Profile of William Faulkner on Famous Like Me

William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was a Nobel Prize-winning novelist from Mississippi. Though his works are sometimes challenging or even difficult, he is regarded as one of America's most important fiction writers.

In works of psychological drama and emotional depth, Faulkner was known for using long serpentine sentences and high meticulously chosen diction, in stark contrast to his longtime rival Ernest Hemingway; his long sentences and ornate verbiage contrasted to Hemingway's short minimalist style. Some consider him to be the only true American Modernist prose fiction writer of the 1930s, following in experimental tradition European writers such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Marcel Proust. His work is known for literary devices such as stream of consciousness, multiple narrations or points of view, and time shifts within narrative.

Biography

Faulkner was born William Falkner (no "u") in New Albany, Mississippi, and raised in and heavily influenced by that state, as well as the ambience of the South. His great-grandfather, William Clark Falkner, was an important figure in the history of 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. Perhaps most importantly, he wrote several novels and other works, establishing a literary tradition in the family. Eventually, Colonel Falkner was the model for Colonel John Sartoris in his great-grandson's writing.

It is understandable that the younger Falkner was influenced by, and drew on, the history of his family and the region. Mississippi marked his sense of humor, his sense of the tragic position of Blacks and Whites, his keen characterization of usual Southern characters and his timeless themes, one of them being that fiercely intelligent people dwelled behind the façades of good old boys and simpletons. The definite reason for Faulkner's change in the spelling of his last name is still unknown, but possibilities include adding it to appear more British when entering the Royal Air Force, adding it so his name would come across as more aristocratic, or even keeping a misspelling that an early editor had made.

Although Faulkner is heavily identified with Mississippi, he was living in New Orleans in 1925 when he wrote his first novel, Soldier's Pay. 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's most celebrated novels include The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), The Unvanquished (1938), and Absalom, Absalom! (1937). Faulkner was 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." In 1931 in an effort to make money, Faulkner crafted Sanctuary, a sensationalist "pulp fiction"-styled novel. Its themes of evil and corruption (bearing Southern Gothic tones) resonate to this day. A sequel to the book, Requiem for a Nun, is the only play that he published. It includes an introduction that is actually one sentence spanning more than a page. He received a Pulitzer Prize for A Fable, and won a National Book Award (posthumously) for his Collected Stories.

Faulkner was also an acclaimed writer of mysteries, publishing a collection of crime fiction, Knight's Gambit, that featured Gavin Stevens (who also appeared in Light in August, Go Down, Moses, The Town, Intruder in the Dust, and the short story Hog Pawn), an attorney, wise to the ways of folk living in Yoknapatawpha County. He set many of his short stories and novels in his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on—and nearly identical to in terms of geography—Lafayette County, of which his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, is the county seat; Yoknapatawpha was his very own "postage stamp" and it is considered to be one of the most monumental fictional creations in the history of literature. His former home in Oxford, Rowan Oak, is operated as a museum by the University of Mississippi.

In the later years 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 started an affair with Hawks' secretary, Meta Carpenter. Faulkner was rather famous for drinking as well, and throughout his life was known to be an alcoholic. The hard-drinking character of Bill Mayhew in the Coen Brothers' movie Barton Fink was almost certainly based on Faulkner.

According to rumor, Faulkner's alcoholism was particularly drastic after a major accomplishment, when he would go on prolonged binges. Normally during his bouts with drinking he would stay in bed and have various family members bring him his drinks and keep him company. An interesting anecdote describes Faulkner after his most important achievement, the winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949, where he drank heavily in anticipation of his departure for Stockholm. His nephew brought him a drink and began to talk about his triumphs in a recent football game, which took place on the same day Faulkner was told he had to sail for the prize ceremony. Despite his inebriation, Faulkner put two and two together, realized that a family member had intentionally lied to him about the true date of his Nobel Prize reception in order to ensure his sobriety at the event, and then resumed drinking steadily until the actual date. It is said that his speech was not noted for its greatness until the next day when it appeared in writing, because Mr. Faulkner stood too far from the microphone, mumbled, and spoke with his usual deep Southern drawl, making it almost impossible for those in attendance to hear or understand him. Recordings of the Nobel Prize speech, which appear on the "Faulkner Reads" recording with sections from As I Lay Dying, The Old Man, and A Fable, were recorded in a studio after the actual event. In it he remarked, "I decline to accept the end of man... Man will not only endure, but prevail..." Both events were fully in character. Faulkner donated his Nobel winnings "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers," eventually resulting in the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

The text of the Nobel Prize speech is also available on the website of the Nobel Foundation , together with a partial audio recording. It is not specified whether this recording is live or if it was made in a studio after the event, but reverberation, echo and ambient noises, along with hesitations and mispronunciations, plus minor differences of style with the published text seem to indicate it is indeed live.

Faulkner served as Writer-In-Residence at the University of Virginia from 1957 until his death in 1962 of a heart attack.

In 2005, Faulkner climbed to the top of the best-seller lists when Oprah Winfrey selected As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, and Light in August for her book club. This selection probably meant that, during the summer of 2005, Faulkner had more readers (or at least people who bought his books) than he ever did during his lifetime.

Novels

• Soldiers' Pay (1926)
• Mosquitoes (1927)
• Sartoris (1929)
• The Sound and the Fury (1929)
• As I Lay Dying (1930)
• Sanctuary (1931)
• Light in August (1932)
• Pylon (1935)
• Absalom, Absalom! (1936)
• The Unvanquished (1938)
• The Wild Palms (1939)
• The Hamlet (1940)
• Go Down, Moses (1942)
• Intruder in the Dust (1948)
• Requiem for a Nun (1951)
• A Fable (1954)
• The Town (1957)
• The Mansion (1959)
• The Reivers (1962)
• Flags in the Dust (1973)

Short stories

• "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)

William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” reflects the customs and traditions in post-bellum Mississippi. The story is told by an anonymous narrator who lives in the town of Jefferson, observing Emily’s relationships with men in general, her father and her lover. The entire story is pervaded with a sense of foreboding. On the surface, Emily, the protagonist, is a lady who is a lonely and sad individual. Faulkner portrays Miss Emily as a dynamic character whose pride and loneliness cause her to murder her lover and pursue endless love.

Emily’s pride plays an important role in her personality shift. She is raised in a reputable family in the South with “the august names of that neighborhood,” and has a sense of high self respect. “Miss Emily, who had been idle most of her life, is looked upon as an idol by the people of Jefferson” (Davis 35). When her father dies, Emily does not tell anyone about her loss; her strong pride prevents her from accepting the townspeople’s condolences. Colonel Sartoris, a friend of her father, is also concerned because she has little money. He tells her that she does not have to pay taxes in Jefferson because Colonel Sartoris knows her pride would not let her receive his charity. In addition, her lofty pride sometimes causes her to become obstinate; indeed, she never makes concessions. When tax authorities come to her house to collect her taxes, she embarrasses them and runs them out of the house. Emily says to the authorities, “See Colonel Sartoris.” (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years). “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Tobe!” (703). Consequently, her pride leads her beyond her rights. For instance, when she goes to buy poison in the drug store, she refuses to follow the law. The ensuing paragraph exemplifies her pride: The druggist looked down at her. She looked back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag. “Why, of course,” the druggist said. “If that’s what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use [the poison] for.” Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up. The Negro delivery boy brought her the package; the druggist didn’t come back. (705) She just intimidates the druggist until the he gets the arsenic and sends the errand boy to give it to her. There is nothing that can temper her pride. Finally, Emily kills her lover by giving him the poison labeled “For rats.”

Obviously, Faulkner describes Emily’s feeling of loneliness and isolation throughout the story. She does not communicate with Jefferson’s townspeople because her family is “too high” for them. Emily is like the character “Richard Cory” in a poem written by Edwin Arlington Robinson as if “He was a gentleman from sole to crown…” (1180). Miss Emily and Richard Cory are too good to communicate with other people. The only visitors who come to Emily’s house are tax authorities or few neighbors who complain about the smell. As a result, the narrator indicates that “…she no longer [goes] out at all” (702). Another reason for Emily’s isolation and loneliness is, when she was younger, she was raised by a strict father who thought no suitor had been good enough for Emily and let her down by disapproving of all the men who courted her. In the summer after her father’s death, Emily thought that she had found someone, Homer Barron from the North, who could take care of her. Here, however, is a dilemma; Emily is a “monument” of Southern gentility while Homer is a day laborer and a Yankee! Even though Emily is faithful to him, they are not a good match because some neighbors believe that Emily has fallen in with a traveling working man, and she forgets “noblesse oblige.” Additionally, Homer pays more attention to being with men and gambling than Emily. He just takes advantage of her. The townspeople’s gossip about Miss Emily’s and Homer’s relationship plays a part in Emily’s decision to kill Homer. She not only has to save her pride with the public but also realizes that Homer could leave her. Killing Homer is the only way, in her mind, to keep him for good and to overcome her loneliness by any means.

Faulkner shows that the life of the protagonist undergoes difficulty because of her personality and circumstances. Even though Miss Emily has a high social position, she lives a tragic and sad life. Her lofty pride cannot accept being rejected by a day labor, so she kills him, and her loneliness makes her keep her dead lover’s body for love beyond space and time. 

Works Cited Davis, William. “Another Flower for Faulkner’s Bouquet: Theme and Structure in “A Rose for Emily”.” Mississippi Writers Fall 1974: 34-38. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature for Compostion. Seventh Edition. Ed. Silvan Barnet, William Burto, William E. Cain. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 702-712. Robinson, Edwin Arlington. “Richard Cory.” Literature for Compostion. Seventh Edition. Ed. Silvan Barnet, William Burto, William E. Cain. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 1180.

• "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)
• "The Unvanquished" (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)
• "Go Down, Moses" (1941)
• "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)
• "A Name for the City" (1950)
• "Notes on a Horsethief" (1951)
• "Mississippi" (1954)
• "Sepulture South: Gaslight" (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 Collections

• Vision in Spring (1921)
• The Marble Faun (1924)
• This Earth, a Poem (1932)
• A Green Bough (1965)
• Mississippi Poems (1979)
• Helen, a Courtship and Mississippi Poems (1981)

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