A Biography of William Faulkner
1
English 11 Shivang Patel
A Biography of William Faulkner
Middletown High School
A Biography of William Faulkner
2
A Biography of William Faulkner
William Faulkner is known to be one of the greatest American authors. He was the only
one that was considered to be a true American Modernist fiction writer of 1930s. Also, he was
known for his use of literary devices like multiple points of views, time-shift within narrative,
and stream of consciousness (Haigen, 1977). This autobiography of William Faulkner will
inform you about his background, things that influenced his writing, some of his work including
themes and topic, genre, and the criticism of his work.
William Faulkner was born William Cuthbert Falkner on September 25, 1897, in New
Albany, Mississippi, later he changed his last name to Faulkner because of his grandfather who
was a famous writer (John, 2010). His parents are Murry and Maud Falkner. His father was a
railroad worker and he owned a cottonseed oil plant. He attended the University of Oxford in
1912 and dropped out in 1915. After dropping out of college, he wanted to join the army during
World War I but was not accepted because of his small figure. But that did not stop him from
joining the war. He got into the British air force after forging letters of recognition from made-up
English men (John, 2010). The war ended before he got to fight, so he went back to Mississippi,
attended the University of Oxford in 1919 and dropped out again, a semester later. After
dropping out, he did different job and wrote novels, poems, and plays. He wasn’t noticed by the
public for awhile, until he published As I Lay Dying. Faulkner married Estelle Oldham, but
didn’t turn out great. He soon found out she wasn’t in love with him. They did have a daughter
named Jill (John, 2010). Later, he became a screenwriter in Hollywood for The Big Sleep, and
Raymond Chandler’s. Then he quit and left to go back to Mississippi. Faulkner died of a heart
failure in July 6, 1962 (John, 2010).
A Biography of William Faulkner
3
Location where William Faulkner lived, historical event, and some people had a great
influence on his writing. Mississippi had a great influence on this writing because it was located
in the “deep south” of United States, which was were a lot of racisms back then against the
black occurred. He decided to use racism in his story because he didn’t like it and he wanted to
share that to everyone else (Haigen, 1997). Another influence on his writing was the “Great
Depression” because it helped influence many of his books and he helped people get through the
tough times (Haigen, 1997). An author that had a major influence on his writing was Mark
Twain because he had the same views as Faulkner on racism and he admired him. Another
person that has an influence on his writing was Faulkner’s great grandfather because he also was
a famous writer and he influenced him to write and to be just like him.
When Faulkner wrote his novels, it was aimed for the people of the south were slavery
was because as he was growing up in the south he has seen many horrible things happen (Sarah,
2007). The reason why he wrote was to show the southern people how bad slavery was and to
help people get away from racism (Sarah, 2007).
Faulkner used different themes in his writing than other authors. Some of the themes
were tragedy, difficulty of determining the truth, and the South. He always tries to stress the
meaning of truth (John, 2010). The main topic he wrote about are racism, the Great Depression,
and about his family (John, 2010). Some of this well known writings are: As I Lay Dying, Light
in August, The Wild Palms, Sanctuary, Go Down, Moses, and A Fable.
People believed that the genre of Faulkner’s writing was “Southern Gothic”, which was a
style of stories that often feature grotesque scenes, cruelty and terror, and indistinct characters
(Sarah, 2007). A lot of people thought that the genre of Faulkner’s literature was the very first
A Biography of William Faulkner
4
modernistic piece of literature; also that he was the first modernistic writer of the 1930’s (Sarah,
2007).
A lot of critics didn’t not like Faulkner’s way of stressing his themes in his work. Some
people like Arthur Kinney hated his work because he thought that Faulkner wrote too much
about racism, “Racism spreads contagiously through his works, unavoidably. Its force is often
debilitating; its consequences often beyond reckoning openly” (Sarah, 2007). Another person
who criticized Faulkner’s work was Leslie Campbell. She though all of Faulkner’s stories were
the same (Sarah, 2007). Faulkner’s work didn’t appeal to many critics.
Even thought Faulkner was not accepted by many people; he is still a great American
author. Faulkner contributed many things to American literature. He is important for trying to
change America by showing people how bad racism was in the south. Also, he was important for
being the one of the first modernistic author.
A Biography of William Faulkner
5
Reference
(2007).William Cuthbert Faulkner. In Book & Authors. Retrieved from
http://bna.galegroup.com/bna/short_bio/GALE%7C13658997/Faulkner
%20William%20Cuthbert
Haigen, J. F. (1997).William Faulkner. In Canada’s America. Retrieved from
http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/canam/faulkner.htm
John, P. G. (2010). William Faulkner. The Mississippi Writers Page. Retrieved from
http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/faulkner_william/
Sarah, H. J. (2007). William Faulkner. Tripod. Retrieved from
http://perdoober.tripod.com/Faulkner.html
William Faulkner - Biography. (n.d.). Nobelprize.org. Retrieved from
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-bio.html