexed through the   royalty and publishing agreements ding to Damir.
legal process.                                      here," Damir said. "We will not be He said there is no way to prevent
"Since William Saroyan's death,   content until we have all the informa- theft or damage of tbe materials unti
there has been a renaissance of sorts   tion that makes up the estate. We are they are properly indexed,
in his work," Damir said. "I have   still discovering things we weren't According to Hart, indexing is an
redeved dozens and dozens of re-   aware of six months ago." expensive process. Bancroft Library
quests for stories, rights, all sorts of         Until probate closes, Saroyan's has provided some of the funding, but
things. Tbe requests run the gamut   literary works will be controlled by the project still may require nearly
from tbe reproduction and production   Setrakian, as executor of tbe estate. $50,000 to complete,
of plays to requests from cable TV."    After it closes, the literary collection It is also a time consuming pro-
But all the requests have been   will   be  handled  by   tbe  William ject. Even when funding is made
denied  and  probably  will  be  for   Saroyan Foundation, whose trustees available.  Hart estimates it could
another three years.                            todude CSUF president Harold Haak take two or three years to properly in-
Since Saroyan's death in May   and Leon Peters, a prominent Fresno dex the Saroyan collection.
1981, the author's will has remained in   businessman. But it could be at least "There are all kinds of irrelevent
papers in those boxes," Hart said.
There are things like coupons for
grocery stores, but each piece has to
be looked at because he often wrote
Continue from page l                         early Amerasia Weeks. rwteson Uie back of papers."    e>
Amerasia  Week  will  condude         Along with tbe Comets, there will tom* called it "an incredibly
Saturday with an evening of enter-   be several examples of traditional comP,e* J°°-
tainment at Festival Night. All perfor- -songs. ""^
mances are f ree^afehe public and will
be bdd in tbe C.U. The program will Hmong musicians will also per-
last about two hours. form Saturday. The Hmong are an
Returning for festival night for agriculturally orientated people who
the 10th year in a row will be Ken and have recently migrated to the Central
tbe Comets,  a  group of CSUF  Valley.
graduates who perform a variety of         "Overall Amerasia Week is by-
pop music. The members of the band,   ing  to high  light contributions  of -
Ken Kawaguchi,  Tom  Uyemaruko  Asian-Americans to California and wrong. He says he's following policy,
and Tony Yasuda were some of the   the United States," said Ng. "It's an Whether he set the policy or not, he
original members of the Amerasia   opportunity for some education and seems to think their (business office)
club and helped set up some of the   insight into the Asian cultures."
Dmitriew: Finds freedom
to fulfill teaching dream
Asia: Week-long fest
A- SAROYAN
"We are dealing with over 45
years of copyrights and dozens of
publishing agreements, all of which
have to be valued," he said. "I have
no idea how soon that could be done It
could take up to three years.
"BUI Saroyan didn't keep any
records, but be kep everything else."
At present, Damir said "no one
has the funds to carry tbe indexing
process off."
The William Saroyan Foundation
may seek grants or private donations
to hdp complete tbe process, be said.
According to Saroyan's will, the
foundation can make tbe Saroyan collection available to the CSUF library
and the Bancroft Library.
But the collection will not be
available to any scholars or
literature-lovers until the expensive
and lengthy indexing process is finished.
In the meantime, Aram Saroyan
complains about tbe delay.
By tbe time tbe information is
available to the public, Aram said
"All the Interest in his work may be on
the wane. All tbe people who have
done biographies will have been
denied access to his work. This
material should be made available."
Continued from page •
a very important link in society. To be
a teacher is a privilege, to share your
knowledge and  teach  the young
generation."
Alexander Pronto, who shares an
office with Dmitriew and also teaches
Russian, called her "tbe best Russian
language teacher to California." She
was named by tbe California Foreign
Language Teachers Association as its
outstanding teacher in 1975.
"She has the knowledge and
understanding of Russian idiom that
very few people, today, in the United
States have," Pronto said.
"She has patience and devotion
and, yes, I would say pride in her product: in tbe final accomplishment of
her students. This is what makes her
unique. She really is, I think, a born
teacher."
Heins: Picky or principle
Continued from page 1
picky, I'd have to agree," said Heins.
"But what he's (Bissonnette) doing is
policies take precedence over federal   comes."
and state law."
"I'm going to handle my fight
step by step," said Heins. "If I have to
go to court to prove my pdnt, I will,
but  I'll  face that when tbe Ume
Following Germany's surrender
to the Allies, Roosevelt, Churchill and
Stalin signed an agreement that
Dmitriew called "our death certificate."
"They agreed to send all Soviet
prisoners back to Russia by force
whether they want to go or not," she
said. "It was a very bad page in
history, when many innocent people
were sent back to Stalin and Stalin
killed them.
"I hid in tbe woods until Eleanor
Roosevelt helped us. Her husband
signed our death certificate, but
Elear.x Roosevdt spoke in the United
Nations and said 'If people don't want
to go back, you can't send them.' "
Dmitriew and her daughter came
out of hiding and Dmitriew opened a
school in Bavaria. She remarried, and
in 1949 she and her husband, happy to
leave Europe behind them, signed a
contract to pick sugar beets in the
Canadian province of Manitoba.
Later that year she began work in
a Canadian sportswear factory, and
worked her way from sweeping floors
to shop steward. The stumbling block
of learning the English language kept
Dmitriew in tbe factory and out of
teaching for 16*4 years.
"Without language bow can you
possibly be a teacher? 'Dmitriew said.
•fj learned English in simple factory
conversations,- then Liter on when I
went to the University of Manitoba
graduate schod it was very tough for
me. I learned bow to communicate
but factory language is not university'
language."
Dmitriew took night classes at the
university while still working to the
factory, then attended a summer ses-.
sion at Middlebury College in Vermont. She went on to recdve her
master's degree in Russian from the
University of Iowa, and was hired at
CSUF to 1967.
After 16 years, she still plans to
teach "as long as I'm on my feet and 1
have a healthy mind." Her face, lined
across the forehead and very pink in
the cheeks, could be 15 years younger
than its 66 years.
Robert Wanstreet, a junior in
Dmitriew's Russian IB class,
describes his teacher this way: "It's
amazing to me that she spent 15 years
in a factory, has been teaching here so
many years, yet still seems so young
and so vital."
A U.S. citizen for a decade now,
Dmitriew has found in the United
States the freedom to realize her
dream of teaching. Elgorriaga, who
fled Franco's Spain as a youth and
came to America, can understand
Dim i triew's position.
"The thing that she appreciates
most of all, I think, is the chance she
finally got here to do the things she
always dreamed of doing ."Elgorriaga
said. "I don't think there are words
that can describe it You're finally doing these things without fearing these
road blocks are going to shut off the
dream that you had."
Smiling, speaking softly,
Dmitriew says that America, not
Russia, is her home
"This country has opened the
door for me," she said. "I found here
what every decent human being can
find. Even bdore I came to tbe United
States, America was my dream.
"I don't love this country because
I work as a professor here. Even if I
worked in a factory I would love this
country. I love this country because
it's the best country in the world.
"In spite of all its negative sides, I
still think it is the best country in the
world. I am very proud to be an
American."
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