William Faulkner Research Paper

Biographical Study of William Faulkner

William Faulkner is known to be one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. His literature influences modernist and popular literature today. His writing personifies the southern way of life and its values. William Faulkner has won the Noble Prize in Literature and two Pulitzer Prizes for fiction. William Cuthbert Falkner was born on September 25th 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. He was the first son of Murry Cuthbert Falkner and Maud Butler. He had three younger brothers Murry, John and Dean. At age 5 the Falkner’s moved to Oxford, Mississippi (Parini, 22). His mother Maud, his grandmother Lelia Butler and his nanny, Caroline Barr, raised William Falkner. Both his Mother

To combat this, William left Oxford Mississippi and went to stay with Stone who was studying law at Yale. William tried to enlist in the U.S. Air force, but was turned down. After the military rejected his application, he devised a plan to fake his identity, pose as a British citizen and join the Royal Air Force. To play the part as a British citizen, William perfected a British accent and added the “U” to his last name. He then traveled to the British consulate in New York, and successfully pretended to be an Englishmen eager to fight for the Royal Air Force. He reported to basic training in Toronto, but never saw any action though because the war ended soon after. While he was there, William told stories of his life as a boarding school student and a Yale undergrad (Pirini, 43). He also wrote many letters to his mother talking about his extensive air force training. When armistice was declared, and Faulkner returned home, he walked with a limp and told stories of combat injuries (Parini,

To support his wife and his only child he was forced to write cinematic screenplays. For the next 15 years Faulkner worked in the movie industry, but hated the work causing him to drink more.

Only until 1945 Faulkner received the attention he deserved. A prominent literary critic named Malcolm Cowley began to support Faulkner’s work. In 1946 Cowley helped Faulkner produce an anthology of his writing called The Portable Faulkner, which gave excerpts from Faulkner’s writing, and information on Yoknapatawpha County. The anthology received stellar reviews, and the exposure proved successful. Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. He continued to write and received the Pulitzer Prize for A Fable in 1955 and The Reivers in 1963 (Pirini, 343).

In June of 1962 Faulkner suffered a horrible injury to his back while horse back riding. His injuries left him bedridden and in agonizing pain. He took copious amounts of painkillers, and drank heavily to ease the pain. Faulkner eventually became incoherent and was taken to the hospital. Shortly after being admitted, He suffered a heat attack and perished at the age of 64 (Parini,