Today in Writing History August 31, 1908: Armenian-American writer William Saroyan was born. He won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1940 and the Academy Award for best screenplay for his story, “The Human Comedy.” Saroyan was born in Fresno, California, but spent several of his early years in an orphanage in Oakland. He was later reunited with family in Fresno. Many of his early stories were about Armenian farm workers, during the Depression, in California’s San Joaquin Valley.