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{{Short description|American writer (1897–1962)}}
{{redirect|Faulkner||Faulkner (disambiguation)|and|William Faulkner (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2015}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = William Faulkner
| image            = Carl Van Vechten - William Faulkner (greyscale and cropped).jpg
| caption          = Faulkner in 1954
| birth_name       = William Cuthbert Falkner<!-- His birth name was spelled FALKNER, later, its spelling was changed to Faulkner. -->
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1897|09|25}}
| birth_place      = [[New Albany, Mississippi]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1962|07|06|1897|09|25}}
| death_place      = [[Byhalia, Mississippi]], U.S.
| education        = [[University of Mississippi]] {{awrap|(no degree)}}
| notable_works    = {{ubl|''[[The Sound and the Fury]]'' (1929)|''[[As I Lay Dying]]'' (1930)|''[[Sanctuary (Faulkner novel)|Sanctuary]]'' (1931)|''[[Light in August]]'' (1932)|''[[Absalom, Absalom!]]'' (1936)|''[[A Fable]]'' (1954)}}
| awards           = {{ubl|[[Nobel Prize in Literature]] (1949)|[[National Book Award]] {{awrap|(1951, 1955)}}|[[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]] {{awrap|(1955, 1963)}}}}
| spouse           = {{marriage|Estelle Oldham|June 1929}}
| signature        = Faulkner signature.png
| children         = 1
| relatives        = [[Marjorie Finlay]] (third cousin)<ref>''The Straits Times'', Singapore. November 21, 1968. "The Bartered Bride, with Marjorie in the Lead".</ref>
}}
'''William Cuthbert Faulkner''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|ɔː|k|n|ər}};<ref>{{cite web|title=Faulkner, William|url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/faulkner%2C_william|website=[[Lexico.com]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924225513/https://www.lexico.com/definition/faulkner%2C_william|archive-date=September 24, 2021|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite Merriam-Webster|Faulkner}}</ref> September 25, 1897&nbsp;– July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for [[William Faulkner bibliography|his novels and short stories]] set in the fictional [[Yoknapatawpha County]], [[Mississippi]], a stand-in for [[Lafayette County, Mississippi|Lafayette County]] where he spent most of his life. A [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel laureate]], Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers of [[American literature]], often considered the greatest writer of [[Southern United States literature|Southern literature]] and regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century.

Faulkner was born in [[New Albany, Mississippi]], and raised in [[Oxford, Mississippi]]. During [[World War I]], he joined the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]], but did not serve in combat. Returning to Oxford, he attended the [[University of Mississippi]] for three semesters before dropping out. He moved to [[New Orleans]], where he wrote his first novel ''[[Soldiers' Pay]]'' (1925). He went back to Oxford and wrote ''[[Sartoris]]'' (1927), his first work set in Yoknapatawpha County. In 1929, he published ''[[The Sound and the Fury]]''. The following year, he wrote ''[[As I Lay Dying]]''. Later that decade, he wrote ''[[Light in August]]''; ''[[Absalom, Absalom!]];'' and ''[[The Wild Palms]]''. He also worked as a screenwriter, contributing to [[Howard Hawks]]'s ''[[To Have and Have Not (film)|To Have and Have Not]]'' and [[The Big Sleep (1946 film)|''The Big Sleep'']], adapted from [[Raymond Chandler]]'s [[The Big Sleep|novel]]. The former film, adapted from [[Ernest Hemingway]]'s [[To Have and Have Not|novel]], is the only film with contributions by two Nobel laureates.<ref>[[#Phillips|Phillips (1980)]], p. 50.</ref>

Faulkner's reputation grew following publication of [[Malcolm Cowley]]'s ''The Portable Faulkner,'' and he was  awarded the [[1949 Nobel Prize in Literature]] for "his powerful and unique contribution to the modern American novel."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1949 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1949/summary/ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US |archive-date=June 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602015135/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1949/summary/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He is the only Mississippi-born Nobel laureate. Two of his works, ''[[A Fable]]'' (1954) and ''[[The Reivers]]'' (1962), won the [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]]. Faulkner died from a heart attack on July 6, 1962, following a fall from his horse the month before. [[Ralph Ellison]] called him "the greatest artist the South has produced".

==Life==
===Childhood and heritage===
[[File:William Clark Falkner.jpg|thumb|Faulkner was influenced by stories of [[William Clark Falkner]], his paternal great-grandfather and namesake.]]
Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, in [[New Albany, Mississippi]],<ref>[[#Minter|Minter (1980)]], p. 1.</ref> the first of four sons of Murry Cuthbert Falkner and Maud Butler.<ref name= "Ole Miss">[http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/faulkner_william/ MWP: William Faulkner (1897–1962)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151101145349/http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/faulkner_william/ |date= November 1, 2015 }}, OleMiss.edu; accessed September 26, 2017.</ref> His family was upper middle-class, but "not quite of [[Planter class|the old feudal cotton aristocracy]]".<ref name="obit">{{cite news |date=July 7, 1962 |title=Faulkner's Home, Family and Heritage Were Genesis of Yoknapatawpha County |work=The New York Times |url= https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0925.html |url-status= live |access-date=June 17, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201218054512/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0925.html |archive-date=December 18, 2020}}</ref> After Maud rejected Murry's plan to become a rancher in Texas,<ref>[[#Minter|Minter (1980)]], p. 7.</ref> the family moved to [[Oxford, Mississippi|Oxford]], Mississippi in 1902,<ref name="Minter 1980, p. 8">[[#Minter|Minter (1980)]], p. 8.</ref> where Faulkner's father established a livery stable and hardware store before becoming the [[University of Mississippi]]'s business manager.<ref>[[#O'Connor|O'Connor (1959)]], p. 4.</ref><ref name="Minter 1980, p. 8"/> Except for short periods elsewhere, Faulkner lived in Oxford for the rest of his life.<ref name="Ole Miss"/><ref name="Nobel Prize">{{Nobelprize}}</ref>

Faulkner spent his boyhood listening to stories told to him by his elders – stories that spanned the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], slavery, the [[Ku Klux Klan]], and the Faulkner family.<ref name="ReferenceA">Minter, David L. ''William Faulkner, His Life and Work''. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980; {{ISBN|0-8018-2347-1}}</ref> Young William was greatly influenced by the history of his family and the region in which he lived. Mississippi marked his sense of humor, his sense of the tragic position of "[[African Americans|black]] and [[White Americans|white]]" [[Americans]], his characterization of Southern characters, and his timeless themes, including fiercely intelligent people who are dwelling behind the façades of good ol' boys and simpletons.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2020-11-18 |title=William Faulkner's Demons |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/30/william-faulkners-demons |access-date=2023-03-03 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}</ref> He was particularly influenced by stories of his great-grandfather [[William Clark Falkner]], who had become a near legendary figure in North Mississippi. Born into poverty, the elder Falkner was a strict disciplinarian and was a Confederate colonel. Tried and acquitted twice on charges of murder, he became a member of the [[Mississippi House of Representatives|Mississippi House]] and became a part-owner of a railroad before being murdered by a co-owner. Faulkner incorporated many aspects of his great-grandfather's biography into his later works.<ref>[[#O'Connor|O'Connor (1959)]], pp. 4–5.</ref>
<!--His family, particularly his mother Maud, his maternal grandmother Lelia Butler, and Caroline "Callie" Barr (the African American nanny who raised him from infancy) influenced the development of Faulkner's artistic imagination. Both his mother and his grandmother were avid readers as well as painters and photographers, educating him in visual language. While Murry enjoyed the outdoors and encouraged his sons to hunt, track, and fish, Maud valued education and took pleasure in reading and going to church. She taught her sons to read before she sent them to public school and she also exposed them to literary classics such as the works of [[Charles Dickens]] and the [[Grimms' Fairy Tales]].<ref name="ReferenceA">Minter, David L. ''William Faulkner, His Life and Work''. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980; {{ISBN|0-8018-2347-1}}</ref>-->

Faulkner initially excelled in school and skipped the second grade. However, beginning somewhere in the fourth and fifth grades, he became a quieter and more withdrawn child. He occasionally played truant and became indifferent about schoolwork. Instead, he took an interest in studying the [[history of Mississippi]]. The decline of his performance in school continued, and Faulkner wound up repeating the eleventh and twelfth grades, never graduating from high school.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> As a teenager in Oxford, Faulkner dated Estelle Oldham (1897–1972), the popular daughter of Major Lemuel and Lida Oldham, and he also believed he would marry her.<ref>[[#Parini|Parini (2004)]], pp. 22–29.</ref> However, Estelle dated other boys during their romance, and, in 1918, [[Cornell Franklin]] (five years Faulkner's senior) proposed marriage to her before Faulkner did. She accepted.<ref name="Parini 2004 pp. 36">[[#Parini|Parini (2004)]], pp. 36–37.</ref>{{efn|group=note|He proposed marriage to her before Faulkner did. Her parents insisted she marry Franklin for various reasons: he was an Ole Miss law graduate, had recently been commissioned as a major in the [[Hawaii Army National Guard]], and came from a respectable family with whom they were old friends.<ref name="Parini 2004 pp. 36"/>}}

===Trip to the North and early writings===

When he was 17, Faulkner met [[Phil Stone]], who became an important early influence on his writing. Stone was four years his senior and came from one of Oxford's older families; he was passionate about literature and had bachelor's degrees from [[Yale University|Yale]] and the University of Mississippi. Stone read and was impressed by some of Faulkner's early poetry, becoming one of the first to recognize and encourage Faulkner's talent. Stone mentored the young Faulkner, introducing him to the works of writers like [[James Joyce]], who influenced Faulkner's own writing. In his early 20s, Faulkner gave poems and short stories he had written to Stone in hopes of their being published. Stone sent these to publishers, but they were uniformly rejected.<ref name="Coughlan, Robert 1953"/> In spring 1918, Faulkner traveled to live with Stone at Yale, his first trip to the North.<ref>[[#Zeitlin|Zeitlin (2016)]], p. 15.</ref> Through Stone, Faulkner met writers like [[Sherwood Anderson]], [[Robert Frost]], and [[Ezra Pound]].<ref name="connor5">[[#O'Connor|O'Connor (1959)]], p. 5.</ref>

During the [[First World War]], Faulkner attempted to join the US Army. There are accounts of this that indicate he was rejected for being under weight and his short stature of 5'5".<ref name="connor5"/> Other accounts purport to prove that the aforementioned accounts are false.<ref>[[#Zeitlin|Zeitlin (2016)]], pp. 17–18.</ref> Although he initially planned to join the [[British Army]] in hopes of being commissioned as an officer,<ref>[[#Zeitlin|Zeitlin (2016)]], pp. 15–17.</ref> Faulkner instead joined the [[Royal Flying Corps (Canada)|Royal Air Force (Canada)]] with a forged letter of reference and left Yale to receive training in [[Toronto]].<ref>[[#Zeitlin|Zeitlin (2016)]], pp. 17, 20.</ref>  He enlisted in Toronto on July 10, 1918, as a Private (II Class), No.173799, in the [[Royal Flying Corps (Canada)|RAF (C)]]<ref>{{cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |date= 1919|title=Attestation Form: William Faulkner |url=https://www.fold3.com/image/614970413/1567-page-260-uk-royal-air-force-airmens-service-records-1918-1940 |website= Fold3.com|location=National Archives |publisher=War Office |access-date=23 March 2025}}</ref> but never saw active service overseas during the First World War, only training at the recruit depot in Toronto.<ref>{{cite book|title=William Faulkner: Self-Presentation and Performance|last=Watson|first=James G.|year=2002|publisher=University of Texas Press|location=Austin|isbn=978-0-292-79151-0}}</ref> 
[[File:William Faulkner in Toronto, Canada (1918).jpg|thumb|alt=Faulkner is pictured in a military uniform and cap, leaning on a cane. A caption reads "Royal Flying Corps".|Faulkner as a cadet in the Canadian RAF, 1918]]
On January 4, 1919, he was discharged as a Private (II Class) due to the end of the War, having served 179 days.<ref>{{cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |date= 1919|title=Attestation Form: William Faulkner |url=https://www.fold3.com/image/614970413/1567-page-260-uk-royal-air-force-airmens-service-records-1918-1940 |website= Fold3.com|location=National Archives |publisher=War Office |access-date=23 March 2025}}</ref> Despite claiming so in his letters, Faulkner did not receive cockpit training or ever fly.<ref>[[#Zeitlin|Zeitlin (2016)]], pp. 24–25.</ref> Returning to Oxford in December 1918, Faulkner told acquaintances false war-stories and even faked a war wound.<ref>[[#Zeitlin|Zeitlin (2016)]], pp. 26–27.</ref>

In 1918, Faulkner's surname changed from "Falkner" to "Faulkner". According to one story, a careless typesetter made an error. When the misprint appeared on the title page of his first book, Faulkner was asked whether he wanted the change. He supposedly replied, "Either way suits me."<ref>Nelson, Randy F. ''The Almanac of American Letters'' Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: pp. 63–64. {{ISBN|0-86576-008-X}}</ref> His 1918 Attestation Papers for the RAF (C) note his name as "Faulkner". In adolescence, Faulkner began writing poetry almost exclusively. He did not write his first novel until 1925. His literary influences are deep and wide. He once stated that he modeled his early writing on the [[Romanticism|Romantic era]] in late 18th- and early 19th-century England.<ref name="Ole Miss"/>

He attended the University of Mississippi, enrolling in 1919, studying for three semesters before dropping out in November 1920.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/faulkner_william|title=University of Mississippi: William Faulkner|publisher=Olemiss.edu|access-date=September 27, 2010|archive-date=September 22, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100922051232/http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/faulkner_william/|url-status=live}}</ref> Faulkner joined the [[Sigma Alpha Epsilon]] fraternity, and pursued his dream to become a writer.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Messenger |first1=Christian K. |title=Sport and the Spirit of Play in American Fiction: Hawthorne to Faulkner |date=1983 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-51661-7 |page=219 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-2XOVxoWpiQC&pg=PA219 |language=en |access-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302103604/https://books.google.com/books?id=-2XOVxoWpiQC&pg=PA219 |url-status=live }}</ref> He skipped classes often and received a "D" grade in English. However, some of his poems were published in campus publications.<ref name="Coughlan, Robert 1953">Coughlan, Robert. ''The Private World of William Faulkner'', New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953 {{isbn|0-8154-0424-7}}</ref><ref name="Porter, Carolyn 2007">Porter, Carolyn. [https://books.google.com/books?id=awt9X0cAC40C ''William Faulkner''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202104652/https://books.google.com/books?id=awt9X0cAC40C&printsec=frontcover |date=December 2, 2020 }}, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007; {{ISBN|0-19-531049-7}}</ref> In 1922, his poem "Portrait" was published in the New Orleans literary magazine ''Double Dealer''. The magazine published his "New Orleans" short story collection three years later.<ref>[[#Koch|Koch (2007)]], p. 57.</ref> After dropping out, he took a series of odd jobs: at a New York City bookstore, as a carpenter in Oxford, and as the Ole Miss postmaster. He resigned from the post office with the declaration: "I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp."<ref>[[#O'Connor|O'Connor (1959)]], p. 6.</ref>

===New Orleans and early novels===
{{multiple image
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[[File:FQFauknerPirates.jpg|thumb|upright|left|During part of his time in New Orleans, Faulkner lived in a house in the [[French Quarter]] (pictured center yellow).]]

While most writers of Faulkner's [[Lost Generation|generation]] traveled to and lived in Europe, Faulkner remained writing in the United States.<ref name="Pikoulis 1982">[[#Pikoulis|Pikoulis (1982)]], p. ix.</ref> Faulkner spent the first half of 1925 in [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], where many [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] artists and writers lived, specifically in the [[French Quarter]] where Faulkner lived beginning in March.<ref>[[#Koch|Koch (2007)]], pp. 55–56.</ref> During his time in New Orleans, Faulkner's focus drifted from poetry to prose and his literary style made a marked transition from [[Victorian literature|Victorian]] to [[Literary modernism|modernist]].<ref>[[#Koch|Koch (2007)]], pp. 56, 58.</ref> ''[[The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate|The Times-Picayune]]'' published several of his short works of prose.<ref>[[#Koch|Koch (2007)]], p. 58.</ref>

After being directly influenced by [[Sherwood Anderson]], Faulkner wrote his first novel, ''[[Soldiers' Pay]],''<ref name="Ole Miss" /> in New Orleans. ''Soldiers' Pay'' and his other early works were written in a style similar to contemporaries [[Ernest Hemingway]] and [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], at times nearly exactly appropriating phrases.<ref>[[William Faulkner#CITEREFMcKay2009|McKay (2009)]], pp. 119–121.</ref> Anderson assisted in the publication of ''Soldiers' Pay'' and ''[[Mosquitoes (novel)|Mosquitoes]]'' by recommending them to his publisher.<ref name="Faulkner 2004">Hannon, Charles. "Faulkner, William". ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature''. Jay Parini (2004), Oxford University Press, Inc. The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature: (e-reference edition). Oxford University Press {{doi|10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.484}}</ref>

The miniature house at 624 Pirate's Alley, just around the corner from [[St. Louis Cathedral (New Orleans)|St. Louis Cathedral]] in New Orleans, is now the site of Faulkner House Books, where it also serves as the headquarters of the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wordsandmusic.org|title=Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Featuring Words & Music|publisher=Wordsandmusic.org|access-date=2012-08-13|archive-date=June 28, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120628224641/http://www.wordsandmusic.org/|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the summer of 1927, Faulkner wrote his first novel set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, ''[[Flags in the Dust]]''. This novel drew heavily from the traditions and history of the South, in which Faulkner had been engrossed in his youth. He was extremely proud of the novel upon its completion and he believed it a significant step up from his previous two novels—however, when submitted for publication to [[Boni & Liveright]], it was rejected. Faulkner was devastated by this rejection but he eventually allowed his literary agent, Ben Wasson, to edit the text, and the novel was published in 1929 as ''[[Sartoris]].''<ref name="Porter, Carolyn 2007" /><ref name="Faulkner 2004" />{{efn|group=note|The original version was issued as ''[[Flags in the Dust]]'' in 1973.}} The work was notable in that it was his first novel that dealt with the Civil War rather than the contemporary emphasis on World War I and its legacy.<ref>[[#CITEREFMcKay2009|McKay (2009)]], p. 119.</ref> Eventually Faulkner's daughter, Jill, would approach University of Virginia professor [[Douglas Day]] about restoring the text. Almost a fourth of the original manuscript had been cut by Wasson to meet the demands of publishers Harcourt, Brace in 1929. Working from a surviving typescript, Day reinstated cut passages but also included at least one added section from the published text. This new edition, published in 1973, also restored Faulkner's original title, ''Flags in the Dust.'' A third version by Noel Polk has since replaced Day's and is considered the definitive text by Random House, the current publishers of Faulkner's fiction.<ref>{{cite web |editor-last1=Padgett |editor-first1=John |editor-last2=Railton |editor-first2=Stephen  |date=2012 |title=Flags in The Dust |url=https://faulkner.drupal.shanti.virginia.edu/content/flags-dust |website=The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project |location=Charlottesville VA |publisher=The University of Virginia |access-date=23 Feb 2025}}</ref>

===''The Sound and the Fury''===
[[File:The Sound and the Fury (1929 1st ed dust jacket).jpg|thumb|upright|''[[The Sound and the Fury]]'' (1929)]]
In autumn 1928, just after his 31st birthday, Faulkner began working on ''[[The Sound and the Fury]]''. He started by writing three short stories about a group of children with the last name Compson, but soon began to feel that the characters he had created might be better suited for a full-length novel. Perhaps as a result of disappointment in the initial rejection of ''Flags in the Dust'', Faulkner had now become indifferent to his publishers and wrote this novel in a much more experimental style. In describing the writing process for this work, Faulkner later said, "One day I seemed to shut the door between me and all publisher's addresses and book lists. I said to myself, 'Now I can write.'"<ref>Porter, Carolyn. [https://books.google.com/books?id=awt9X0cAC40C ''William Faulkner''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202104652/https://books.google.com/books?id=awt9X0cAC40C&printsec=frontcover |date=December 2, 2020 }}, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007; {{ISBN|0-19-531049-7}}, p. 37</ref> After its completion, Faulkner insisted that Wasson not do any editing or add any punctuation for clarity.<ref name="Porter, Carolyn 2007"/>

=== 1929{{ndash}}1931 ===<!--Two months later, Faulkner and Estelle wed in June 1929 at [[College Hill Presbyterian Church]] just outside [[Oxford, Mississippi]].<ref>Parini (2004) p. 139.</ref> They honeymooned on the Mississippi Gulf Coast at [[Pascagoula, Mississippi|Pascagoula]], then returned to Oxford, first living with relatives while they searched for a home of their own to purchase. In 1930, Faulkner purchased the [[antebellum architecture|antebellum]] home [[Rowan Oak]], known at that time as The Shegog Place from Irish planter Robert Shegog.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peek|first=Charles A.|title=A William Faulkner encyclopedia|year=1999|publisher=Greenwood|isbn=0-313-29851-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/williamfaulknere0000unse_z3k0/page/335 335]|url=https://archive.org/details/williamfaulknere0000unse_z3k0/page/335}}</ref>-->
In 1929, Faulkner married Estelle Oldham, with Andrew Kuhn serving as best man at the wedding. Estelle brought with her two children from her previous marriage to [[Cornell Franklin]] and Faulkner hoped to support his new family as a writer. Faulkner and Estelle had one child together, daughter Jill (1933—2008). He began writing ''[[As I Lay Dying]]'' in 1929 while working night shifts at the [[University of Mississippi Power House]]. The novel was published in 1930.<ref name="1parini">[[#Parini|Parini (2004)]], p. 142.</ref>

Beginning in 1930, Faulkner sent some of his short stories to various national magazines. Several of these were published and brought him enough income to buy a house in Oxford for his family, which he named [[Rowan Oak]].<ref name="Williamson, Joel 1993">Williamson, Joel. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0nZ93-IKIeoC ''William Faulkner and Southern History''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305200848/https://books.google.com/books?id=0nZ93-IKIeoC&printsec=frontcover |date= 2017 }}, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993; {{ISBN|0-19-510129-4}}.</ref> Fueled by a desire to make money, Faulkner wrote ''[[Sanctuary (Faulkner novel)|Sanctuary]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1981-03-08 |title='The Most Horrific Tale I Could Imagine' |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1981/03/08/the-most-horrific-tale-i-could-imagine/e74c2afe-50a8-4800-ae42-9f87015c2f17/ |access-date=2023-03-03}}</ref> With limited royalties from his work, he published short stories in magazines such as ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' to supplement his income.<ref name="Bartunek 2017 p. 98">[[#Bartunek|Bartunek (2017)]], p. 98.</ref>

===''Light in August'' and Hollywood years===
[[File:Light in August (1932 dust jacket cover).jpg|thumb|upright|left|''[[Light in August]]'' (1932)]]
By 1932, Faulkner was in need of money. He asked Wasson to sell the serialization rights for his newly completed novel, ''Light in August'', to a magazine for $5,000, but none accepted the offer. Then [[MGM Studios]] offered Faulkner work as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Faulkner was not an avid moviegoer and had reservations about working in the movie industry. As André Bleikasten comments, he "was in dire need of money and had no idea how to get it...So he went to Hollywood."<ref name="Bleikasten 2017 218">[[#Bleikasten|Bleikasten (2017)]], p. 218.</ref> It has been noted that authors like Faulkner were not always hired for their writing prowess but "to enhance the prestige of the ...writers who hired them."<ref name="Bleikasten 2017 218"/> He arrived in [[Culver City, California]], in May 1932. The job began a sporadic relationship with moviemaking and with California, which was difficult but he endured in order to earn "a consistent salary that supported his family back home."<ref name="Solomon 2017 1">{{cite book |last=Solomon |first=Stefan |date=2017 |title=William Faulkner in Hollywood: Screenwriting for the Studios |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eyIuDwAAQBAJ |location=Athens |publisher=University of Georgia |page=1 |isbn=9780820351148 |access-date=May 29, 2020 |archive-date=May 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529180140/https://books.google.com/books?id=eyIuDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Initially, he declared a desire to work on [[Mickey Mouse (film series)|Mickey Mouse cartoons]], not realizing that they were produced by [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Walt Disney Productions]] and not MGM.<ref>{{cite news|date=May 7, 2002|title=Literary Daybook, May 7|url=https://www.salon.com/2002/05/07/may07/|work=Salon|access-date=June 4, 2022|archive-date=June 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220604204626/https://www.salon.com/2002/05/07/may07/|url-status=live}}</ref> His first screenplay was for ''[[Today We Live]]'', an adaptation of his short story "Turnabout", which received a mixed response. He then wrote a screen adaptation of ''Sartoris'' that was never produced.<ref name="Bartunek 2017 p. 98"/> From 1932 to 1954, Faulkner worked on around 50 films.<ref>[[#Bartunek|Bartunek (2017)]], p. 100.</ref> In early 1944, Faulkner wrote a screenplay adaptation of [[Ernest Hemingway]]'s novel ''[[To Have and Have Not]]''.<ref>[[#Minter|Minter (1980)]], p. 201.</ref> The [[To Have and Have Not (film)|film]] was the first starring [[Lauren Bacall]] and [[Humphrey Bogart]]. Bogart and Bacall would star in Hawks's ''[[The Big Sleep (1946 film)|The Big Sleep]]'', another film Faulkner worked on.<ref>{{cite news|last=Crowther|first=Bosley|date=June 4, 2022|title=' To Have and Have Not,' With Humphrey Bogart, at the Hollywood – Arrival of Other New Films at Theatres Here|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/10/12/archives/to-have-and-have-not-with-humphrey-bogart-at-the-hollywood-arrival.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=June 4, 2022|archive-date=June 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220604225104/https://www.nytimes.com/1944/10/12/archives/to-have-and-have-not-with-humphrey-bogart-at-the-hollywood-arrival.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Faulkner was highly critical of what he found in Hollywood, and he wrote letters that were "scathing in tone, painting a miserable portrait of a literary artist [[Babylonian captivity|imprisoned in a cultural Babylon]]."<ref>{{cite book |last=Solomon |first=Stefan |date=2017 |title=William Faulkner in Hollywood: Screenwriting for the Studios |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eyIuDwAAQBAJ |location=Athens |publisher=University of Georgia |page=1 |isbn=9780820351148 |access-date=May 29, 2020 |archive-date=May 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529180152/https://books.google.com/books?id=eyIuDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Many scholars have brought attention to the dilemma he experienced and the predicament that caused him serious unhappiness.<ref>[[#Bleikasten|Bleikasten (2017)]], pp. 215–220.</ref><ref name="Solomon 2017 1"/><ref name="Lights! camera! author! authorship as Hollywood performance.">{{Cite journal | author= Leitch, Thomas | title= Lights! camera! author! authorship as Hollywood performance | journal= Journal of Screenwriting | volume=7 | year=2016 | issue= 1 | pages=113–127 | doi= 10.1386/josc.7.1.113_1 }}</ref> In Hollywood he worked with director [[Howard Hawks]], with whom he quickly developed a friendship, as they both enjoyed drinking and hunting. Howard Hawks' brother, [[William Hawks]], became Faulkner's [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] agent. Faulkner continued to find reliable work as a screenwriter from the 1930s to the 1950s.<ref name="Faulkner 2004"/><ref name="Williamson, Joel 1993"/> While staying in Hollywood, Faulkner adopted a "vagrant" lifestyle, living in brief stints in hotels like the [[Garden of Allah Hotel]] and frequenting the bar at the [[The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel|Roosevelt Hotel]] and the [[Musso & Frank Grill]] where he was said to have regularly gone behind the bar to mix his own Mint Juleps.<ref>{{cite news|last=Spano|first=Susan|date=September 16, 2011|title=William Faulkner's Hollywood|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/william-faulkners-hollywood-84560082/|work=Smithsonian Magazine|access-date=June 4, 2022|archive-date=June 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220604212909/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/william-faulkners-hollywood-84560082/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-04-10 |title=The Fascinating History of the Mint Julep |url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/drinks/news/a6026/history-of-the-mint-julep/ |access-date=2022-10-14 |website=Town & Country |language=en-us |archive-date=October 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014115736/https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/drinks/news/a6026/history-of-the-mint-julep/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He had an extramarital affair with Hawks' secretary and [[script supervisor|script girl]], Meta Carpenter.<ref>[[#Parini|Parini (2004)]], pp. 198–199.</ref>

With the onset of World War II, in 1942, Faulkner tried to join the [[United States Air Force]] but was rejected. He instead worked on local [[United States civil defense|civil defense]].<ref name="Capps 1966, p. 3">[[#Capps|Capps (1966)]], p. 3.</ref> The war drained Faulkner of his enthusiasm. He described the war as "bad for writing".<ref>[[#Minter|Minter (1980)]], pp. 198–200.</ref> Amid this [[Writer's block|creative slowdown]], in 1943, Faulkner began work on a new novel that merged World War I's [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier#History|Unknown Soldier]] with the [[Passion of Jesus|Passion of Christ]]. Published over a decade later as ''[[A Fable]]'', it won the 1954 Pulitzer Prize.<ref>[[#Minter|Minter (1980)]], p. 198.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/219|title=Fiction|website=The Pulitzer Prizes|publisher=Columbia University|access-date=June 4, 2022|archive-date=April 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402201626/https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/219|url-status=live}}</ref> The award for ''A Fable'' was a controversial political choice.  The jury had selected [[Milton Lott]]'s ''[[The Last Hunt (novel)|The Last Hunt]]'' for the prize, but Pulitzer Prize Administrator Professor John Hohenberg convinced the Pulitzer board that Faulkner was long overdue for the award, despite ''A Fable'' being a lesser work of his, and the board overrode the jury's selection, much to the disgust of its members.<ref>Hohenberg, John.  ''John Hohenberg:  The Pursuit of Excellence'', University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 1995, pp. 162–163</ref>

By the time of ''The Portable Faulkner''{{'}}s publication, most of his novels had been out of print.<ref name="Pikoulis 1982"/>

===Nobel Prize and later years===
[[File:William Faulkner 1954 (2) (photo by Carl van Vechten).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Faulkner is pictured in a chair before a brick well. He looks to the left.|Faulkner in 1954]]
Faulkner was awarded the [[1949 Nobel Prize in Literature]] for "his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel".<!-- Nobel Prize was for 1949, but not actually awarded until 1950, due to discussions in the Swedish Academy carried over to 1950 --><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1949/summary/|title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1949|work=Nobelprize.org|access-date=July 25, 2009|archive-date=June 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602015135/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1949/summary/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was awarded at the following year's banquet along with the 1950 Prize to [[Bertrand Russell]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/award-docu.html|title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1949: Documentary|work=Nobelprize.org|access-date=July 25, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090831134036/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/award-docu.html|archive-date=August 31, 2009|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

When Faulkner visited Stockholm in December 1950 to receive the Nobel Prize, he met Else Jonsson (1912–1996), who was the widow of journalist [[Thorsten Jonsson]] (1910–1950). Jonsson, a reporter for ''[[Dagens Nyheter]]'' from 1943 to 1946, had interviewed Faulkner in 1946 and introduced his works to Swedish readers. Faulkner and Else had an affair that lasted until the end of 1953. At the banquet where they met in 1950, publisher Tor Bonnier introduced Else as the widow of the man responsible for Faulkner winning the Nobel Prize.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/bocker/en-karlekshistoria-i-nobelprisklass/|language=sv|place=Sweden|title=En kärlekshistoria i Nobelprisklass|newspaper=[[Dagens Nyheter]]|date=January 9, 2010|access-date=April 22, 2010|archive-date=April 10, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100410031413/http://www.dn.se/dnbok/en-karlekshistoria-i-nobelprisklass-1.1023972|url-status=live}}</ref>

Faulkner's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech on the immortality of the artists, although brief, contained a number of allusions and references to other literary works.<ref>[[#Rife|Rife (1983)]], pp. 151–152.</ref> However, Faulkner detested the fame and glory that resulted from his recognition. His aversion was so great that his 17-year-old daughter learned of the Nobel Prize only when she was called to the principal's office during the school day.<ref>Gordon, Debra. "Faulkner, William". In Bloom, Harold (ed.) ''William Faulkner, Bloom's BioCritiques''. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002 {{ISBN|0-7910-6378-X}}</ref> He began by saying: "I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work – a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1949 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1949/faulkner/speech/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref> He donated part of his Nobel money "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers", eventually resulting in the [[William Faulkner Foundation]] (1960–1970).

Controversially, he is noted to have once stated: "Television is for [[Nigger|niggers]]". On the subject, it was noted that "for many white southerners nothing changed with the end of slavery except slavery."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Powers |first=Thomas |date=2017-04-20 |title=The Big Thing on His Mind |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/04/20/william-faulkner-big-thing-on-his-mind/ |access-date=2025-05-09 |work=The New York Review of Books |language=en |volume=64 |issue=7 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref>
[[File:Faulkner_headstone.jpg|thumb|Faulkner's headstone located in St. Peter's Cemetery in Oxford, Mississippi, USA]]
In 1951, Faulkner received the [[Legion of Honour|Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur]] medal from the government of [[France]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.today.com/news/william-faulkner-archival-material-be-sold-auction-wbna51366358|title=William Faulkner archival material to be sold at auction|website=Today.com|date=March 28, 2013 }}</ref>

Faulkner served as the first Writer-in-Residence at the [[University of Virginia]] at [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]] from February to June 1957 and again in 1958.<ref name="wapo">{{cite news|last=Ringle|first=Ken|date=September 25, 1997|title=Faulkner, Between the Lines|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/09/25/faulkner-between-the-lines/45fd0eeb-da79-422d-a976-997437f995e0/|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=June 18, 2021|archive-date=June 8, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220608162047/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/09/25/faulkner-between-the-lines/45fd0eeb-da79-422d-a976-997437f995e0/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Blotner, J. and Frederick L. Gwynn, (eds.) (1959) ''Faulkner in the University: Conferences at the University of Virginia, 1957–1958'' {{OCLC|557743504}}</ref>

In 1961, Faulkner began writing his nineteenth and final novel, ''[[The Reivers]]''. The novel is a nostalgic reminiscence, in which an elderly grandfather relates a humorous episode in which he and two boys stole a car to drive to a [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] bordello. In summer 1961, he finished the first draft.<ref>[[#Minter|Minter (1980)]], pp. 246−247.</ref> During this time, he injured himself in a series of falls.<ref>[[#Minter|Minter (1980)]], pp. 247−248.</ref>

On June 17, 1962, Faulkner suffered a serious injury in a fall from his horse, which led to [[thrombosis]]. He suffered a fatal heart attack on July 6, 1962, at the age of 64, at Wright's Sanatorium in [[Byhalia, Mississippi]].<ref name="Ole Miss"/><ref name="Nobel Prize"/> Faulkner is buried with his family in St. Peter's Cemetery in Oxford.<ref name="Grave Site">{{cite web|author=Jennifer Ciotta|url=http://www.literarytraveler.com/travel/travel_tour_profiles/tour_oxford_mississippi.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721091708/http://www.literarytraveler.com/travel/travel_tour_profiles/tour_oxford_mississippi.aspx|archive-date=July 21, 2011|title=Touring William Faulkner's Oxford, Mississippi|publisher=Literarytraveler.com|access-date=September 27, 2010}}</ref>

==Writing==
[[File:TheFaulknerPortable.jpg|thumb|One of Faulkner's typewriters]]
From the early 1920s to the outbreak of World War II, Faulkner published 13 novels and many short stories. This body of work formed the basis of his reputation and earned him the Nobel Prize at age 52. Faulkner's prodigious output include celebrated novels such as ''[[The Sound and the Fury]]'' (1929), ''[[As I Lay Dying]]'' (1930), ''[[Light in August]]'' (1932), and ''[[Absalom, Absalom!]]'' (1936). He was also a prolific writer of [[short story|short stories]].

Faulkner's first short story collection, ''[[These 13]]'' (1931), includes many of his most acclaimed (and most frequently [[anthology|anthologized]]) stories, including "[[A Rose for Emily]]", "[[Red Leaves]]", "[[That Evening Sun]]", and "[[Dry September]]". He set many of his short stories and novels in [[Yoknapatawpha County]]—which was based on and nearly geographically identical to Lafayette County (of which his hometown of [[Oxford, Mississippi]], is the county seat). Yoknapatawpha was Faulkner's "postage stamp", and the bulk of work that it represents is widely considered by critics to amount to one of the most monumental fictional creations in the history of literature. Three of his novels, ''[[The Hamlet]]'', ''[[The Town (Faulkner novel)|The Town]]'' and ''[[The Mansion (novel)|The Mansion]]'', known collectively as the [[Snopes trilogy]], document the town of Jefferson and its environs, as an extended family headed by Flem Snopes insinuates itself into the lives and psyches of the general populace.<ref>Charlotte Renner, "Talking and Writing in Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy", ''The Southern Literary Journal'', Vol. 15, No. 1, Fall 1982.</ref> Yoknapatawpha County has been described as a mental landscape.<ref>[[#Pikoulis|Pikoulis (1982)]], p. 2.</ref>

His short story "[[A Rose for Emily]]" was his first story published in a major magazine, the ''Forum'', but received little attention from the public. After revisions and reissues, it gained popularity and is now considered one of his best.

Faulkner wrote two volumes of poetry which were published in small printings, ''The Marble Faun'' (1924), and ''A Green Bough'' (1933), and a collection of mystery stories, ''[[Knight's Gambit]]'' (1949).

===Style and technique===
{{quote box | width = 25em |align = right
| quote = The peacefullest words. Peacefullest words. ''Non fui. Sum. Fui. Non sum.'' Somewhere I heard bells once. Mississippi or Massachusetts. I was. I am not. Massachusetts or Mississippi. Shreve has a bottle in his trunk. ''Aren't you even going to open it'' Mr and Mrs Jason Richmond Compson announce the ''Three times. Days. Aren't you even going to open it'' marriage of their daughter Candace ''that liquor teaches you to confuse the means with the end'' I am. Drink. I was not. Let us sell Benjy's pasture so that Quentin may go to Harvard and I may knock my bones together and together. I will be dead in. Was it one year Caddy said.
| source = — An example of Faulkner's prose in ''[[The Sound and the Fury]]'' (1929)
| style = padding:1.5em
| fontsize=85%
}}

Carl Rollyson has argued that, "as an artist," Faulkner believed "he should be above worldly concerns and even morality."<ref>{{cite book |last=Rollyson |first=Carl |author-link= |date=2020 |title=The Life of William Faulkner |url= |location= |publisher=University of Virginia |page= |isbn=978-0813944401}}</ref> Faulkner was known for his experimental style with meticulous attention to [[diction]] and [[Cadence (poetry)|cadence]]. In contrast to the [[Minimalism|minimalist]] understatement of his contemporary [[Ernest Hemingway]], Faulkner made frequent use of [[Stream of consciousness (narrative mode)|stream of consciousness]] in his writing, and wrote often highly emotional, subtle, cerebral, complex, and sometimes [[Southern Gothic|Gothic]] or [[Grotesque#In literature|grotesque]] stories of a wide variety of characters including former slaves or descendants of slaves, poor white, agrarian, or working-class Southerners, and Southern aristocrats.

Faulkner's contemporary critical reception was mixed, with ''[[The New York Times]]'' noting that many critics regarded his work as "raw slabs of pseudorealism that had relatively little merit as serious writing".<ref name="obit" /> His style has been described as "impenetrably convoluted".<ref name="Pikoulis 1982" />

In an interview with ''[[The Paris Review]]'' in 1956, Faulkner remarked: <blockquote>Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him.</blockquote> In that same interview, [[Jean Stein]] says "Some people say they can't understand your writing, even after they read it two or three times. What approach would you suggest for them?" Faulkner replies: "Read it four times."

When asked about his influences, Faulkner says "the books I read are the ones I knew and loved when I was a young man and to which I return as you do to old friends: the [[Old Testament]], [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]], [[Joseph Conrad|Conrad]], [[Miguel de Cervantes|Cervantes]], ''[[Don Quixote]]—''I read that every year, as some do the Bible. [[Gustave Flaubert|Flaubert]], [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]]—he created an intact world of his own, a bloodstream running through twenty books—[[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoyevsky]], [[Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy]], [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]. I read [[Herman Melville|Melville]] occasionally and, of the poets, [[Christopher Marlowe|Marlowe]], [[Thomas Campion|Campion]], [[Ben Jonson|Jonson]], [[Robert Herrick (poet)|Herrick]], [[John Donne|Donne]], [[John Keats|Keats]], and [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]]."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stein |first=Jean |date=1956 |title=The Art of Fiction No. 12 |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4954/the-art-of-fiction-no-12-william-faulkner |journal=[[Paris Review]] |volume=Spring 1956 |issue=12}}</ref>

Like his contemporaries [[James Joyce]] and [[T. S. Eliot]], Faulkner uses stories and themes from classic literature in a modern context. Joyce, in ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'', modeled the journey of his hero [[Leopold Bloom]] on the adventures of [[Odysseus]]. Eliot, in his essay "Ulysses, Order and Myth",  wrote that "In using the myth, in manipulating a continuous parallel between contemporaneity and antiquity, Mr. Joyce is pursuing a method which others must pursue after him. They will not be imitators, any more than the scientist who uses the discoveries of an [[Einstein]] in pursuing his own, independent, further investigations. It is simply a way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history."<ref>{{Cite web |title=T. S. Eliot, 'Ulysses, Order, and Myth"' in The Dial (Nov 1923). |url=http://www.ricorso.net/rx/library/criticism/major/Joyce_JA/Eliot_TS.htm |access-date=2023-03-27 |website=www.ricorso.net}}</ref> Faulkner's allusions to earlier authors are evidenced by his titles; the title of ''[[The Sound and the Fury]]'' comes from [[Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow|Macbeth's soliloquy]]: "it is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing." The opening of the novel is told from the perspective of the intellectually disabled Benjy Compson. The title of ''[[As I Lay Dying]]'' comes from [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'', where it is spoken by [[Agamemnon]] in the past tense: "As I lay dying, the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades." Faulkner's novel, in contrast, is narrated in the present tense.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brooks |first=Cleanth |title=William Faulkner: The Yoknapatawpha Country}}</ref> The title of ''[[Go Down, Moses (book)|Go Down, Moses]]'' is from an [[Go Down Moses|African American spiritual]], and the book is dedicated "To Mammy / Caroline Barr / Mississippi / [1840–1940] Who was born in slavery and who gave to my family a fidelity without stint or calculation of recompense and to my childhood an immeasurable devotion and love."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Simon |first=Julia |date=2017 |title=Repudiation and Redemption in Go Down, Moses: Accounting, Settling, Gaming the System, and Justice |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/277/article/672751 |journal=The Southern Quarterly |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=30–54 |issn=2377-2050}}</ref>

===Themes and analysis===
Faulkner advocated a gradual abolition of [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.laprogressive.com/racism/racism-and-rethinking-integration |title=Racism and rethinking integration |work=LA Progressive |date=June 8, 2025 |access-date=2025-09-06 |language=en}}</ref> and made racial prejudices the subject of a number of his works including ''Intruder in the Dust'', but was critical of forced or fast-moving [[desegregation]]. He argued that [[civil rights activist]]s should "go slow" and be more moderate in their positions.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Cep |first1=Casey |title=William Faulkner's Demons |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/30/william-faulkners-demons |magazine=The New Yorker |date=November 23, 2020 |access-date=11 June 2024}}</ref> The essayist and novelist [[James Baldwin]] was highly critical of Faulkner's views around integration, seeing him as part of a group of educated white Southeners who falsely believed that there could be a middle ground between segregationists and integrationists.<ref>{{cite web|first=Casey|last=Cep|date=November 23, 2020|title=William Faulkner's Demons|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/30/william-faulkners-demons|access-date=February 12, 2021|archive-date=January 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122111928/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/30/william-faulkners-demons|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Ralph Ellison]] said that "No one in American fiction has done so much to explore the types of Negro personality as has Faulkner."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mikics |first=David |date=August 3, 2021 |title=Ellison's Invisible Man and Faulkner's Light in August: An Argument in Black and White |url=https://academic.oup.com/litimag/article-abstract/23/2/194/6337219 |journal=[[Literary Imagination]] |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=194–201|doi=10.1093/litimag/imab027 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The [[New Criticism|New Critics]] became interested in Faulkner's work, with [[Cleanth Brooks]] writing ''The Yoknapatawpha Country'' and Michael Millgate writing ''The Achievement of William Faulkner''. Since then, critics have looked at Faulkner's work using other approaches, such as feminist and psychoanalytic methods.<ref name="Faulkner 2004" /><ref>Wagner-Martin, Linda. ''William Faulkner: Six Decades of Criticism''. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2002 {{ISBN|0-87013-612-7}}.</ref> Faulkner's works have been placed within the literary traditions of [[Literary modernism|modernism]] and the [[Southern Renaissance]].<ref>Abadie, Ann J. and Doreen Fowler. [https://books.google.com/books?id=gW-Drav6CUoC ''Faulkner and the Southern Renaissance''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170306003843/https://books.google.com/books?id=gW-Drav6CUoC&printsec=frontcover |date=March 6, 2017 }}. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1982 {{ISBN|1-60473-201-6}}.</ref>

French philosopher [[Albert Camus]] wrote that Faulkner successfully imported classical [[tragedy]] into the 20th century through his "interminably unwinding spiral of words and sentences that conducts the speaker to the abyss of sufferings buried in the past".<ref>[[#Camus|Camus (1970)]], pp. 313–314.</ref>

==Legacy==
[[File:Rowan Oak.JPG|thumb|alt=A white house set among trees|Faulkner's home [[Rowan Oak]] is maintained by the [[University of Mississippi]].]]
[[File:Plaque Rue William Faulkner - Thiais (FR94) - 2022-04-14 - 2.jpg|thumb|A Parisian street named for Faulkner]]

===Influence===
Faulkner is widely considered a towering figure in [[Southern United States literature|Southern literature]]; [[Flannery O'Connor]] wrote that "the presence alone of Faulkner in our midst makes a great difference in what the writer can and cannot permit himself to do. Nobody wants his mule and wagon stalled on the same track the ''Dixie Limited'' is roaring down".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Levinger |first=Larry |date=2000 |title=The Prophet Faulkner |work=[[The Atlantic]] |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/toc/2000/06/}}</ref> In 1943, while working at Warner Brothers, Faulkner wrote a letter of encouragement to a young Mississippi writer, [[Eudora Welty]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=St. C. Crane |first=Joan |date=1989 |title=William Faulkner to Eudora Welty: A Letter |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26475181 |journal=The Mississippi Quarterly |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=223–227 |jstor=26475181 |issn=0026-637X}}</ref> According to critic and translator [[Valerie Miles]], Faulkner's influence on [[Latin American literature|Latin American fiction]] is considerable, with fictional worlds created by [[Gabriel García Márquez]] ([[Macondo]]) and [[Juan Carlos Onetti]] (Santa Maria) being "very much in the vein of" Yoknapatawpha, and that "[[Carlos Fuentes]]'s ''[[The Death of Artemio Cruz]]'' wouldn't exist if not for ''[[As I Lay Dying]]''".<ref name="kan">{{cite news|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/04/09/the-forest-of-letters-an-interview-with-valerie-miles/|title=The Forest of Letters: An Interview with Valerie Miles|last=Kan|first=Elianna|date=April 9, 2015|work=[[The Paris Review]]|access-date=April 16, 2015|archive-date=April 14, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414044532/http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/04/09/the-forest-of-letters-an-interview-with-valerie-miles/|url-status=live}}</ref> Fuentes himself cited Faulkner as one of the writers most important to him.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/may/05/fiction.books The Latin Master] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624203238/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/may/05/fiction.books |date=June 24, 2021 }} The Guardian 5 May 2001</ref> Faulkner had great influence on [[Mario Vargas Llosa]], particularly on his early novels ''[[The Time of the Hero]]'', ''[[The Green House]]'' and ''[[Conversation in The Cathedral]]''. Vargas Llosa has claimed that during his student years he learned more from Yoknapatawpha than from classes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2012/11/21/inenglish/1353508866_369925.html |title=The masters who influenced the Latin American Boom: Vargas Llosa and García Márquez took cues from Faulkner |publisher=El Pais |date=21 November 2012 |access-date=June 22, 2021 |archive-date=June 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624203314/https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2012/11/21/inenglish/1353508866_369925.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Jorge Luis Borges is credited with the translation of Faulkner's ''[[The Wild Palms]]'' into Spanish, although [[Douglas Day]] believes it's not impossible that Borges' mother may have done the translation. Day also believes that Borges' deep immersion in and study of ''The Wild Palms'' may have influenced him to abandon the novel as his own writing form of choice.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Day |first1=Douglas |date=1980|author-link= Douglas Day |title=Borges, Faulkner, and The Wild Palms|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26436092?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents |journal=Virginia Quarterly Review |volume=56 |issue=1 |publisher=University of Virginia |jstor=26436092 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vegh |first=Beatriz |date=1995 |title=The Wild Palms and Las palmeras salvajes: The Southern Counterpoint Faulkner/Borges |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24907724 |journal=The Faulkner Journal |volume=11 |issue=1/2 |pages=165–179 |jstor=24907724 }}</ref>

The works of William Faulkner are a clear influence on the French novelist [[Claude Simon]],<ref>Duncan, Alistair B. ''Claude Simon and William Faulkner'' Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol. IX, Issue 3, July 1973, pp. 235–252</ref> and the Portuguese novelist [[António Lobo Antunes]].<ref>Bucaioni, Marco, ''A Huge Debt to 20th Century Modernism? António Lobo Antunes's Prose Style and his Models'', Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa, 2019, pp. 477–497</ref> [[Cormac McCarthy]] has been described as a "disciple of Faulkner".<ref>{{cite news|last=Prescott|first=Orville|date=May 12, 1965|title=Still Another Disciple of William Faulkner|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/specials/mccarthy-orchard.html?source=post_page---------------------------|work=The New York Times|access-date=June 12, 2022|archive-date=May 23, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523065956/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/specials/mccarthy-orchard.html?source=post_page---------------------------|url-status=live}}</ref>

In ''[[The Elements of Style]]'', [[E. B. White]] cites Faulkner: "If the experiences of [[Walter Mitty]], of [[Tender Is the Night|Dick Diver]], of [[Rabbit Angstrom]] have seemed for the moment real to countless readers, if in reading Faulkner we have almost the sense of inhabiting Yoknapatawpha County during the decline of the South, it is because the details used are definite, the terms concrete." Later, Faulkner's style is contrasted with that of [[Ernest Hemingway|Hemingway]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=White |first=E. B. |title=[[The Elements of Style]] |year=1975 |edition=3rd |page=22}}</ref>

After his death, Estelle and their daughter, Jill, lived at Rowan Oak until Estelle's death in 1972. The property was sold to the [[University of Mississippi]] that same year. The house and furnishings are maintained much as they were in Faulkner's day. Faulkner's scribblings are preserved on the wall, including the day-by-day outline covering a week he wrote on the walls of his small study to help him keep track of the plot twists in his novel ''[[A Fable]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Block |first1=Melissa |title=William Faulkner's Home Illustrates His Impact On The South |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/02/13/515043640/william-faulkners-home-illustrates-his-impact-on-the-south |website=NPR.org |access-date=11 August 2018 |language=en |date=13 February 2017 |archive-date=August 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811231059/https://www.npr.org/2017/02/13/515043640/william-faulkners-home-illustrates-his-impact-on-the-south |url-status=live }}</ref> Some of Faulkner's Nobel Prize winnings went to establish the [[William Faulkner Foundation]]. It gave an Award for Notable First Novel; winners included [[John Knowles]]'s ''[[A Separate Peace]]'', [[Thomas Pynchon]]'s ''[[V.]]'', [[Cormac McCarthy]]'s ''[[The Orchard Keeper]]'', [[Robert Coover]]'s ''[[The Origin of the Brunists]]'' and [[Frederick Exley]]'s ''[[A Fan's Notes]]''. Starting in 1981, this became the [[PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction]], founded by, among others, [[Mary Lee Settle]] as an alternative to the National Book Award.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our History {{!}} The PEN/Faulkner Foundation |url=https://www.penfaulkner.org/2020/11/24/our-history/ |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=www.penfaulkner.org}}</ref>

Some of Faulkner's works have been adapted into films. They have received a polarized response, with many critics contending that Faulkner's works are "unfilmable".<ref>[[#Bartunek|Bartunek (2017)]], p. 97.</ref> Faulkner's final work, ''The Reivers'', was adapted into a [[The Reivers (film)|1969 film]] starring [[Steve McQueen]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Ebert|first=Roger|date=December 29, 1969|title=The Reivers|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-reivers-1969|work=RogerEbert.com|access-date=July 2, 2021|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709182829/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-reivers-1969|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Tommy Lee Jones]]'s neo-Western film ''[[The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada|The Three Burials of Melquiades Estada]]'' was partly based on Faulkner's ''[[As I Lay Dying]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mills |first=Warren |date=June 15, 2006 |title=As Melquiades Lay Dying |work=[[Indiana Daily Student]] |url=https://www.idsnews.com/article/2006/06/as-melquiades-lays-dying}}</ref>

During the [[German military administration in occupied France during World War II|Nazi Occupation of France]] in World War II, the German occupiers banned American literature. A black-market of American books emerged, and reading works by Hemingway and Faulkner became an act of defiance.<ref>[[#Blotner2vol|Blotner (1974)]], p. 1222.</ref> Faulkner remains especially popular in France, where a 2009 poll found him the second most popular writer (after only [[Marcel Proust]]). Contemporary [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] stated that "for young people in France, Faulkner is a god", and [[Albert Camus]] made a stage adaptation of Faulkner's ''[[Requiem for a Nun]]''.<ref>{{cite news|last=Dugdale|first=John|date=March 19, 2009|title=France's strange love affair with William Faulkner|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/mar/19/william-faulkner-france-telerama|work=The Guardian|access-date=June 4, 2022|archive-date=June 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220604203831/https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/mar/19/william-faulkner-france-telerama|url-status=live}}</ref>  In [[Jean-Luc Godard]]'s ''[[Breathless (1960 film)|Breathless]]'', Patricia ([[Jean Seberg]]) quotes ''The Wild Palms'': "Between grief and nothing, I will take grief."<ref>{{Citation |title=Breathless (1960) – IMDb |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053472/characters/nm0781029 |access-date=2023-03-16}}</ref>

He also won the U.S. [[National Book Award]] twice, for ''Collected Stories'' in 1951<ref name="nba1951">[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1951 "National Book Awards – 1951"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028064801/http://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1951/ |date=October 28, 2018 }}. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-31. (With essays by [[Neil Baldwin (writer)|Neil Baldwin]] and Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 50- and 60-year anniversary publications.)</ref>  and ''[[A Fable]]'' in 1955.<ref name="nba1955">[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1955 "National Book Awards – 1955"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422155650/https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1955/ |date=April 22, 2019 }}. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-31. (With acceptance speech by Faulkner and essays by Neil Baldwin and Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 50- and 60-year anniversary publications.)</ref>

The [[United States Postal Service]] issued a 22-cent postage stamp in his honor on August 3, 1987.<ref>[[Scott catalogue]] #2350.</ref> Faulkner had once served as Postmaster at the University of Mississippi, and in his letter of resignation in 1923 wrote:
<blockquote>As long as I live under the capitalistic system, I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp.

This, sir, is my resignation.<ref>{{cite web|title=William Faulkner Quits His Post Office Job in Splendid Fashion with a 1924 Resignation Letter|publisher=Openculture|date=September 30, 2012|url=http://www.openculture.com/2012/09/william_faulkner_tells_his_post_office_boss_to_stick_it_1924.html|access-date=February 5, 2014|archive-date=March 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325111001/http://www.openculture.com/2012/09/william_faulkner_tells_his_post_office_boss_to_stick_it_1924.html|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>

On October 10, 2019, a [[Mississippi Writers Trail]] historical marker was installed at [[Rowan Oak]] in Oxford, Mississippi honoring the contributions of William Faulkner to the American literary landscape.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Thompson|first1=Jake|date=2019-10-11|title=William Faulkner marker added to Mississippi Writers Trail|url=https://www.oxfordeagle.com/2019/10/11/william-faulkner-marker-added-to-mississippi-writers-trail/|access-date=2020-06-16|website=The Oxford Eagle|archive-date=June 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617194407/https://www.oxfordeagle.com/2019/10/11/william-faulkner-marker-added-to-mississippi-writers-trail/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Faulkner has a tribute on Mississippi's float for the 137th [[Rose Parade]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wxxv25.com/visit-mississippi-unveils-float-for-137th-rose-parade/|title=Visit Mississippi unveils float for 137th Rose Parade|last=Staff|first=WXXV|date=September 14, 2025|access-date=September 21, 2025|publisher=[[WXXV-TV]]|website=wxxv25.com}}</ref>

===Collections===
The manuscripts of most of Faulkner's works, correspondence, personal papers, and over 300 books from his working library reside at the [[Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library]] at the [[University of Virginia]], where he spent much of his time in his final years. The library also houses some of the writer's personal effects and the papers of major Faulkner associates and scholars, such as his biographer [[Joseph Blotner]], bibliographer Linton Massey, and Random House editor Albert Erskine.

[[Southeast Missouri State University]], where the [[Center for Faulkner Studies]] is located, also owns a generous collection of Faulkner materials, including first editions, manuscripts, letters, photographs, artwork, and many materials pertaining to Faulkner's time in Hollywood. The university possesses many personal files and letters kept by [[Joseph Blotner]], along with books and letters that once belonged to Malcolm Cowley. The university achieved the collection due to a generous donation by Louis Daniel Brodsky, a collector of Faulkner materials, in 1989.

Further significant Faulkner materials reside at the [[University of Mississippi]], the [[Harry Ransom Center]], and the [[New York Public Library]].

The Random House records at Columbia University also include letters by and to Faulkner.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079581|title=Random House records, 1925–1999.|access-date=May 25, 2018|archive-date=December 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229023255/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079581/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Jaillant (2014)</ref>

In 1966, the [[United States Military Academy]] dedicated a William Faulkner Room in its library.<ref name="Capps 1966, p. 3"/>

==Selected list of works==
{{Main|William Faulkner bibliography}}
* ''[[The Sound and the Fury]]'' (1929)
* ''[[As I Lay Dying]]'' (1930)
* ''[[Sanctuary (Faulkner novel)|Sanctuary]]'' (1931)
* ''[[Light in August]]'' (1932)
* ''[[Absalom, Absalom!]]'' (1936)
* ''[[If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem|The Wild Palms]]'' (1939)
* ''[[The Hamlet]]'' (1940)
* ''[[Go Down, Moses (short story collection)|Go Down, Moses]]'' (1942)
* ''[[Intruder in the Dust]]'' (1948)
* ''[[A Fable]]'' (1954)
* ''[[The Town (Faulkner novel)|The Town]]'' (1957)
* ''[[The Mansion (novel)|The Mansion]]'' (1959)
* ''[[The Reivers]]'' (1962)

==Filmography==
* ''[[Flesh (1932 film)|Flesh]]'' (1932)
* ''[[Today We Live]]'' (1933)
* ''[[The Story of Temple Drake]]'' (1933)
* ''[[Submarine Patrol]]'' (1938)
* ''[[Air Force (film)|Air Force]]'' (1943)
* ''[[To Have and Have Not (film)|To Have and Have Not]]'' (1944)
* ''[[The Big Sleep (1946 film)|The Big Sleep]]'' (1946)
* ''[[Land of the Pharaohs]]'' (1955)
*  ''[[The Tarnished Angels]]'' (1957)
*  ''[[The Reivers (film)|The Reivers]]'' (1969)

==Notes and references==
===Notes===
{{notelist|group=note}}

===Citations and references===
{{Reflist|20em}}
"Oppression and Its Effects on the Individual and Society in Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily'", El-Ruha 5th International Conference on Social Sciences Proceedings Book, Eds. Fethi Demir&Mehmet Recep Taş. {{ISBN|978-605-80857-7-0}}. 2019. Tunisia.  pp.&nbsp;31–38. www.elruha.org.

===Works cited===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite journal|last=Bartunek|first=C. J.|date=Summer 2017|title=The Wasteland Revisited: William Faulkner's First Year in Hollywood|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/90013647|journal=South Atlantic Review|volume=82|issue=2|pages=97–116|jstor=90013647|ref=Bartunek|access-date=June 19, 2021|archive-date=June 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625022722/https://www.jstor.org/stable/90013647|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Camus|first=Albert|author-link=Albert Camus|editor=Thody, Philip|translator=Kennedy, Ellen Conroy|title=Lyrical and Critical Essays|publisher=Vintange|year=1970|isbn=0394708520|ref=Camus}}
* {{cite journal|last=Capps|first=Jack L.|date=Spring 1966|title=West Point's William Faulkner Room|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41396230|journal=The Georgia Review|volume=20|issue=1|pages=3–8|jstor=41396230|ref=Capps|access-date=June 19, 2021|archive-date=June 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625030648/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41396230|url-status=live}}
* William Faulkner: ''Novels 1930–1935'' (Joseph Blotner and Noel Polk, ed.) ([[Library of America]], 1985) {{ISBN|978-0-940450-26-4}}
* William Faulkner: ''Novels 1936–1940'' (Joseph Blotner and Noel Polk, eds.) ([[Library of America]], 1990) {{ISBN|978-0-940450-55-4}}
* William Faulkner: ''Novels 1942–1954'' (Joseph Blotner and Noel Polk, eds.) ([[Library of America]], 1994) {{ISBN|978-0-940450-85-1}}
* William Faulkner: ''Novels 1957–1962'' (Noel Polk, ed., with notes by Joseph Blotner) ([[Library of America]], 1999) {{ISBN|978-1-883011-69-7}}
* William Faulkner: ''Novels 1926–1929'' (Joseph Blotner and Noel Polk, eds.) ([[Library of America]], 2006) {{ISBN|978-1-931082-89-1}}
* ''The Portable Faulkner,'' ed. Malcolm Cowley (Viking Press, 1946). {{ISBN|978-0-14-243728-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Blotner|first=Joseph|date=1974|title=Faulkner: A Biography (2 vols)|publisher=Random House|ref=Blotner2vol}}
* Blotner, Joseph. ''Faulkner: A Biography''. [[New York City|New York]]: [[Random House]], 1984.
* Fowler, Doreen, Abadie, Ann. ''Faulkner and Popular Culture: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha''. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1990,  {{ISBN|978-0-87805-434-3}}
* Jaillant, Lise. [https://www.academia.edu/7572231/_I_m_Afraid_I_ve_Got_Involved_With_a_Nut_New_Faulkner_Letters "'I'm Afraid I've Got Involved With a Nut': New Faulkner Letters." Southern Literary Journal 47.1 (2014): 98–114.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529180141/https://www.academia.edu/7572231/_I_m_Afraid_I_ve_Got_Involved_With_a_Nut_New_Faulkner_Letters |date=May 29, 2021 }}
* Kerr, Elizabeth Margaret, and Kerr, Michael M. ''William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha: A Kind of Keystone in the Universe''. Fordham Univ Press, 1985, {{ISBN|978-0-8232-1135-7}}
* {{cite journal|last=Koch|first=Benjamin|date=Winter 2007|title=The French Quarter Apprentice: William Faulkner's Modernist Evolution|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4234243|journal=Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association|volume=48|issue=1|pages=55–68|jstor=4234243|ref=Koch|access-date=June 18, 2021|archive-date=June 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625025206/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4234243|url-status=live}}
* Liénard-Yeterian, Marie. 'Faulkner et le cinéma', Paris: Michel Houdiard Editeur, 2010.{{ISBN|978-2-35692-037-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Minter|first=David L.|date=1980|title=William Faulkner, his life and work|location=Baltimore, MD|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=9780801823473|ref=Minter}}
* {{cite journal|last1=McKay|first1=David|date=Fall 2009|title=Faulkner's First War: Conflict, Mimesis, and the Resonance of Defeat|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40645990|journal=South Central Review|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|volume=26|issue=3|pages=119–130|doi=10.1353/scr.0.0062|jstor=40645990|s2cid=144583260|access-date=June 18, 2021|archive-date=June 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625025826/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40645990|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}
* {{cite book|last=Phillips|first=Gene D.|date=1980|title=Hemingway and Film|publisher=Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. |location=New York|isbn=978-0804426954|ref=Phillips}}
* Sensibar, Judith L. ''The Origins of Faulkner's Art''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984. {{ISBN|0-292-79020-1}}
* Sensibar, Judith L. ''Faulkner and Love: The Women Who Shaped His Art, A Biography''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-300-16568-5}}
* Sensibar, Judith L. ''Vision in Spring''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984. {{ISBN|0-292-78712-X}}.
* {{cite book|last=O'Connor|first=William Van|title=William Faulkner|year=1959|location=Minneapolis|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|ref=O'Connor}}
* {{cite book|last=Parini|first=Jay|author-link=Jay Parini|title=One Matchless Time: A Life of William Faulkner|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2004|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/onematchlesstime00pari/page/22 22–29]|isbn=0-06-621072-0|url=https://archive.org/details/onematchlesstime00pari/page/22|ref=Parini}}
* {{cite book|last=Pikoulis|first=John|title=The Art of William Faulkner|year=1982|location=Totowa, New Jersey|publisher=Barnes & Noble Books|isbn=9780333300947|ref=Pikoulis}}
* {{cite book | author = Rosella Mamoli Zorzi | title = William Faulkner in Venice : proceedings of the International Conference Language, Stylistics, Translations | location = Venice | publisher = Marsilio | year = 2000 | oclc = 634327206 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vSqGH4Z_4pQC&q=William%20Faulkner%20in%20Venice%20:%20proceedings%20of%20the%20International%20Conference%20Language,%20Stylistics,%20Translations&pg=PA36 | page = 347 | isbn = 9788831776264 | access-date = August 20, 2020 | archive-date = September 8, 2019 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20190908143056/https://books.google.it/books?id=vSqGH4Z_4pQC&pg=PA36&dq=William+Faulkner+in+Venice+:+proceedings+of+the+International+Conference+Language,+Stylistics,+Translations&hl=it&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOjb-cuMHkAhUBDewKHZXtARgQ6AEIKzAA%23v=onepage&q=William%20Faulkner%20in%20Venice%20:%20proceedings%20of%20the%20International%20Conference%20Language,%20Stylistics,%20Translations&f=false | url-status = bot: unknown }}
* {{cite journal|last1=Rife|first1=David|date=March 1983|title=Rex Stout and William Faulkner's Nobel Prize Speech|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3831202|journal=Journal of Modern Literature|publisher=Indiana University Press|volume=10|issue=1|pages=151–152|jstor=3831202|ref=Rife|access-date=June 18, 2021|archive-date=June 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625000152/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3831202|url-status=live}}
* {{cite journal|last=Zeitlin|first=Michael|date=Spring 2016|title=Faulkner and the Royal Air Force Canada, 1918|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44578811|journal=The Faulkner Journal|publisher=Johns Hopkins University|volume=30|issue=1|pages=15–38|doi=10.1353/fau.2016.0009|jstor=44578811|s2cid=165335050|ref=Zeitlin|access-date=June 17, 2021|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624210955/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44578811|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}
* {{cite book |last=Bleikasten |first=André |date=2017 |title=William Faulkner: A Life through Novels |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9McgDgAAQBAJ |location=Bloomington |publisher=Indiana University |page=218 |isbn=9780253023322 |access-date=February 13, 2020 |ref=Bleikasten |archive-date=May 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529180152/https://books.google.com/books?id=9McgDgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Meriwether |editor1-first=James B. |title=Lion in the Garden: Interviews with William Faulkner, 1926–1962 |date=1980 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln|isbn=978-0803230682}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links |author=William Faulkner |c=William Faulkner |n=no |q=William Faulkner |v=no |wikt=no |b=no}}
;Digital collections
* {{Gutenberg author | id=34338 | name=William Faulkner}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-faulkner}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Faulkner, William|name=William Faulkner|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=William Cuthbert Faulkner}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1541}}

;Physical collections
* [https://small.library.virginia.edu/collections/featured/the-william-faulkner-collection/ William Faulkner Papers] at the [[University of Virginia]]
* [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=00608 William Faulkner Collection] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]]
* [https://libraries.olemiss.edu/cedar-archives/finding_aids/MUM00125.html William Faulkner Family Collection (MUM00125)]

;Other links
* {{IMDb name|0001203}}
* [http://faulkner.iath.virginia.edu Digital Yoknapatawpha]
* [https://faulkner.lib.virginia.edu Faulkner at Virginia: An Audio Archive]

{{William Faulkner}}
{{Nobel Prize in Literature}}
{{1949 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{PulitzerPrize Fiction}}
{{NBA for Fiction 1950–1974}}
{{Barn Burning}}
{{Modernism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faulkner, William}}
[[Category:William Faulkner| ]]
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1962 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American poets]]
[[Category:20th-century American screenwriters]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths in Mississippi]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American male screenwriters]]
[[Category:American male short story writers]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Deaths by horse-riding accident in the United States]]
[[Category:Lost Generation writers]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Mississippi postmasters]]
[[Category:Modernist writers]]
[[Category:National Book Award winners]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Literature]]
[[Category:Novelists from Mississippi]]
[[Category:O. Henry Award winners]]
[[Category:People from New Albany, Mississippi]]
[[Category:People from Oxford, Mississippi]]
[[Category:People from Ripley, Mississippi]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from Mississippi]]
[[Category:Sigma Alpha Epsilon members]]
[[Category:Southern United States in fiction]]
[[Category:University of Virginia alumni]]
[[Category:Writers of American Southern literature]]
[[Category:Southern noir writers]]