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William Faulkner: Yoknapatawpha County
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Regarded as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, William Faulkner relentlessly chronicled the condition of the antebellum American Deep South. Creating characters and stories within the fictional Yoknapatawpha County and beyond, Faulkner seamlessly blended the harsh realities of the southern condition with rich cultural histories of his own imagination.
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William Faulkner was born on Sept. 25, 1897, in New Albany, Miss. He grew up in Oxford, Miss., which appears in his fiction as "Jefferson" in "Yoknapatawpha County." William was the oldest of four brothers. Both parents came from wealthy families reduced to genteel poverty by the Civil War. A great-grandfather, Col. William Falkner (as the family spelled its name), had authored The White Rose of Memphis, a popular success of the 1880s. William's father owned a hardware store and livery stable in Oxford and later became business manager of the state university. William attended public school only fitfully after the fifth grade; he never graduated from high school.
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Faulkner then moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1925. He was encouraged by friend Sherwood Anderson to write fiction. He drew from his service with the RAF to write his first novel, Soldiers’ Play, published in 1926. Faulkner ... took some advice and wrote about his native region. He created Yoncona County, later renamed Yoknapatawpha, which was based upon his family history, specifically his great-grandfather. In 1929, Sartoris was published.
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Faulkner published his undistinguished first novel, Soldier's Pay, in 1926. In his third novel, Sartoris (1929), he hit his stride, creating his fictional realm, Yoknapatawpha County, and a southern family full of foolhardy, suicidally defiant men and suffering, caring women. In his next novels he enlarged this portrait of a South wracked by grief and defeat, clinging to old values while struggling to embrace the harsh rationality of modern capitalist America. Faulkner married this historical imagination to a profound humanism and a readiness to experiment with a wide range of fictional techniques. His books are full of convoluted time sequences and interior monologues, exploring his characters' deepest drives and unrecognized anxieties.
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Faulkner was denied acceptance into the U.S. Air Force so he turned to the Royal Air Force. On his application he had to change a few details like; the spelling of his last name and for his place of birth he wrote Finchley, in the county of Middlesex, England. He ... changed his birth date to May 25, 1898, and stated that his civil occupation was a student. July 9,1918, he reported to the Recruit's Depot, in Toronto, for active service. In December, Faulkner is discharged from the RAF (Royal Air Force) and returns to Oxford.
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Faulkner began writing poetry when he was 13. His first book, THE MARBLE FAUN, was published when he was 27. He is best known for his Yoknapatawpha cycle which began in 1929 with his novel SARTORIS/FLAGS IN THE DUST. The cycle ended with THE MANSION which was published in 1959.
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