Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi. Although he shortly lived in Europe and Hollywood he spent most of his life in Mississippi and Virginia. He accomplished much in the literary world without ever graduating from high school, receiving a college degree and living in a small town in a poor state during the Great Depression. He exemplified artistic talent at a young age but became bored with school and learning at a young age. He later trained to be in the RAF but the war ended before he finished training. Many of his earlier stories were exaggerated stories about war. He talked about injuries and eventually wrote his first published novel, Soldiers' Pay in 1926.
He eventually enrolled at the University of Mississippi even though he never graduated from high school. While he was a student he would publish poems and short stories in the campus newspaper. He also wrote a one-act play called The Marionettes but it was never staged. He dropped out November 1920. 1921 he took a job as an assistant in a bookstore in New York City and then became a postmaster in 1922. He agreed to resign from being a postmaster because he was not very good at his job. He also served as a boycott master but resigned for moral reasons which probably included drinking.
After moving back to New Orleans and falling in with a literary crowd he began publishing various poems and novels. His novels Soldiers' Pay, Mosquitoes, Satoris and tried to publish Flags in the Dust which was rejected by his publisher and others. He then wrote a novel that was strictly for himself. Its composed of four sections which are told by brothers of a single family. The four parts reveal the demise of a previously prominent southern family. Thus The Sound and the Fury was born.
Faulkner went on to earn two Pulitzer Prizes and the 1949 Nobel Prize for literature. Sound and the Fury helped his career take off.
Faulkner did so much in his life. It's interesting that he worked in Hollywood and still came back to Mississippi. He also seems to have lived all over the U.S. and even spent some time in Europe.
ReplyDeleteI've looked at several blogs and some of them also mentioned that Faulkner was also a big drinker. One even mentioned that Faulkner might have been drunk while delivering his speech. It is interesting to see how Faulkner may have had a slight drinking problem but all of his works and speeches were still extraordinary.
ReplyDeleteI like your intro.It flows very well and you covered a lot of information. It's interesting how much of The Sound and the Fury was based on actual places and real feelings of the people living there.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your voice in this post
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