In the Company of Rose– An Intimate Documentary

Playwright/director/filmmaker James Lapine talks with his friend Rose Styron, writer/human rights activist/life partner to the American novelist William Styron (Sophie’s Choice, Pulitzer Prize winning The Confessions of Nat Turner) about her life, friendships including the Kennedys and life on Martha’s Vineyard.

Martha’s Vineyard, population 17,000 in winter, 200,000 in summer, has long attracted the rich, creative, and/or famous. When James Lapine took advantage of a family summer house, he became aware of Rose, “widow of author William Styron and something of a legend in her own right. It seemed as if she knew everyone.” They struck up a friendship and Lapine asked whether he might intermittently interview her on camera. Rose thought him “crazy”, but liked the young man and agreed. She was 86. His subject is now 95 and has only just stopped playing tennis every day.

Rose was raised upper middle class in Baltimore. She first met Bill Styron when assigned to drive the guest speaker around Wellesley campus. “I was not impressed.” Her Masters pocketed, the young woman went abroad. While in Rome, mutual friends asked that she contact Styron who was then at The American Academy and knew no one in the city. They stayed up talking all night, then moved in together. Things were, she says, idyllic. “The only reason we got married was the Academy was giving Bill a hard time about our being together.” Rose didn’t think the marriage would last. Her mother was so against it, she put a private detective on his family. Styron was alienated from his own relatives.

The couple had an extended honeymoon in Ravello which appears in his book Set This House on Fire under another name. They set up house in Litchfield, Connecticut. Neighbors included Mike Nichols, Philip Roth, Arthur Miller, Leonard Bernstein. “I became a country housewife,” she says referring to three children and domesticity. Bill would read her pages every night. In the morning after writing poetry, exercising and tending to the kids, Rose would type up Styron’s hand written work “with two fingers…We never discussed my poetry, only his writing.”There’s no resentment in her voice.

Bill’s editor invited them to Martha’s Vineyard. When the ferry docked, he was nowhere to be found. Lillian Hellman took them home to telephone. Dashiell Hammett sat on the porch. It was that kind of place. Acquisition of a house followed in time. There’s implication of extramarital affairs on the part of both. These were apparently discreet and never challenged their union. He was reclusive, she gregarious, quickly establishing their home as a center of lawn parties filled with thinkers and creatives.“Jack Kennedy wanted to meet Bill, so we were invited to the Nobel Prize dinner at the White House.” Teddy Kennedy hid out at the Styrons during Chappaquiddick.  Jackie would bring her children. The couple was invited to Hyannisport. Similar trajectory would occur with the Clintons.

Lapine mentions his early school exposure to The Confessions of Nat Turner – semi-fictional first person narrative about the Virginia slave rebellion of 1831. He asks Rose what got her involved in Civil Rights issues. The Styrons were apparently invited to The Soviet Union “because (based on the book) they thought Bill was a great revolutionary. I was invited as a translator of Russian poetry. They had just invaded Czechoslovakia and sent us to Tashkent where our protests couldn’t be heard.”

A great deal of information on the Gulags came their way. When Rose returned, she went directly to Washington with the information but was summarily “pat on the head.” Author Philip Roth’s girlfriend had just formed the first group of Amnesty International. Rose volunteered and traveled extensively on its behalf many years. She’s impassioned on the subject.

There’s talk of her poetry- four published books, including one for children, and notable poets who became friends and/or activist allies. We learn the origins of Sophie’s Choice. She answers questions about Bill’s excessive drinking- “he drank a lot but never until after he finished writing at about 8pm” and well documented depression. Intermittent episodes were followed by a breakdown at 60, when he agreed to a lengthy stay at a hospital. Upon her husband’s return home, Rose hid anything that might be weaponized. Bill stopped medication and analysis cold and wrote Darkness Visible, the story of his struggle, in hopes of helping others. It’s an extraordinarily honest volume.

“I learned it’s a deadly disease, but survivable… We then had 15 really good years.” There are clips of interviews with the author featuring his awareness of Rose’s extraordinary strength and patience. Through all this, she managed to raise three children. “He was not affectionate with the kids. They were noisy and disturbing, so I did it for two…  I was a lousy role model though, not a strict mom.” One can’t help but doubt this.

Depression struck again when Bill was 75. At his doctor’s recommendation, he had a series of electroshock sessions. “He told me I was killing him. It was the worst moment of my life.” They took him home. “There was some impairment. He didn’t write after that.” Their relationship deepened. Rose stopped traveling. He kept apologizing. She bated it away.

Bill Styron, Mike Wallace and Art Buchwald all suffered from serious depression. The friends took walks together every day in mutual support. On one of these, the trio discovered where they wanted to be buried and bought side by side family plots. We watch Rose leave flowers. Her husband’s headstone reads: “And so we came forth and once again beheld the stars.” Dante.

Rose relates the circumstances of Bill’s death and its aftermath. Lapine inquires about age. “It’s very sad, but I just make younger friends,” comes the staunchly optimistic reply. “Do people treat you differently?” he asks. “Yes, and it makes me nuts…I’ve survived and I’m having a good time…My mother decided to hang it up at 102, but I may not. We’ll see.”

Rose Styron vividly remembers names, dates, events. She’s clear, precise, gracious, undramatic; smart, strong, practical yet poetic, and interesting. She dealt with her husband’s ego, “artistic needs,” and illness while raising children, creating art and devoting her life to important causes. Lapine’s subject is candid and immensely likeable. A formidable woman.

The well made film is a story of love, endurance, and an independent heart. It takes place over years and is illustrated by evocative archival photos and clips. James Lapine is a respectful interviewer who only very occasionally refers to his own life and rarely appears. Time well spent.

In theaters and on demand starting June 30

All photos courtesy of the film

Rose Styron has just published a memoir, Beyond This Harbor. I would think it a good read.