William Faulkner
Although leading the life of an educated writer William Culbert Faulkner experienced the times of his life as a Hollywood writer. Probably known as the most famous writer/author of his time Faulkner adapted to his new lifestyles rapidly, and still remained well known in both the movie and book industries.
Faulkner was born September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. His named was inherited from his grandfather William Clark Faulkner, a skilled businessman and writer. After relocation to Oxford, Mississippi Faulkner’s father started the First National Bank (“William Faulkner #3”). As a child in Oxford, William held a very artistic ideal of life, often drawing and writing poetry in school. Faulkner also met his mentor, Phil Stone and his sweetheart, Estelle Oldham in Oxford.
Estelle later married a young man named Cornell Franklin in 1918 while still in her youth. Stone on the other hand read Faulkner’s work and instantly recognized his talent and gave him advice and models for study. He also invited Faulkner to stay with him in New Haven, where he worked in a New Haven Arms Company. Faulkner was later invited to be a cadet in the Royal Air Force in Canada. On his application papers Faulkner lied about many things to appear British.
Faulkner never served in the war and never finished training. Although his record showed a lack of military experience Faulkner still exaggerated stories of war on his return home. In 1919, Faulkner quit his brief life of a veteran to enroll in the University of Mississippi. During his time at the University, Faulkner wrote for many local magazines and papers along with the school yearbook and newspaper. Among his many other college accomplishments, before he dropped out in 1920, was the founding of the University drama club ‘The Marionettes’ (“William Faulkner #2”).
For about a year Faulkner wrote for the Mississippian and worked several odd jobs until finally he was recommended a job by Stark Young. The job was as a bookstore assistant in New York City (Walsh). In 1924 many of Faulkner’s poetic works were published in a book entitled The Marble Faun.
With his poetry book now published Faulkner moved to New Orleans and fell into a literary group that revolved ...
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...and 1962 Faulkner revised his current works and finished his trilogy on the Snopes family. Sadly after a tragic horse accident William Culbert Faulkner died at the exact time of his great-grandfather’s birthday.
In conclusion, to the many details of Faulkner’s life I can agree that he was probably one of the most versatile writers of his time, as well as, one the most well represented through his works. Stories like Faulkner’s are timeless pieces due to their ability to still be relevant even though the story in point may be up to 4 times a reader’s age.
Work Cited
“Faulkner, William” Three Famous Short Stories. Chicago: Vintage Books, 1961
“Faulkner, William Culbert” Contemporary Authors. Vol. 33. Detroit: Gale, 1991.
Latil, Nathan, ed. University Wire
Walsh, William, ed. Library Journal
“William Culbert Faulkner” Short Story Criticisms. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1988.
“William Faulkner #1” American Writers. Vol. 2. Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 1974.
“William Faulkner #2” Authors & Artists For Young Adults. Vol. 7. Detroit: 1991.
“William Faulkner #3” MaGill’s Survey of American Literature. Vol. 2. New York: Cavendish,1991.
The 1920's had many influential writers in literature. While reaching this time period it is almost certain that the names William Faulkner, Earnest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald will be found. Each of the writers has their own personal style of writing and each one of the lives has influenced what they write about to even the way they each portray their literature.
Gwynn, Frederick L., and Joseph Blotner, eds. Faulkner in the University. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1959.
William Faulkner is widely considered to be one of the great American authors of the twentieth century. Although his greatest works are identified with a particular region and time (Mississippi in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), the themes he explores are universal. He was also an extremely accomplished writer in a technical sense. Novels such as The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! Feature bold experimentation with shifts in time and narrative. Several of his short stories are favorites of anthologists, including "A Rose for Emily." This strange story of love, obsession, and death is a favorite among both readers and critics. The narrator, speaking for the town of Jefferson in Faulkner 's fictional Yoknapatawpha
William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi where he became a high school drop out and was forced to work with grandfather at a bank. In 1925 Faulkner moved to New Orleans and worked as a journalist, here he met the American Sherwood Andersen, a famous short-story writer. Anderson convinced Faulkner that writing about the people and places he could identify with would improve his career as a writer. After a trip to Europe, Faulkner began to write of the fictitious Yoknapatawpha County, which was representative of Lafayette County, Mississippi. Often in this series of novels one could read of characters who were based on Faulkner’s ancestors, African Americans, Native Americans, hermits, and poor whites. At some point in this period of writing, around 1930, William Faulkner wrote the novel As I Lay Dying.
Faulkner bought a pre-Civil War mansion called “Rowanoak” in Oxford, Mississippi which would be his home until the very day he dies.
William Faulkner was a well-esteemed author of the 20th century who used many literary techniques to display messages in his writings. In his short story, A Rose for Emily, he used literary tools such as point of view, physical plot structure, and symbolism to develop his theme that the past is always wound into the present.
After dropping out of school, Faulkner worked as a clerk in his grandfather’s bank and in his spare time wrote short stories and poetry and contributed drawings to the University of Mississippi’s yearbook (Locher). His talent was recognized early on by his good friend Phil Stone, Faulkner’s first literary mentor. Stone encouraged and instructed him in his interests and was a constant source of current books and magazines (Faulkner 699). After short stints in the Royal Canadian Air Force and then as a postal service employee, Faulkner, with Stone’s financial assistance, published The Marble Faun, a collection of his poetry. Sales were poor, however, and it was evident that Faulkner’s real talent was in writing fictional short stories and novels. His first novel, Soldier’s Pay, was published in 1926 and was an “impressive achievement…strongly evocative of the sense of alienation experienced by soldiers returning from World War I to a civilian world of which they seemed no longer a part” (Faulkner 699).
William Faulkner is the author of Absalom, Absalom!, a Southern novel published in 1936. Faulkner dedicates his writing in Absalom, Absalom! to follow the story of ruthless Thomas Sutpen and his life as he struggles against the suspicion and doubt of the small-town folk that were born and raised in Jefferson, Mississippi. Himself a native-born Mississippian, Faulkner entered the world in September of 1897, and left it in July of 1962 at sixty-four years of age. He was the eldest of four brothers, and the son of parents whose prominent families had been destroyed and leveled to poverty with the advent of the Civil War in America during the 1860s. Faulkner was christened William Cuthbert Falkner after his great-grandfather, Colonel William Faulkner, who achieved relative literary success with his publication of The White Rose of Memphis during the 1880s.
William Faulkner was a twentieth century American author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Most famous for his novel The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner defines Southern literature. In his mythical county of Yaknapatawpha, Faulkner contrasted the past with the present era. The past was represented in Emily Grierson, Colonel Sartoris, the Board of Alderman, and the Negro servant. Homer Barron, the new Board of Alderman, and the new sheriff represented the present.
"William Faulkner (1897-1962)." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 97. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. 1-3. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. Hempfield High School. 31 March 2010.
William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25, 1897. His family moved to Oxford, Mississippi when Faulkner was five years old (Larinde). His parents were Murry and Maud Falkner (Zane 2). Faulkner added the "u" to his last name on his Royal Air Force application for unknown reasons (5).
Padgett, John B. "MWP: William Faulkner (1897-1962)." The University of Mississippi. 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 1 Apr. 2011. .
...However, this doesn’t deter Faulkner from writing very complex stories that reflect his literary prowess. Most of his characters can hardly speak correct English, and yet, his pieces are filled with words that even I have trouble discerning meaning from. In particular, Rider’s character is very blue collar. Faulkner communicates this to us in many ways, but has no trouble throwing in phrases like “the junctureless backloop of times trepan”. This occurs throughout all of these stories. It is like the characters are very natural, they know the environment, the have the skills to hunt, they work hard, and they love each other. But these ideas are contrasted by his writing style and complexity and really blend nicely to create very good pieces of literature. It was just one thing that caught my eye in reading these pieces and I am very envious of this skill he possesses.
By reading closely and paying attention to details, I was able to get so much more out of this story than I did from the first reading. In short, this assignment has greatly deepened my understanding and appreciation of the more complex and subtle techniques Faulkner used to communicated his ideas in the story.
Brooks, Cleanth. "William Faulkner: Visions of Good and Evil." Faulkner, New Perspectives. Ed. Richard H. Brodhead. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, 1983.