- President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1983
- Won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his novel "The Confessions of Nat Turner".
- He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1993 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.
- He was born into a well-to-do family, and decided to become a writer when he was in his teens. His mother died when he was 13, and he attributed some of his later problems to his continuing grief. He served in WWII in the US Marines.
- His best-seller "Sophie's Choice" won the American Book Award for fiction in 1980. Meryl Streep won an Oscar for her performance in the 1982 film adaptation (Sophie's Choice (1982)).
- First novel was the Southern-styled "Lie Down in Darkness".
- Graduate of Duke University.
- Served in the Marines during WWII and later graduated from Duke University.
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