William Cuthbert Faulkner Butler (1897-1962) was an American writer, poet, and storyteller considered one of the most prominent men of letters of the 20th century. It encompassed several genres of literature, including: novels, theater, poetry, essays, and short stories..
Faulkner's work was characterized by being modernist, displaying the use of an easily understood language, which allowed him to reach ordinary readers in a simpler way. In addition, the writings of this author stood out for the narrative form and the themes that he developed, which were almost entirely unreal or fictitious..
William Faulkner was a fruitful writer who spent most of his life writing. Some of his most relevant titles were: Soldiers' Pay, Shrine, Light of August, Requiem for a Woman Y The noise and the fury. He was awarded several prizes, including the Nobel Prize for Literature.
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William was born on September 25, 1897 in the city of New Albany, in the state of Mississippi, being a member of a cultured and traditional family adjusted to the customs of the time. His parents were: Murry Faulkner and Maud Butler; the poet was the eldest of his three brothers, who were called: Murry Charles, John and Dean.
Faulkner spent his childhood years in the towns of Ripley and Oxford. His childhood was in the care of his mother, his maternal grandmother and his nanny Callie Barr. His mother instilled in him the habit of reading, so both he and his siblings learned to read at an early age, and therefore the later development of writing was easy..
Callie Barr was of African American descent and was a determining figure in both the poet's upbringing and his literary growth. His love and care marked William and it was thanks to her that the writer became interested in the racial situation of his time, which he later captured in a vivid way in several of his works..
William Faulkner's years of education were spent in his native Mississippi, always under the supervision of his mother. He was a smart kid, so much so that after first grade he went straight to third grade. Later, at the age of ten, his interest in studies faded, something that worried the poet's family a bit..
Although he came to repeat a year several times, the writer never gave up reading. He nourished himself by listening to stories about the bloody battles leading up to his birth from his great-grandfather William Clark, a hero of the Civil War, who was also a writer and businessman. Perhaps the literary vein came from that relative.
In 1914, when William was seventeen, he met one of the people who led him to continue writing. This character was Philip Stone, a young professional of about twenty-one who knew from literature classes and who was impressed with Faulkner's writings.
After that, Stone did not hesitate to share with William the works of great writers, including James Joyce. Later Philip tried to help Faulkner to get his first poems published, but the publishing houses did not give them the go-ahead. Even so, Faulkner continued to develop his talent until he found the right moment..
Some scholars of William's life have argued that in 1918 he decided to change his surname, from Falkner to Faulkner. According to an anecdote, when his first book came out they omitted the letter "u", and he asserted that perhaps it was more convenient that way..
In 1919, when he was twenty-two years old, Faulkner entered the University of Mississippi to study literature and literature. However, his passage was brief because he withdrew before starting the fourth semester; during that time he published some poems in student publications and began to open space among the other writers of the time.
In the mid-1920s Faulkner moved to New Orleans, where he had the opportunity to publish his first novel: Soldiers' pay (1925). At that time he began to develop fictional themes under the influence and collaboration of the writer Sherwood Anderson. Themes alluding to slavery made an appearance.
In 1927 it came to light Mosquitoes and two years later he published Sartoris. The original title of that fictional novel was: Flags in the dust, but when it was rejected by the publisher, Faulkner authorized his literary secretary to edit it and change the name.
Turning 30, William Faulkner fell in love with a divorced woman named Estelle Oldham. He married her in 1929 and became her life partner; together they raised his wife's two children: Victoria and Cornell.
The writer dedicated himself to working even harder to support his new family. So in the same year of their marriage he worked at the University of the Mississippi Power House, while writing: While I agonize; he also wrote short stories and with the money he earned he bought a family home in Oxford.
The arrival of the writer to the cinema was more by necessity than by pleasure. In 1932 his economic situation was not good and, as he could not sell the work Light of august, accepted the job offer to be a screenwriter for the film production company MGM Studios. That job and allowed to support his family in a stable way.
This is how he began to write scripts for films, especially those directed by Howard Hawks, with whom he became friends. From that moment he got a permanent source of income in Hollywood until the middle of the 20th century..
Even though Faulkner's work was abundant, it was difficult for him to make a space for himself in the American literary world, but he never gave up writing. His last years were spent as a screenwriter and literary author, also carrying his addiction to alcohol..
Some of his latest works were: Requiem for a Woman, A Fable, The City Y The pickpockets. His life came to an end due to a heart attack on July 26, 1962 in the city of Byhalia, in the state where he was born. By then I was sixty-four years old.
- Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949.
- National Book Award in 1951, for the work Collected stories.
- Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for the 1955 novel A fable.
- Pulitzer granted in 1963, for The pickpockets.
William Faulkner's work was framed within modernism, also within fiction. The language he used was easy to understand, but loaded with long and sometimes unstructured sentences, there were also expressiveness and touches of exaggeration in them.
In the writings of this American intellectual, the different points of view, the monologues, the descriptive narratives, as well as the absence of chronology were notorious. His main themes were: life in the south of his country, race, family, history, war and politics..
- Soldier's pay (Soldiers' pay, 1926).
- Mosquitoes (Mosquitoes, 1927).
- Sartoris (1929).
- The sound and the fury (The noise and the fury, 1929).
- As I lay dying (While I agonize, 1930).
- Sanctuary (Sanctuary, 1931).
- Light in August (Light of august, 1932).
- Pylon (Pylon, 1935).
- Absalom, Absalom (Absalom, 1936).
- The unvanquished (The undefeated, 1938).
- The wild palms (The wild palm trees, 1939).
- The Hamlet (The village, 1940).
- Go down, Moses (Come down, Moses, 1942).
- Intruder in the dust (Intruder in the dust, 1948).
- Requiem for a Nun (Requiem for a woman, 1951).
- To fable (A fable, 1954).
- The town (The city, 1957).
- The mansion (The mansion, 1959).
- The reivers (The escape or The pickpockets, 1962).
- Vision in spring (1921).
- The marble faun (1924).
- This earth, a poem (1932).
- A green bough (1965).
- Mississippi poems (Posthumous edition, 1979).
- Helen, a courtship and Mississippi poems (Posthumous edition, 1981).
- These thirteen (1931).
- Doctor Martino and other stories (1934).
- Horse gambit (1949).
- Collected stories (1950).
- Great forests (1955).
- New Orleans Stories (1958).
- Uncollected Tales of William Faulkner (Posthumous edition, 1979).
- Landing in luck (1922).
- Mirrors of Chartres Street (1925).
- Damon and Phytias Unlimited (1925).
- Jealousy (1925).
- Cheest (1925).
- Out of Nazareth (1925).
- The kingdom of God (1925).
- The rosary (1925).
- The cobbler (1925).
- Chance (1925).
- Sunset (1925).
- The kid learns (1925).
- The liar (1925).
- home (1925).
- Episode (1925).
- Country Mice (1925).
- Yo ho and two bottles of rum (1925).
- A rose for Emily (1930).
- Honor (1930).
- Thrift (1930).
- Red leaves (1930).
- Ad astra (1931).
- Dry September (1931).
- That evening sun (1931).
- Hair (1931).
- Spotted horses (1931).
- The hound (1931).
- Fox hunt (1931).
- Divorce in Naples (1931).
- Mistral (1931).
- Death drag (1932).
- Smoke (1932).
- Mountain Victory (1932).
- There was a queen (1933).
- Artist at home (1933).
- Beyond (1933).
- Elly (1934).
- Pennsylvania station (1934).
- Wash (1934).
- A bear hunt (1934).
- The leg (1934).
- Black music (1934).
- Mule in the yard (1934).
- Ambuscade (1934).
- Retreat (1934).
- It! (1934).
- RAID (1934).
- Golden land (1935).
- That will be fine (1935).
- Uncle Willy (1935).
- Lion (1935).
- Two dollar wife (1936).
- Fool about a horse (1936).
- Monk (1937).
- Barn burning (1939).
- Hand upon the waters (1939).
- A point of law (1940).
- The old people (1940).
- Gold is not always (1940).
- tomorrow (1940).
- The tall men (1941).
- Delta autumn (1942).
- Afternoon of a cow (1943).
- Shingles of the lord (1943).
- My grandmother Millard and General Bedford Forrest and the battle of Harrykin Creek (1943).
- An error in chemistry (1946).
- A name for the city (1950).
- Notes on a Horsethief (1951).
- Sepulture south: gaslight (1954).
- By the people (1955).
- Mr. Acarius (1965).
- The wishing tree (1967).
- Nympholepsy (1973).
- May Day (1977).
- Frankie and Johnny (1978).
- Peter (1979).
- Adolescence (1979).
- Snow (1979).
- Moonlight (1979).
- Hog pawn (1979).
- To return (1979).
- The big shot (1979).
- Dule tale (1979).
- Evangeline (1979).
- Sees it (1988).
- Today We Live (1933).
- The road to glory (1936).
- Slave ship (1937).
- Gunga din (1939).
- To have and have not (1944).
- The southerner (1945).
- The big sleep (1946).
- Land of the pharaons (1955).
- The wish tree (Posthumous edition, 1964).
- William Faulkner. essays, speeches and public letters (Posthumous edition, 1966).
It was the first novel published by Faulkner and its content was related to history and war. The plot was based on the return of a soldier to his home after fighting in World War II, whom his relatives declared dead..
In this work the author also highlighted themes such as friendship, family union and commitment, since the return of the veteran also meant the recovery of his life and the encounter with love. The author set the story in Georgia.
This novel has been one of the most outstanding of the North American writer. It was inspired by one of the Macbeth scenes by the English playwright William Shakespeare, with the marked influence of James Joyce through his play Ulises.
Faulkner structured the work in four parts. The first was narrated by young Benjy, a thirty-three-year-old mentally disabled person who, from his perspective, recounted aspects of the southern Compson family, to which he belonged. The next was told by Quentin, his brother, shortly before taking his own life.
The third phase of this novel was described by another member of the Compson family named Jason. While the last one was made known by Dilsey, the African-American employee who knew that breed well, because she had worked with them for many years..
The noise and the fury told the story of a family in the southern United States that, after living in opulence, fell into disgrace and fell into disgrace. The Compson caste, lineage and fame disappeared over the years, and only the accounts of a few survivors remained..
As was common in Faulkner's works in this novel, he did not follow the chronological order of events, but allowed timelessness to make the subject more interesting. The past, present and future were combined to specify a unique style and an individual perception of time.
The first phase was developed on April 7, 1928, the second covered the period of June 2, 1910. The last two corresponded to 1928, but on April 6 and 8 respectively. The chronological form of the narrative gave the work dynamism and creativity.
It was a novel that belonged to the modernism movement and whose main theme was the death of Addie Bundren, wife of a farmer from the state of Mississippi, and the traditional desire of the family to take her remains to Jefferson, to the town of New Hope.
The development of the work took place through monologues distributed in fifteen characters, there were fifty-nine episodes that made it up. In addition, as was typical of Faulkner, the story took place in the town of Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi, a place created by him.
This novel was one of Faulkner's most famous because it developed the theme of rape, which was extremely controversial at the time it was published. The author also referred to the war in it, locating it in Yoknapatawpha, the town created by him.
With this work the American writer intertwined two stories. The first had to do with a woman named Lena Grove, who after being pregnant and abandoned by her partner, went out to look for him. The second was that of Joe Christmas, a mestizo who was executed for allegedly murdering his wife.
The tale connects when Lucas Burch, the man Lena sought out, accused Christmas. Faulkner located the plot in the month of August, with some time jumps to refer to the childhood of Joe Christmas and some events of the civil war; here the writer again turned to Mississippi as the main setting.
This novel of warlike content was one of Faulkner's most praised, investing the writer more than ten years of work. The play referred to the First World War and its main setting was France in 1918, during the course of a week.
The story recounted the actions of Stefan, a soldier who ordered his battle mates to stop attacking. That made the conflict cease because both sides were necessary for the war to make sense; finally the combatant was executed for his daring.
- "Bad people can be trusted, they never change".
- “A writer is inherently incapable of telling the truth; that is why we call what he writes fiction ".
- "To be great you need ninety-nine percent talent, ninety-nine percent discipline and ninety-nine percent work.".
- "I am not interested in ideas, only men".
- "Life is a road without return".
- "The saddest thing is that the only thing you can do for eight hours a day is work.".
- "Those who can act, and those who cannot, and suffer for it, write".
- "Some people are nice just because they don't dare to be otherwise".
- "The ultimate wisdom is to have dreams big enough not to lose sight of them while they are being pursued".
- "Always dream and aim higher than you know you can achieve".
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