"Sophie's Choice" author William Styron dies at 81

NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) William Styron, whose 1979 novel ''Sophie's Choice'' was made into an acclaimed film and who won a Pulitzer Prize for ''The Confessions of Nat Turner'' died in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, The New York Times reported.

Styron, who was 81, died of pneumonia after a long illness, his daughter Alexandra Styron yesterday told the Times.

Styron made his name with ''The Confessions of Nat Turner,'' (1967) the story of a slave who led a bloody and disastrous slave insurrection before the Civil War. Styron won a Pulitzer Prize for the book, which was published at the height of the civil rights movement. Some criticized it as tinged with racism.

His best-known book was ''Sophie's Choice'' (1979), the tragic story of a Polish Holocaust survivor's relationship in Brooklyn with a Virginia writer. It was made into a movie with Meryl Streep, who won an Oscar for best actress, and an opera by Nicholas Maw, which had its US premiere in September.

Born in Newport News, Virginia, in 1925, Styron was the son of a shipyard engineer who suffered from depression. His mother died when he was 13, and Styron was soon sent to a boys' preparatory school.

After college, he enlisted in the Marines, where he was assigned to be in the force that would invade Japan during World War Two. When the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to Japan's surrender, Styron was discharged without seeing active duty.

His first novel, which appeared when he was 26, was ''Lie Down in Darkness'' (1951). It tells the story of a young woman's descent into suicide in the shadow of the Hiroshima bombing.

He followed that with ''The Long March'' (1957) and ''Set This House on Fire'' (1960), the story of three Americans in Italy after World War Two.

In his later years, Styron decided he needed to quit drinking and ended up taking medications for mood disorders that developed after he gave up alcohol, the Times reported.

The drugs produced a suicidal depression, and Styron ended up hospitalized from December 1985 to February 1986.

Once released, he wrote a best-selling book ''Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness'' (1990). But he was hospitalized several more times for depression.

He married Rose Burgunder in Rome in 1953. She kept the household running and raised the children while Styron wrote, the Times reported.

She survives him, as do Alexandra Styron and three other adult children.

REUTERS DKA SND1130