William Styron Books in Order
20 books are credited to William Styron, published between 1951 and 2015; 5 of them appeared after William Styron's death in 2006. The first book is The Confessions of Nat Turner (1951) and the newest is My Generation (2015). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 20
- Published
- 1951–2015
- Confirmed
- 1 of 20 titles
- Pages on record
- 5,349 in 17 of 20 books
- Reading time
- 89–134 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 5,349 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 17 of 20 titles with a page count on record.
William Clark Styron Jr. (1925–2006) was an American novelist and essayist. The Confessions of Nat Turner won Styron the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1968. Twenty books are catalogued under Styron's name, among them Lie Down in Darkness, The Long March, Sophie's Choice (1979) and This Quiet Dust: And Other Writings (1982); the most recent, My Generation, is dated 2015. Recorded subjects include the Korean War, suicide, families, young women and correspondence.
How many William Styron books are there?
William Styron has 20 books, released between 1951 and 2015. 5 of them were published after William Styron's death in 2006.
William Styron Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 20 William Styron books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1The Confessions of Nat Turner1951 · 455 pages · confirmed 1/419514551/4
- 2Lie Down in Darkness1951 · 400 pages · confirmed 1/419514001/4
- 3The Long March1952 · 96 pages · confirmed 1/41952961/4
- 4Set This House On Fire1960 · 568 pages · confirmed 1/419605681/4
- 5In the Clap Shack1973 · confirmed 1/41973–1/4
- 6Sophie's Choice1979 · 562 pages · confirmed 1/419795621/4
- 7Shadrach1979 · confirmed 1/41979–1/4
- 8Inheritance of Night1980 · 139 pages · confirmed 1/419801391/4
- 9This Quiet Dust: And Other Writings1982 · 344 pages · confirmed 1/419823441/4
- 10Mr Jefferson and our times1984 · confirmed 1/41984–1/4
- 1119852803/4
- 12Darkness Visible1990 · 84 pages · confirmed 1/41990841/4
- 13A Tidewater Morning1993 · 142 pages · confirmed 1/419931421/4
- 14The Long March and In the Clap Shack1993 · 224 pages · confirmed 1/419932241/4
- 15Fathers and Daughters1994 · 131 pages · confirmed 1/419941311/4
- 16Havanas in Camelot2008 · 176 pages · confirmed 1/420081761/4
- 17Letters to My Father2009 · 238 pages · confirmed 1/420092381/4
- 18The Suicide Run: Five Tales of the Marine Corps2009 · 208 pages · confirmed 1/420092081/4
- 19Selected Letters of William Styron2012 · 672 pages · confirmed 1/420126721/4
- 20My Generation2015 · 630 pages · confirmed 1/420156301/4
William Styron books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Literary Conversations in order
1 bookStandalone books
19 books19 William Styron titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read William Styron books in order?
No. No source lists any of the 20 William Styron books here as part of a series. The numbered table above gives them by publication date.
Where to start with William Styron
Start with The Confessions of Nat Turner (1951), the earliest published title.
What is the newest William Styron book?
My Generation (2015) is the newest William Styron book released so far.
Is there a new William Styron book coming?
No next William Styron book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Awards William Styron has won
Wikidata records 6 awards and 2 nominations for William Styron. Each row states whether the title won or was shortlisted, and the year the award was given.
- Lucien Barrière Literary Award1990Won
- Prix mondial Cino Del Duca1985Won
- St. Louis Literary Award1982Won
- National Book Award1980Wonfor Sophie's Choice
- William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters1970Won
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction1968Wonfor The Confessions of Nat Turner
- National Book Award for Fiction1968Shortlistedfor The Confessions of Nat Turner
- National Book Award for Fiction1952Shortlistedfor Lie Down in Darkness
William Styron at a glance
- Died
- William Styron died in 2006, according to Wikidata.
- After death
- Books credited to William Styron are still being published after William Styron's death in 2006; the newest appeared in 2015.
- Release pace
- William Styron books have appeared about one every 3 years on average.
- Length
- 5,349 pages across the 17 of 20 books with a recorded length, a median of 238 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most William Styron books, 4 of 20, were published in the 1990s.
What the William Styron books are about
17 of the 20 William Styron books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: styron, william, 1925-2006 is tagged on 5 of 17. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Styron, william, 1925-2006 5 of 17 books
- Novelists 3 of 17 books
- Correspondence 2 of 17 books