William Faulkner (1897–1962)
Author of The Sound and the Fury
About the Author
Born in an old Mississippi family, William Faulkner made his home in Oxford, seat of the University of Mississippi. After the fifth grade he went to school only off and on-lived, read, and wrote much as he pleased. In 1918, refusing to enlist with the "Yankees," he joined the Canadian Air Force, show more and was transferred to the British Royal Air Force. After the war he studied a little at the University, did house painting, worked as a night superintendent at a power plant, went to New Orleans and became a friend of Sherwood Anderson, then to Europe and back home to Oxford. By this time he had written two novels. The Sound and the Fury followed in 1929. Financial success came with Sanctuary in 1931, which he assisted in filming. Faulkner 's novels are intense in their character portrayals of disintegrating Southern aristocrats, poor whites, and African Americans. A complex stream-of-consciousness rhetoric often involves Faulkner in lengthy sentences of anguished power. Most of his tales are set in the mythical Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, and are characterized by the use of many recurring characters from families of different social levels spanning more than a century. His best subjects are the old, dying South and the newer materialistic South. As I Lay Dying (1930), is a grotesquely tragicomic story about a family of poor southern whites. With Absalom, Absalom! (1936); the difficult parts of his famous short novel "The Bear" (published in Go Down, Moses, 1942); and the allegorical A Fable (1954), a non-Yoknapatawpha novel set in France during World War I; Faulkner returned to an innovative and difficult style that most readers have trouble with. Yet, interspersed among such works are collections of easily read stories originally published in popular magazines. There seems to be a growing sentiment among critics that the Snopes trilogy-The Hamlet (1940), The Town (1957), and The Mansion (1959)-for the most part an example of Faulkner's "moderate" style, could well be among his most important works. Faulkner was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for literature "for his powerful and artistically independent contribution to the new American novel," but it would appear now that he also deserved to win that honor for his contribution to world literature. When reporting his death, the Boston Globe quoted Faulkner's having once told an interviewer: "Since man is mortal, the only immortality for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. That is the artist's way of scribbling "Kilroy was here" on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must some day pass." In addition to the Nobel Prize, Faulkner received the Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1950, and in 1951 he was given the National Book Award for his Collected Stories Collected Stories. For his novel A Fable he received the National Book Award for the second time, as well as the Pulitzer Prize in 1955. The Reivers (1962) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1963. In 1957 and 1958, he was the University of Virginia's first writer-in-residence, and in January 1959 he accepted an appointment as consultant on contemporary literature to the Alderman Library of that university. Although Faulkner was not without honors in his lifetime and has received world recognition since then, it is surprising to learn that, when Malcolm Cowley edited The Portable Faulkner in 1946, he found that almost all of Faulkner's books were out of print. By arranging selections from the works to form a continuous chronicle, Cowley deserves much of the credit for making readers aware of the way in which Faulkner was creating a fictive world on a scale grander than that of any novelist since Balzac. William Faulkner died in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1962. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
This is not the same person as William Falkner (d. 1682), English theologian. Do not combine the two.
Image credit: Photo by Carl van Vechten
(LoC Prints and Photographs Division,
Van Vechten Collection)
(LoC Prints and Photographs Division,
Van Vechten Collection)
Series
Works by William Faulkner
Novels 1936-1940 : Absalom, Absalom! / The Unvanquished / If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem / The Hamlet (1990) 585 copies
Novels 1942-1954 : Go Down, Moses / Intruder in the Dust / Requiem for a Nun / A Fable (1994) — Author — 467 copies
Novels 1926-1929 : Soldiers' Pay / Mosquitoes / Flags in the Dust / The Sound and the Fury (2006) 393 copies
Faulkner in the university : class conferences at the University of Virginia, 1957-1958 (1959) 79 copies
Works of William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury / Sanctuary / Light in August / As I Lay Dying (1956) 50 copies
William Faulkner: Stories (LOA #375): Knight's Gambit / Collected Stories / Big Woods / Other Works (Library of… (1940) 29 copies
Dry September 23 copies
A Fable: William Faulkner Manuscripts 20, Volume I: Miscellaneous Manuscript & Typescript Pages, Part 1 (1987) 12 copies
Czerwone liście : opowiadania 11 copies
Yoknapatawpha vanaaeg. jutustused / 1 {Yoknapatawpha Olden Time: Tales} — Author — 8 copies
As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text 8 copies
Lo! 8 copies
Obras escogidas: Mientras agonizo / Pylon / Los invictos / El Villorío / Desciende,Moises! (1962) 8 copies
William Faulkner Novels: 1936-1940 7 copies
Yoknapatawpha uusaeg. jutustused / 2 {Yoknapatawpha Modern Times: Tales} — Author — 6 copies
Red Leaves {story} — Author — 5 copies
Shimgles for the Lord 5 copies
Obras escogidas 5 copies
The Modern Library 4 copies
Hell Creek Crossing 4 copies
The Saint Magazine Reader 4 copies
A Justice 4 copies
世界文学全集 : カラー版. 第50巻 (フォークナー). 3 copies
Contes 3 copies
William Faulkner Manuscripts 22, Volumes I and II: The Mansion: The Early Typescript, Parts 1 and 2 3 copies
Father Abraham Tree: William Faulkner Manuscripts II: Holograph Manuscript and Typescripts; and, The Wishing Tree:… (1987) 3 copies
Septembertørke og andre noveller 3 copies
Best-in-Books: Grand Hotel / Voice of Bugle Ann / Life with Father / Mutiny on the Bounty / Postman Always Rings Twice (1962) — Contributor — 3 copies
Kirjailijan työ : Saul Bellow, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Boris Pasternak, Kurt Vonnegut (1985) 3 copies
Mule in the Yard 3 copies
Honor 3 copies
A Courtship 3 copies
Stary 3 copies
That Will Be Fine 3 copies
A Bear Hunt 3 copies
The Broach 3 copies
Centaur in Brass 3 copies
Elly 3 copies
William Faulkner Reads: The Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech and Selections from As I Lay Dying, A Fable, and The Old Man (1992) 3 copies
Faulkner William (William Falkner) 2 copies
Faulkner 2 copies
Light in August / The Mansion 2 copies
I negri e gli indiani 2 copies
Works of William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury / Sanctuary / Light in August / As I Lay Dying (1929) 2 copies
The Hill 2 copies
Hajnali hajtóvadászat : elbeszélések 2 copies
Tomorrow 2 copies
Correspondance Malcolm Cowley-William Faulkner.Lettres et souvenirs de 1944 à 1962 commentés par M.Cowley traduit de… (1970) 2 copies
Divorce in Naples 2 copies
Mistral 2 copies
The Leg 2 copies
There Was a Queen 2 copies
Salmagundi 2 copies
Golden Land 2 copies
Crevasse 2 copies
The Tall Men 2 copies
I fantasmi di Rowan Oak. Storie di sogno e di paura scritte e raccontate da William Faulkner (2005) 2 copies
Het vuur en de haard 2 copies
Fox Hunt 2 copies
Victory 2 copies
Carcassonne — Author — 2 copies
Beyond 2 copies
Death Drag 2 copies
Shall Not Perish 2 copies
Artist at Home 2 copies
Smásögur 1 copy
Svetloba v avgustu 1 copy
Smasogur 1 copy
"Shall Not Perish" 1 copy
Khi tôi nằm chết 1 copy
Konjicki gambit 1 copy
Collected Stories Volume I 1 copy
Obras Completas VI 1 copy
DIVLJE PALME - STARAC 1 copy
“The Tall Men” 1 copy
"A Bear Hunt" 1 copy
"Hair" 1 copy
Snobovi 1 copy
Descends, Moise 1 copy
නිරා ලය 1 copy
Santuario - Luce d' Agosto 1 copy
Αβεσσαλώμ Αβεσσαλώμ 1 copy
Η Βουή Και Η Αντάρα 1 copy
Obras escogidas I 1 copy
Copacul Dorintelor 1 copy
DUMAN 1 copy
TYMI 1 copy
ΟΙ ΚΛΕΦΤΕΣ 1 copy
Dosegimde Olurken - Ayi 1 copy
Lekeli Gunler 1 copy
O Aksam Gunesi 1 copy
Семь рассказов 1 copy
Obras Completas II 1 copy
Собрание рассказов 1 copy
La Pallida Zilphia Gant 1 copy
Obras Completas III 1 copy
A William Faulkner Reader 1 copy
Φως στον Αύγουστο 1 copy
Light in August pb 1 copy
the Man and the Artist (pb) 1 copy
By William Faulkner The Sound And the Fury (Pmc) (Modern Classics) (New impression) [Paperback] 1 copy
LIGHT IN AUGUST Easton Press 1 copy
The Reivers...a Reminiscence 1 copy
Az öreg [kisregény] 1 copy
Três Histórias de Guerra 1 copy
Humphrey Bogart Classics: Volume 2 — Writer — 1 copy
Monk [short story] 1 copy
Amerikaanse verhalen — Contributor — 1 copy
Obras escogidas TOMO II: Una fabula-El ruido y la furia-Santuario-Absalom,absalom-novelas cortas (1960) 1 copy
William Faulkner Manuscripts 19, Volumes I, II, and III: Requiem for a Nun: Preliminary Holograph and Typescript… (1987) 1 copy
Requiem for a Nun: William Faulkner Manuscripts 19, Volume III: Typescript Setting Copy (1987) 1 copy
Elmer; and, "A Portrait of Elmer": William Faulker Manuscripts I: The Typescripts, Manuscripts, and Miscellaneous Pages (1987) 1 copy
My Grandmother Millard 1 copy
Pylon: William Faulkner Manuscripts 12: Typescript Setting Copy and Miscellaneous Holograph Pages (1987) 1 copy
Larmen Og Vreden 1 copy
Obras Completas III 1 copy
Absalom, Absalom! Griff in den Staub. Der Bär. Die Spitzbuben. Eine Legende. Sartoris. Dürrer September. Als… (1963) 1 copy
A Cosmos of My Own 1 copy
Erzählungen II 1 copy
The Evening Sun 1 copy
Folklore of the Air 1 copy
The Waifs 1 copy
Sartoris / The Bear / Intruder in the Dust — Author — 1 copy
Absalom, Absalom! / Intruder in the Dust / Light in August / The Reivers / The Sound and the Fury 1 copy
An Error in Chemistry 1 copy
With Caution and Dispatch 1 copy
A Point of Law 1 copy
Hand Upon the Waters 1 copy
Pennsylvania Station 1 copy
The Mansion: Typescript Setting Copy & Miscellaneous Material (William Faulkner Manuscripts 22, Volumes III & IV) (1991) 1 copy
Faulkner's University Pieces 1 copy
Opere 1 copy
Selected Short Works of William Faulkner — Author — 1 copy
The Hound 1 copy
Delta Autumn 1 copy
The Road to Glory 1 copy
Country Lawyer 1 copy
O Homem e o Rio Livro 1 1 copy
This earth : a poem 1 copy
کتاب صوتی گور به گور 1 copy
البعوض 1 copy
Zstąp, Mojżeszu 1 copy
2003 1 copy
TRE RÖVARE 1 copy
Duman 1 copy
Pobertové : reminiscence 1 copy
Byn roman 1 copy
Fumo 1 copy
Zascianek 1 copy
Rare -SELECTED LETTERS OF WILLIAM FAULKNER First ed! Deluxe Leather! & Companion Guide (1976) 1 copy
Kırmızı Yapraklar 1 copy
Rose of Lebanon 1 copy
The Faulkner Reader: The Sound and Fury Complete, selections from other novels, 3 novellas, nine stories, etc (1954) 1 copy
Faulkner - Premio Nobel 1949 1 copy
Aşk ve Ölüm 1 copy
Extrait - L'Intrus 1 copy
Neodpočívej v pokoji 1 copy
Collected Storeies Vol. II 1 copy
The Story of My Life 1 copy
Associated Works
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 915 copies
Great Detectives: A Century of the Best Mysteries from England and America (1984) — Contributor — 356 copies
The American Short Story: A Collection of the Best Known and Most Memorable Stories by the Great American Authors (1994) — Contributor — 317 copies
First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers (1994) — Contributor — 183 copies
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (2013) — Contributor — 146 copies
Growing Up in the South: An Anthology of Modern Southern Literature (1991) — Contributor — 141 copies
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contributor — 131 copies
Adaptations: From Short Story to Big Screen: 35 Great Stories That Have Inspired Great Films (2005) — Contributor — 121 copies
The Sophisticated Cat: A Gathering of Stories, Poems, and Miscellaneous Writings About Cats (1992) — Contributor — 99 copies
Gentlemen, Scholars and Scoundrels: A Treasury of the Best of Harper's Magazine from 1850 to the Present (1959) — Contributor — 55 copies
The world of law; a treasury of great writing about and in the law, short stories, plays, essays, accounts, letters,… (1960) — Contributor — 54 copies
Best of The Oxford American: Ten Years from the Southern Magazine of Good Writing {anthology} (2002) — Contributor — 43 copies
The Edge of the Chair: A Superlative Collection, Some Fact, Some Fiction, All Suspense (1967) — Contributor — 42 copies
Out of the Best Books: An Anthology of Literature, Vol. 1: The Individual and Human Values (1964) — Contributor — 40 copies
The Greatest War Stories Ever Told: Twenty-Four Incredible War Tales (2001) — Contributor — 29 copies
Fifty Years of the American Short Story from the O. Henry Awards 1919-1970 (1970) — Contributor — 13 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1932 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1932) — Contributor — 13 copies
Yoknapatawpha, Images and Voices: A Photographic Study of Faulkner's County (2009) — Contributor — 10 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1941 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1941) — Contributor — 10 copies
Amerikanische Kurzgeschichten (American Short Stories) (English and German Edition) (1956) — Contributor — 9 copies
De mooiste verhalen van James Baldwin, John Berger, Jorge Luis Borges, Jane Bowles, Joseph Brodsky, Charles Bukowski,… (1990) — Contributor — 7 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1931 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1931) — Contributor — 7 copies
Voor en na middernacht : vierendertig beroemde spook- en griezelverhalen (1949) — Contributor — 7 copies
Contemporary Short Stories: Representative Selections, Volume 3 — Contributor — 6 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1940 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1940) — Contributor — 6 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1937 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1937) — Contributor — 6 copies
Breakdown and Other Thrillers — Contributor — 4 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1936 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1936) — Contributor — 4 copies
Fifty Years of the American Short Story: from the O. Henry Awards 1919-1970 (Volume I) (1970) — Contributor — 3 copies
Modern Short Stories — Contributor — 3 copies
Story in America, 1933-1934: Thirty-Four Selections from the American Issues of "Story," the Magazine Devoted Solely to… (1934) — Contributor — 3 copies
Best Crime Stories — Contributor — 3 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1935 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1935) — Contributor — 2 copies
Reader's Digest Condensed Books: The Desperate Hours • The Goat Boy • My Brother's Keeper • Two Soldiers • The… (1956) 2 copies
Um pilar de ferro - A travessia de Hell Creek - O advogado do diabo - Flor do mar (1965) — Contributor — 1 copy
American Short Stories: Anthology [Mi-Sefarim Amerikai'im: Antologiyah shel Ha-Sipur Ha-Ketsar Ha-Amerkai] — Contributor — 1 copy
Mine Verdener / To Soldater / Digby / Pashaen på Gudindeøen / Det Store X — Contributor — 1 copy
The New York quarterly : NYQ : Number 36, Summer 1988 — Contributor — 1 copy
Modern Short Stories — Contributor — 1 copy
The Saturday Evening Post Stories 1957 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Faulkner, William
- Legal name
- Faulkner, William Cuthbert
- Other names
- Faulkner, Will
- Birthdate
- 1897-09-25
- Date of death
- 1962-07-06
- Burial location
- St. Peter's Cemetery, Oxford, Mississippi, USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New Albany, Mississippi, USA
- Place of death
- Byhalia, Mississippi, USA
- Cause of death
- suffered a serious injury in a fall from his horse, which led to thrombosis
- Places of residence
- Oxford, Mississippi, USA
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA - Education
- University of Mississippi
- Occupations
- novelist
short story writer
poet
literary critic
essayist
screenwriter (show all 14)
playwright
bank clerk
postmaster
roof painter
carpenter
deckhand
coal shoveler
pilot - Relationships
- Faulkner, John (brother)
Falkner, Murry C. (brother)
Faulkner, Jim (nephew)
Falkner, William Clark (great-grandfather)
Percy, William Alexander (friend)
Anderson, Sherwood (friend) (show all 9)
West, Nathanael (friend)
Franklin, Malcolm A. (stepson)
Wells, Dean Faulkner (niece) - Organizations
- British Armed Forces
American Academy of Arts and Letters
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
University of Mississippi (postmaster)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (screenwriter)
Warner Brothers (screenwriter) (show all 8)
University of Virginia (writer-in-residence)
National Institute of Arts and Letters - Awards and honors
- Nobel Prize (Literature, 1949)
National Institute of Arts and Letters (1939)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (1948)
William Dean Howells Medal (1950)
Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur (1951)
Silver Medal of the Greek Academy (1957) (show all 8)
National Institute of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (1962)
Created the PEN/Faulkner Award - Short biography
- William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner wrote novels, short stories, screenplays, poetry, essays, and a play. He is primarily known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where he spent most of his life.
Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers in American literature generally and Southern literature specifically. Though his work was published as early as 1919 and largely during the 1920s and 1930s, Faulkner's renown reached its peak upon the publication of Malcolm Cowley's The Portable Faulkner and his 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the only Mississippi-born Nobel winner. Two of his works, A Fable (1954) and his last novel The Reivers (1962), each won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked his 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury sixth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century; also on the list were As I Lay Dying (1930) and Light in August (1932). Absalom, Absalom! (1936) appears on similar lists. - Disambiguation notice
- This is not the same person as William Falkner (d. 1682), English theologian. Do not combine the two.
Members
Discussions
Folio Society Devotees: Sound and Fury in Book talk (October 2023)
Folio Society Devotees: Sound and Fury in Folio Society Devotees (October 2023)
The Snopes Trilogy, Volume III, The Mansion in Club Read 2023 (September 2023)
The Snopes Trilogy, Volume II, The Town in Club Read 2023 (August 2023)
The Snopes Trilogy Group Read: The Hamlet in Club Read 2023 (July 2023)
The Sound and the Fury LE in Folio Society Devotees (May 2021)
Faulkner and james Branch Cabell in William Faulkner and his Literary Kin (October 2020)
As I Lay Dying: The More You Know. in William Faulkner and his Literary Kin (November 2018)
William Faulkner- American Author Challenge in 75 Books Challenge for 2014 (March 2014)
LIGHT IN AUGUST - Group Read Discussion Thread in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (August 2013)
The Sound and the Fury GROUP READ in 2013 Category Challenge (April 2013)
Reviews
Lists
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Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 430
- Also by
- 185
- Members
- 86,397
- Popularity
- #126
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 1,075
- ISBNs
- 1,426
- Languages
- 34
- Favorited
- 494
publication history: cut version published 1929, full version published 1973. Corrected 2006
format: 319-page Nook ebook (published 2011)
acquired: February 29 read: Mar 1-15 time reading: 16:22, 3.1 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Classic novel theme: Faulkner
locations: Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi, ~1920
about the author: 1897-1962. American Noble Laureate who was born in New Albany, MS, and lived most of his life in Oxford, MS.
This is an important Faulkner novel. It's his 3rd published novel, but it's the first he set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha county Mississippi. It sets the backdrop of the Snopes trilogy and I think much or most of his other work going forward. But is it any good?
It wasn't published as he wanted in his lifetime. The publisher of Faulkner's first two novels rejected it, saying it was “diffuse and non-integral with neither very much plot development nor character development.... The story really doesn't get anywhere and has a thousand loose ends." That's an entirely accurate description. Without plot drive or clear purpose, it walks along slowly. It opens with a breath of wonderful prose and author control on the pace, intentionally slowing us readers down without losing us. But that doesn't last. Eventually the book drifts. I spent swaths of pages wondering why Faulkner was telling me what he was telling me, and even after I set the book down, found myself mulling over this question and not able to answer it. The eventual publisher cut out a huge chunk of it, maybe 25 percent.
And yet I enjoyed it. I took in these characters, and embraced with the glee the introductions to characters who are fleshed out in the Snopes trilogy, and I closed in with real affection. The novel hovers over the mythological Civil War colonel, John Sartoris, his memory and spirit hovering "like an odor, like the clean dusty smell of his faded overalls". His son, Old Bayard, runs his bank in this same Mississippi town. Old Bayard's grandson, also Bayard, has just returned from serving as a pilot in WWI, watching his own twin brother die in air combat. There are lot of missing Sartorises, moms, wifes, dads. They don't come out well. And young Bayard can't settle after his experiences, constantly pushing limits and unable to stop. Mixed in, and largely cut in 1929, is the younger Bayard's eventual spouse, inaptly named Narcissa, a beautiful warm character Faulkner created, first in love warmly with her brother (in a healthy way), also a WWI veteran. The sibling relationship is as beautiful as anything in the book.
I don't know how to approach the race aspects of this book except to say race is important to the book, and it's a racism fail. Faulkner loves his black servant characters, but he loves them as black servants playing secondary humans, not as regular people who are entirely dependent financially, with limited to no opportunities for themselves or their children. You can't overlook these aspects, the love and hard misunderstanding. It's so fundamental to the book, to everything beautiful within the book. I cringed, but also found myself open to letting Faulkner give me his own take. If you want to destroy this book on race, you have easy target.
So recommended for Faulkner pursuers, but maybe not for samplers.
2024
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