Biography

William Cuthbert Faulkner

In the early morning of July 6, 1962 one of the greatest American novelist of the twentieth century died of a heart attack.

William Faulkner was born September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi to Murry Charles and Maud Butler Faulkner. William Faulkner was the oldest of four boys. Faulkner grew up in Oxford, Mississippi where he sporadically attended school. This eventually led him to drop out of school at the beginning of eleventh grade. This leave from school was only temporary, for he started school again a year later to play football. Unfortunately Faulkner did not stay long due to a broken nose. After dropping out of school Faulkner worked odd jobs such as: working in his grandfather’s bank as a clerk and carpentry work. On July 26, 1918 Faulkner joined the Canadian Royal Air Force, after being denied entry by the U.S. army. Being a cadet did not last long for Faulkner because he was discharged the following December. Upon returning to Oxford Faulkner decided to give his education another shot and enrolled at the University of Mississippi as a special student. The same year Faulkner entered Ole Miss his first poem was printed,

"L’Apres-Midi D’un Faune" which appeared in The New Republic.

In 1921 Faulkner gives Estelle Franklin (who was married to Cornell Franklin) a volume of poems entitled Vision in Spring. Eight years later on June 20 Estelle Franklin divorces and marries Faulkner. During those eight years, before the marriage, several books and poems were published for example: "Portrait" published in The Double-Dealer (1922), The Marble Faun (1924), Soldiers’ Pay (1926), Mosquitoes (1927), Sartoris (1928), and the Sound and the Fury (1929). Two years into the marriage Faulkner was given Alabama, his first baby girl. Tragically she was taken away nine days later. Sanctuary and These 13 were published the same year he lost his child.

In 1932, Faulkner became the official MGM contract writer, three months later his father Murry Faulkner died. It was not until twenty-eight years later that Maud Butler was laid to rest next to her husband. On June 24, 1933 Faulkner was blessed once again with another baby girl, which they named Jill. During the three years before Faulkner’s brother’s death Light in August, A Green Bough, Doctor Marino and Other Stories, and Pylon were published. After the tragic plane crash that ended his brother’s life he began an intimate love affair with Meta Dougherty Carpenter.

January 1939 Faulkner was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. One year later Faulkner gave the eulogy for Mammy Caroline Barr who died on January 31, 1940. Also that year The Hamlet was published.

Faulkner’s movie deals started to take off in late 1948, beginning with the selling of the screen rights to Intruder on the Dust. This then led to helping with preparations with the filming and scriptwriting for Howard Hawks.

After Faulkner received the American Academy's Howell’s Medal for Fiction he was informed that he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. This was just the beginning of several achievements that Faulkner has earned throughout his lifetime. These achievements include the National Book Award for Fiction for Collected Stories, Legion of Honor in New Orleans, National Book Award for Fiction for A Fable, Silver Medal of Greek Academy and the Gold Medal for fiction of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

William Faulkner once said "I am not a literary man, I am a farmer who just likes to tell stories" (Current Biography page 193)

To uplift a man’s heart; the same for all of us: for the ones who are trying to be artists, the ones who are trying to write simple entertainment, the ones who write to shock, and the ones who are simply escaping themselves and their own private anguishes. (Essays, Speeches & Public Letters page 181)

William Faulkner’s "stories" will live and carry on, not only with fresh new writers, but to the people who have enjoyed the imagination of a the great writer.

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