FREE ESSAY ON WILLIAM FAULKNER

WILLIAM FAULKNER

Biography on William Faulkner
William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25, 1897 and then moved
to Oxford, Mississippi with his family at the age of 5. Most of the novels written by
William Faulkner take place in the area in which he himself was born and raised. He
renames Oxford and calls this place Jefferson, Mississippi. 
Faulkner is a contemporary American author who has achieved greatness as an author. He is
already considered to be one of the world's greatest novelists and has been awarded with
the Nobel Prize for literature in 1949. This is quite an achievement as it is the highest
prize that can be awarded to an author. Of all of Faulkner's achievements, "The Sound and
the Fury" is considered to be one of his greatest novels. 
Faulkner was part of a distinguished family in Mississippi. His name was originally
spelled Falkner. The "u" was added by mistake when his first novel was published and
William Falkner decided to retain the spelling of "Faulkner". 
The most distinguished member of William Faulkner's family was his great-grandfather,
Confederate Colonel William Cuthbert Falkner. The Colonel first moved to Mississippi in
the early part of the 19th century from his home South Carolina. Faulkner uses Colonel
Falkner as a character in his novels named Colonel John Sartoris. Colonel Falkner had a
notable career as a soldier in the Civil War and the Mexican War. Colonel Falkner was
also a writer like his great-grandson and published one of the nation's best sellers
called "The White Rose of Memphis". Before being assassinated by a former partner in
1889, Colonel Falkner also took the time to build a railroad and run for public office. 
Faulkner received his initial education in Oxford, however he dropped out of high school
in 1915. He attempted to join the U.S. Army but was rejected for pilot training so he
joined the Canadian Royal Air Force in 1918 but the war ended before he spent any time in
service. 
After the ending of the war, Faulkner took some classes at the University of Mississippi
and spent a short time working at the university post office. The majority of his
education was due to his promiscuous time he spent reading. 
Faulkner had started writing poetry as a young schoolboy. In 1924, he used his own
financial resources and published a collection of poetry called The Marble Faunn". He met
Sherwood Anderson who became a close friend and Anderson fueled his literary aspirations.
Faulkner wrote three novels before finishing "The Sound and the Fury" and two more the
year it was finished, 1929. The same year he married Estelle Oldham, who was a sweetheart
ten years earlier in his life. 
Faulkner was unable to support himself financially by writing these novels so he became a
screenwriter for MGM, Twentieth Century Fox, and Warner Brothers. During this time he
formed a strong working relationship with director Howard Hawks, whom he worked on many
films. 
Faulkner became a heavy drinker which caused some problems in his personal life. He had
finished all of his novels except one at this point in 1944. During the war he was
discovered in the French Literary world and in the postwar period his reputation
rebounded and brought him newfound attention in America. Soon after he was held as a high
literary figure throughout the entire world.
Faulkner wrote seventeen books set in Yoknapatwapha County, which is a fictional setting
formed in Faulkner's imagination. This is the home of the Compson family in "The Sound
and the Fury". 
In later books, Faulkner continued to explore what he considered "the problems of the
human heart in conflict with itself", and he did this in Yoknapatawpha County as it
increasingly connected to the modern world.
William Faulkner is an esteemed writer of the 1900's and proves to be so as he received
the Nobel Prize for literature. William Faulkner died of a heart attack on July 6, 1962.