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William Faulkner
Awards:
Nobel Prize in Literature-1949 , Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction-1955, 1963. The 1963 Pulitzer Prize was awarded posthumously
for his novel The Reivers(1962)
and 1955 Prize was for his novel, A Fable(1954).
Born: 25/09/1897 in New Albany, Mississippi,
USA
Died: 06/07/1962 in Byhalia, Mississippi,
USA of heart attack.
Citizen: American
Language: English
Influence: James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Charles
Dickens, Herman Melville, Gustave Flaubert
William Cuthbert
Faulkner was born in a relatively prosperous family and his father was
a senator and a grain merchant. When William was barely five, the
family moved to Oxford and Faulkner lived there the rest of his life.
However, his works were heavily influenced by the surroundings and
culture of Mississippi.
Faulkner's mother and grand mother
were great readers and as a boy, Faulkner spent much time listening to
stories and story telling was a great pastime in the house hold. This
fired the young man's imagination. As a student, Faulkner was bright
but shy and with drawn. As teenager, he started writing poems and was
good at it. Novel writing came much later, at an age of 28.
During college days, Faulkner was heavily
influenced by Philip Stone who almost acted as his mentor. Philip
introduced Faulkner to James Joyce, the celebrated writer. His first
novel Flags in the Dust had a lukewarm response from the
publishers and this made Faulkner indifferent to publishers. Faulkner
was a private person, almost a recluse and had a lifelong drinking
problem though he never drank while writing.
Landmarks: Most of
Faulkner's works were published in 1920s and 1930s but he was not very
much known until he got the Nobel.
Faulkner is known to have had several extramarital
affairs. One was with Howard Hawks's secretary and script girl, Meta
Carpenter. Another, from 1949–53, was with a young writer, Joan
Williams, who made her relationship with Faulkner the subject of her
1971 novel, The Wintering.
When Faulkner visited Stockholm in December 1950 to receive the Nobel
Prize, he met Else Jonsson (1912–1996) and they had an affair that
lasted until the end of 1953. Else was the widow of journalist
Thorsten Jonsson (1910–1950), reporter for Dagens Nyheter in New York
1943–1946, who had interviewed Faulkner in 1946 and introduced his
works to Swedish readers. At the banquet in 1950 where they met,
publisher Tor Bonnier referred to Else as widow of the man responsible
for Faulkner being awarded the prize.
Notable Works:The
Sound and the Fury(1929), As I Lay
dying(1930), These 13
(1931) , Light in August(1932),Absalom,Absalom!(1936),
Snopes Trilogy-- The Hamlet(),
The Town(),The
Mansion(); The Marble Faun(1924),
A Green Bough(1933),
Knight's Gambit(1949)
Order William Faulkner's Books below
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