William Faulkner: Shmoop Biography

Shmoop guide to William Faulkner Biography. Smart, fresh history of William Faulkner Biography by PhDs and Masters from Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley.
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How It All Went Down

Aside from a few brief stints in New York City and New Orleans, Faulkner spent the vast majority of his life on Mississippi soil, breathing Mississippi air and writing about Mississippi people. Faulkner's ties to The Magnolia State run deep: Though the author William Faulkner never met the predecessor for whom he was named—the Old Colonel was murdered by a business rival in —the elder Falkner loomed large in his great-grandson's imagination, influencing his writing and his vision of the South.

As a result of his family's stake in the railroad business, William Faulkner grew up in a financially comfortable—but not always happy—home.


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His father, Murry, drank heavily alcoholism was a constant in Faulkner's life and presided over the family in a tyrannical fashion, imposing silence at the dinner table and unexpectedly skipping town for days at a time. When young Billy was five years old, his grandfather—dubbed the "Young Colonel"—abruptly sold the family railroad company, forcing Murry to seek employment elsewhere.

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The Falkner family moved to Oxford, Mississippi, where Murry took a job running a livery stable the horse-and-buggy business was booming in ! Faulkner's younger brother, Dean, is killed in a plane crash at the age of Faulkner, who blames himself for the accident, is devastated, and the tragedy worsens his drinking problem.

Faulkner begins an affair with Meta Carpenter, a secretary he meets in Hollywood. The liaison will last—on and off—for fifteen years. Faulkner signs a screenwriting contract, this time with Warner Brothers, but regrets his decision almost immediately. Three years later, he leaves Hollywood, vowing never to return again.

William Faulkner

A collection of excerpts from Faulkner's major works, the book helps propel the heretofore-unnoticed author into literary fame. Faulkner receives the Nobel Prize for Literature. He and daughter Jill travel to Stockholm to accept the award. Faulkner, now more than 50 years old, meets Joan Williams, a student and aspiring writer at Bard College, and begins another affair.

When Estelle discovers her husband's relationship with Williams who is only a few years older than their daughter, Jill , she is furious.


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    5. William Faulkner dies of a heart attack at the age of 64, only a month after publishing his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Reivers. In fact, Faulkner was so absorbed in his writing that he lost touch with old friend and mentor Phil Stone. In the spring of , Stone sent him a telegram: It was time to come back home. Soldiers' Pay earned the first-time novelist positive reviews including one in The New York Times , and Faulkner was inspired to finish a draft of his sophomore effort, Mosquitoes.

    What William Faulkner did... and why you should care

    The novel, set in New Orleans, was published in , but only received a lukewarm response from critics and readers. Undeterred, Faulkner commenced work on yet another novel, Flags in the Dust , which delved into the world of the fictional Sartoris family we'll hear more about them later on.


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      8. The writing of Flags signaled another shift in Faulkner's career, when he began to create characters that would appear in multiple works. In the fall of , Faulkner submitted Flags in the Dust to his publishing company, believing the novel was his greatest work to date.