William Saroyan’s Fresno house to be auctioned off

A house which once belonged to the 20th century world-famous US Armenian author and dramatist William Saroyan is going up for auction in Fresno.

The Ministry of Diaspora and the Writers’ Union earlier made calls upon the Armenian benefactors worldwide for purchasing the property but sources from the Diaspora Ministry says the appeal has so far remained unanswered.

President of the Writers’ Union Edward Militonyan says he doesn’t think that the house must by all means be purchased by an ethnic Armenian.

“We are not expected to receive a response so immediately. Anyone who wishes to do is not likely to call me to share the plan. That call was simply for notification,” he told our correspondent.

The auction will be declared by the California Eastern District Court of Fresno on Tuesday morning.

Speaking to Tert.am, David Hovhannes, a contemporary Armenian poet and critic, said he really expects that the potential purchaser will be someone willing to turn the house into an Armenian cultural center.

“The United States badly needs a powerful cultural center, which will be William Saroyan’s house. Its purchase and cultural image design is simply mandatory for the entire Armenian nation. Thank God, we have so many Armenian businessmen and wealthy people who could buy the house to make it a gathering place for the Armenians, a symbolic site which, apart from remembering William Saroyan, his creative works and personality, will host also events dedicated to the Armenians and the American-Armenian colony,” he added.

Mr Hovhannes said he is sure that the US government will not put any obstacles to turning William Saroyan’s house into a cultural center.

“It will work much more efficiently than Tumanyan’s house in Tbilisi. They purchased it from Tumanyan’s great grandson and want to turn it into a center of Armenian culture. The fate of the house has never been decided. Georgians are obviously protracting clarifying the status of the house. I think they will not allow it to be done,” Mr Hovhannes said.