Everything about William Faulkner totally explained
William Faulkner (born
William Cuthbert Falkner), (
September 25,
1897–
July 6,
1962) was an
American author. He is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, and was awarded the 1949
Nobel Prize in Literature.
Faulkner is known for an experimental style with meticulous attention to
diction and
cadence. In contrast to the
minimalist understatement of his peer
Ernest Hemingway, Faulkner made frequent use of "
stream of consciousness" in his writing, and wrote often highly emotional, subtle, cerebral, complex, and sometimes
Gothic or
grotesque stories of a wide variety of characters—ranging from former slaves or descendents of slaves, to poor white, agrarian, or working-class Southerners, to Southern aristocrats.
Most of Faulkner's works are set in his native state of
Mississippi, and he's considered one of the most important "
Southern writers," along with
Mark Twain,
Tennessee Williams, and
Truman Capote. While his work was published regularly from the mid 1920s to the late 1940s, he was relatively unknown before receiving the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. Critics and the public now favor his work, and he's widely seen as among the greatest American writers of all time.
Faulkner's fame and acclaim stem from his novels, novellas, and short stories. He was, however, a published poet and a sometime screenwriter as well.
Life
Faulkner was born William Cuthbert Falkner in
New Albany, Mississippi. He was raised in and heavily influenced by the state of
Mississippi, as well as by the history and culture of the South as a whole. When he was four years old, his entire family moved to the nearby town of
Oxford, where he lived on and off for the rest of his life. Oxford is the model for the town of "Jefferson" in his fiction, and
Lafayette County, Mississippi which contains the town of Oxford, the model for his fictional
Yoknapatawpha County. Faulkner's great-grandfather,
William Clark Falkner, was an important figure in northern Mississippi who served as a colonel in the
Confederate Army, founded a railroad, and gave his name to the town of
Falkner in nearby
Tippah County. He also wrote several novels and other works, establishing a literary tradition in the family. Colonel Falkner served as the model for Colonel John
Sartoris in his great-grandson's writing.
The older Falkner was greatly influenced by the history of his family and the region in which they lived. Mississippi marked his sense of humor, his sense of the tragic position of blacks and whites, his characterization of Southern characters and timeless themes, including fiercely intelligent people dwelling behind the façades of good old boys and simpletons. After being snubbed by the
United States Army because of his height, (he was 5' 5½"), Faulkner first joined the
Canadian and then the
British Royal Air Force, yet didn't see any
World War I wartime action.
The definitive reason for Faulkner's change in the spelling of his last name is still unknown. Faulkner himself may have made the change in 1918 upon joining the Air Force or, according to one story, that a careless typesetter made an error. When the misprint appeared on the title page of Faulkner's first book and the author was asked about it, he supposedly replied, "Either way suits me."
Although Faulkner is heavily identified with Mississippi, he was living in
New Orleans in 1925 when he wrote his first novel,
Soldiers' Pay, after being influenced by
Sherwood Anderson to try fiction. The small house at 624 Pirate's Alley, just around the corner from
St. Louis Cathedral, is now the premises of Faulkner House Books, and also serves as the headquarters of the
Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society.
Faulkner married Estelle Oldham in June 1929 at
College Hill Presbyterian Church just outside of
Oxford, Mississippi. They
honeymooned on the Mississippi Gulf Coast at
Pascagoula, then returned to Oxford, first living with relatives while they searched for a home of their own to purchase. In 1930 Faulkner purchased the
antebellum home
Rowan Oak, known at that time as "The Bailey Place". He and his family lived there until his daughter Jill, after her mother's death, sold the property to the
University of Mississippi in 1972. The house and furnishings are maintained much as they were in Faulkner's time. Faulkner's scribblings are still preserved on the wall there, including the day-by-day outline covering an entire week that he wrote out on the walls of his small study to help him keep track of the plot twists in the novel
A Fable.
Writing
In an interview with
The Paris Review in 1956, Faulkner remarked, "Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he's interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him". Another esteemed Southern writer,
Flannery O'Connor, stated that, "The presence alone of Faulkner in our midst makes a great difference in what the writer can and can't permit himself to do. Nobody wants his mule and wagon stalled on the same track the Dixie Limited is roaring down."
Faulkner's most celebrated novels include
The Sound and the Fury (1929),
As I Lay Dying (1930),
Light in August (1932),
Absalom, Absalom! (1936), and
The Unvanquished (1938). Faulkner was also a prolific writer of
short stories: His first short story collection,
These 13 (1932), includes many of his most acclaimed (and most frequently
anthologized) stories, including "
A Rose for Emily," "
Red Leaves", "
That Evening Sun," and "
Dry September." Faulkner set many of his short stories and novels in
Yoknapatawpha County—based on, and nearly geographically identical to, Lafayette County, of which his hometown of
Oxford, Mississippi is the county seat.
Additional works include
Sanctuary (1931), a sensationalist "
pulp fiction"-styled novel, characterized by
André Malraux as "the intrusion of Greek tragedy into the detective story." Its themes of evil and corruption, bearing
Southern Gothic tones, resonate to this day.
Requiem for a Nun (1951), a play/novel sequel to
Sanctuary, is the only play that Faulkner published, except for his
The Marionettes, which he essentially self-published as a young man.
Faulkner also wrote two volumes of poetry which were published in small printings,
The Marble Faun (1924) and
A Green Bough (1933), and a collection of crime-fiction short stories,
Knight's Gambit.
Awards
Faulkner received the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 for "his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel". Faulkner won two
Pulitzer Prizes for what are considered as his "minor" novels: his 1954 novel
A Fable, which took the Pulitzer in 1955, and the 1962 novel,
The Reivers, which was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer in 1963. He also won two
National Book Awards, first for his
Collected Stories in 1951 and once again for his novel
A Fable in 1955.
In 1946, Faulkner was one of three finalists for the first
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Award. He came in second to
Manly Wade Wellman.
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Personal
Much has been made of the fact that Faulkner had a serious
drinking problem throughout his life. As Faulkner himself stated on several occasions, and as was witnessed by members of his family, the
press, and friends at various periods over the course of his career, he didn't drink while writing, nor did he believe that alcohol helped to fuel the creative process. It is now widely believed that Faulkner used alcohol as an "escape valve" from the day-to-day pressures of his regular life, including his never-ending and maddening financial straits, rather than the more romantic vision of a brilliant writer who needed alcohol to pursue his craft. From 1949 to 1953, he conducted an affair with a young writer,
Joan Williams, who considered him her mentor. The relationship with Williams became the subject of her third novel, titled
The Wintering (1971).
Later years
In the
1930s Faulkner moved to
Hollywood to be a
screenwriter (producing scripts for
Raymond Chandler's
The Big Sleep and
Ernest Hemingway's
To Have and Have Not, both directed by
Howard Hawks). Faulkner became good friends with director
Howard Hawks, as well as screenwriter
A.I. Bezzerides. Faulkner also befriended actors
Humphrey Bogart and
Lauren Bacall. Also at that time, Faulkner started an affair with Hawks's secretary and script-girl Meta Carpenter. Faulkner's Hollywood experience is treated in fictionalized fashion in the
Joel and
Ethan Coen 1991 film
Barton Fink. That film's supporting character, W.P. Mayhew, is intended as a composite of Faulkner and his
Lost Generation peer,
F. Scott Fitzgerald.
An apocryphal story regarding Faulkner during his Hollywood years found him with a case of writer's block at the studio. He told Hawks he was having a hard time concentrating and would like to write at home. Hawks was agreeable, and Faulkner left. Several days passed, with no word from the writer. Hawks telephoned Faulkner's hotel and found that Faulkner had checked out several days earlier. It seems Faulkner had been quite literal and had returned home to Mississippi to finish the screenplay.
Faulkner donated a portion of his
Nobel winnings "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers", eventually resulting in the
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He donated another portion to a local Oxford bank to establish an account to provide scholarship funds to help educate
African-American education majors at nearby
Rust College in
Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Faulkner served as Writer-in-Residence at the
University of Virginia from 1957 until his death at Wright's Sanitorium in
Byhalia, Mississippi of a
heart attack at the age of 64.
Selected Bibliography
Novels
Short stories
"Landing in Luck" (1919)
"The Hill" (1922)
"New Orleans"
"Mirrors of Chartres Street" (1925)
"Damon and Pythias Unlimited" (1925)
"Jealousy" (1925)
"Cheest" (1925)
"Out of Nazareth" (1925)
"The Kingdom of God" (1925)
"The Rosary" (1925)
"The Cobbler" (1925)
"Chance" (1925)
"Sunset" (1925)
"The Kid Learns" (1925)
"The Liar" (1925)
"Home" (1925)
"Episode" (1925)
"Country Mice" (1925)
"Yo Ho and Two Bottles of Rum" (1925)
"Music - Sweeter than the Angels Sing"
"A Rose for Emily" (1930)
"Honor" (1930)
"Thrift" (1930)
"Red Leaves" (1930)
"Ad Astra" (1931)
"Dry September" (1931)
"That Evening Sun" (1931)
"Hair" (1931)
"Spotted Horses" (1931)
"The Hound" (1931)
"Fox Hunt" (1931)
"Carcassonne" (1931)
"Divorce in Naples" (1931)
"Victory" (1931)
"All the Dead Pilots" (1931)
"Crevasse" (1931)
"Mistral" (1931)
"A Justice" (1931)
"Dr. Martino" (1931)
"Idyll in the Desert" (1931)
"Miss Zilphia Grant" (1932)
"Death Drag" (1932)
"Centaur in Brass" (1932)
"Once Aboard the Lugger (I)" (1932)
"Lizards in Jamshyd's Courtyard" (1932)
"Turnabout" (1932)
"Smoke" (1932)
"Mountain Victory" (1932)
"There Was a Queen" (1933)
"Artist at Home" (1933)
"Beyond" (1933)
"Elly" (1934)
"Pennsylvania Station" (1934)
"Wash" (1934)
"A Bear Hunt" (1934)
"The Leg" (1934)
"Black Music" (1934)
"Mule in the Yard" (1934)
"Ambuscade" (1934)
"Retreat" (1934)
"Lo!" (1934)
"Raid" (1934)
"Skirmish at Sartoris" (1935)
"Golden Land" (1935)
"That Will Be Fine" (1935)
"Uncle Willy" (1935)
"Lion" (1935)
"The Brooch" (1936)
"Two Dollar Wife" (1936)
"Fool About a Horse" (1936)
"Vendee" (1936)
"Monk" (1937)
"Barn Burning" (1939)
"Hand Upon the Waters" (1939)
"A Point of Law" (1940)
"The Old People" (1940)
"Pantaloon in Black" (1940)
"Gold Is Not Always" (1940)
"Tomorrow" (1940)
"The Tall Men" (1941)
"Two Soldiers" (1942)
"Delta Autumn" (1942)
"The Bear" (1942)
"Afternoon of a Cow" (1943)
"Shingles for the Lord" (1943)
"My Grandmother Millard and General Bedford Forrest and the Battle of Harrykin Creek" (1943)
"Shall Not Perish" (1943)
"Appendix, Compson, 1699-1945" (1946)
"An Error in Chemistry" (1946)
"A Courtship" (1948)
"Knight's Gambit" (1949)
"Nobel Prize Award Speech" (1949)
"A Name for the City" (1950)
"Notes on a Horsethief" (1951)
"Mississippi" (1954)
"" (1954)
"Race at Morning" (1955)
"By the People" (1955)
"Hell Creek Crossing" (1962)
"Mr. Acarius" (1965)
"The Wishing Tree" (1967)
"Al Jackson" (1971)
"And Now What's To Do" (1973)
"Nympholepsy" (1973)
"The Priest" (1976)
"Mayday" (1977)
"Frankie and Johnny" (1978)
"Don Giovanni" (1979)
"Peter" (1979)
"A Portrait of Elmer" (1979)
"Adolescence" (1979)
"Snow" (1979)
"Moonlight" (1979)
"With Caution and Dispatch" (1979)
"Hog Pawn" (1979)
"A Dangerous Man" (1979)
"A Return" (1979)
"The Big Shot" (1979)
"Once Aboard the Lugger (II)" (1979)
"Dull Tale" (1979)
"Evangeline" (1979)
"Love" (1988)
"Christmas Tree" (1995)
"Rose of Lebanon" (1995)
"Lucas Beauchamp" (1999)
Poetry
Vision in Spring (1921)
The Marble Faun (1924)
A Green Bough (1933)
This Earth, a Poem (1932)
Mississippi Poems (1979)
Helen, a Courtship and Mississippi Poems (1981)
Discography
The William Faulkner Audio Collection. Caedmon, 2003. Five hours on five discs includes Faulkner reading his 1949 Nobel Prize acceptance speech and excerpts from As I Lay Dying, The Old Man and A Fable, plus readings by Debra Winger ("A Rose for Emily", "Barn Burning"), Keith Carradine ("Spotted Horses") and Arliss Howard ("That Evening Sun", "Wash"). Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.
William Faulkner Reads: The Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, Selections from As I Lay Dying, A Fable, The Old Man. Caedmon/Harper Audio, 1992. Cassette. ISBN 1-55994-572-9
William Faulkner Reads from His Work. Arcady Series, MGM E3617 ARC, 1957. Faulkner reads from The Sound and The Fury (side one) and Light in August (side two). Produced by Jean Stein, who also did the liner notes with Edward Cole. Cover photograph by Robert Capa (Magnum).
Listen to
William Faulkner reads the 1949 Nobel Prize acceptance speech and excerpts from As I Lay Dying, The Old Man and A Fable.Further Information
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