William FaulknerBy: Caitlin Sherr

September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962

Childhood• Born in New Albany,

Mississippi in 1897. He later moved to Oxford, Mississippi.

• His parents were Murray Charles Faulkner and Maud (Butler) Faulkner.

• He grew up in one of the poorest states which at the time had 25% of families below the poverty line.

• He grew up as the eldest son of four brothers.

• He hoped to aspire to be like his great-grandfather, a writer as well.

As a Young Man

• He was quarterback on his high school football team however never graduated.

• Although he never obtained his degree in college he studied for a period of time at University of Mississippi.

• He had always dreamed of becoming a pilot in the army however was declined because of his height. ( 5’5”)

• He later became a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

• He remained in this Canadian Air Force through World War I but never saw flying time in combat.

Personal and Professional Experiences

• Worked as a scoutmaster for the Oxford Boy Scout troop as well as a bank clerk.

• Worked as a postmaster at the University of Mississippi but was fired for reading on the job.

• Faulkner only worked these jobs to make money so he could devote his time to his true passion of writing.

• He became a prolific writer.• Married his childhood sweetheart, Estelle Oldham who

developed a drug addition which affected their marriage. They had three children together.

• His hard drinking during his life also affected his body and mental performance.

Adulthood• For a span of twenty years he

worked in Hollywood writing several screen plays like Today We Live (1933) and Land of the Pharaos (1955) and producing many novels and short stories

• He later worked in Hollywood with Howard Hawks, a movie director who became a friend.

• Hawk once said after Hemingway turned down the offer to work with him," I'll get Faulkner to do it; he can write better than you can anyway” (Liukkonen, Petri).

Influences on his writing

• The places Faulkner lived influenced his stories. Although he spent the majority of his life in Mississippi.

• He often wrote about Southern social dynamics, specifically the inequality felt by African Americans.

• Architecture also played a role in his writing as he was obsessive with “restoring his own house, naming his books after buildings and depicting them carefully” (Liukkonen, Petri).

•House he shared with his wife, Estelle Oldham Franklin which shows

similarities to the house in “A Rose for Emily”.

Faulkner wrote of…

• Stories that corresponded with his own life and his fantasies, like his problem with drinking, and a strange obsession with rape, incest, suicide and greed.

• His characters usually followed the “historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South” (Noble Lectures).

• Created an imaginary place called Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional region of Mississippi, along with its inhabitants over thirty years of writing.

Themes used by Faulkner• Faulkner was passionate about his

writing once stating “Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written, if a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate” (Liukkonen, Petri).

• Yoknapatawpha County was modeled after Lafayette County. This Chickasaw Indian term meant “water passes slowly through flatlands” (Liukkonen, Petri).

• This place was used to show the decay of the old south through theSartoris and Compson families.He often offers his own moral evaluation of the relationship and the problems between African-American and white people.

• Racial prejudice, class division, family in regards to life force andcurse were recurring themes.

Techniques• He used the manner of “distortion of time through the use of inner

monologue” (Noble Lectures). Seen in As I lay Dying.• His sentence structure consist of long, often hypnotic sentences

consisting of carefully chosen words. • He is often noted for withholding important detailing or referring to

people or events which the reader does not learn of until much later into the story.

• At times he played with using page long sentences or gave the reader details only meaningful at the end of the story.

• He also experienced with the stream of consciousness, multiple point of views and time-shifts within the narration.

• His stories varied from the traditional storytelling style to use of snapshot or collages to tell the stories.

Awards• William Faulkner won the Nobel

Prize in Literature in 1949. • He donated his award to establish a

fund to support and encourage new fiction writers eventually being called the PEN/Faulkner Award of Fiction.

• Faulkner came in second in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Award contest.

• Two Pulitzer Prizes for A Fable and The Reivers.

• O. Henry Short Story Prize. • After he died he was awarded a

National Book Award for his Collected Stories. •William Faulkner won

the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949.

The End of His Life

• Faulkner died July 6th, 1962 after suffering from a coronary occlusion (Liukkone, Petri).

• Up to his death he worked as a Writer-In-Residence at the University of Virginia in 1957.

• The United States Postal Service issued a first-class 22-cent stamp commemorating his life and stint as a

postmaster.

Literary Contribution • Faulkner produced many screenplays, novels and short stories and poems

• SARTORIS / FLAGS IN THE DUST, 1929 • THE SOUND AND THE FURY, 1929 • AS I LAY DYING, 1930 • A ROSE FOR EMILY,1930• SANCTUARY, 1931• THAT EVENING SUN GO DOWN,1931• LIGHT IN AUGUST, 1932 • ABSALOM, ABSALOM!, 1936 • THE WILD PALMS, 1939 • THE HAMLET, 1940THE PORTABLE FAULKNER, 1946 • INTRUDER IN THE DUST, 1948 • KNIGHT'S GAMBIT, 1949 • COLLECTED STORIES, 1950 • REQUIEM FOR A NUN, 1951 • A FABLE, 1954 (Pulitzer Prize) • THE TOWN, 1957 • THE MANSION, 1959 • THE REIVERS, 1962 (Pulitzer Prize) • THE FAULKNER-COWLEY FILE, 1968 • FLAGS IN THE DUST, 1973 • THE MARIONETTES, 1975 • MAYDAY, 1977

Sources • American Society of Authors and Writers. “William Faulkner”

American Society of Authors and Writer. 2006<http://amsaw.org/amsaw-ithappenedinhistory-092503-faulkner.html>.

• Cambridge Encyclopedia. “William (Cuthbert) Faulkner - Life, Works, Awards,Later years, Discography, Listen to” State University. 2010<a href="http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/23560/William-Cuthbert-Faulkner.html">.

• Handschuh, Judith. “Author Profile: William Faulkner” Teenreads. 2003< http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-faulkner-william.asp>.

• Liukkonen, Petri. "William Faulkner" Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto. 2008 < http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/williams.htm>.

• Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company,

Amsterdam, 1969• Padgett, John B. “William Faulkner Anecdotes and Trivia”

John B. Padgett. 1995-2000<http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/trivia.html>.

• Union Country Heritage Museum. “William Faulkner” Union Country Heritage Museum. 2010< http://www.ucheritagemuseum.com/williamfaulkner.asp>.

• www.ppt2txt.com/sppt_rose-for-emily-by-william-faulkner.html