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William Faulkner

American writer (1897-1962) · United States · Writers · Died at 64

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He invented a county that doesn't exist and filled it with enough damaged families, time-warped narratives, and moral reckoning to win the Nobel Prize. Faulkner turned rural Mississippi into the most scrutinized patch of fictional earth in American letters.

WritersWriter / AuthorScreenwritingPoetryFictionTheatreLiteratureUnited States

A life in dates

1963Pulitzer Prize for FictionAward1962Died6 July 1962“Why that's a hundred miles away. That's a long way to go just to eat.”In their words20 January 1962On declining invitation to White House dinner honoring Nobel laureates, as quoted in Life magazine (January 20, 1962)

1961“There is something about jumping a horse over a fence, something that makes you feel good. Perhaps it's the risk, the gamble. In any event it's a thing I need.”In their words14 July 1961As quoted in Elliot Chaze, "Visit to Two-Finger Typist", LIFE magazine (July 14, 1961)

1959“Mr. Khrushchev says that Communism, the police state, will bury the free ones.”In their words3 October 1959Speech to the UNESCO Commission, as quoted in The New York Times (October 3, 1959)

1955National Book AwardAwardPulitzer Prize for FictionAward1951National Book AwardAward1950William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and LettersAward1949Nobel Prize in LiteratureAward1942“Be scared. You can't help that. But don't be afraid. Ain't nothing in the woods going to hurt you unless you corner it, or it smells that you are afraid.”In their words9 May 1942"The Bear" in The Saturday Evening Post (May 9, 1942)

1939O. Henry AwardAward1931“For the holy are susceptible too to evil, even as you and I, signori; they too are helpless before sin without God's aid...”In their words"Mistral" (1931) - short story found in Collected Stories (1950)

1930“The two Indians crossed the plantation toward the slave quarters. ... "Man was not made to sweat." "That's so. See what it has done to their flesh." "Yes. Black.”In their words"Red Leaves", The Saturday Evening Post (1930), also published in These 13 (1931) and Collected Stories of William Faulkner (1950)

1897Born25 September 1897

Also in Deutsch

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In their own words 10

,
William Faulkner
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. Why that's a hundred miles away. That's a long way to go just to eat.

    Jan 20, 1962, On declining invitation to White House dinner honoring Nobel laureates, as quoted in Life magazine (January 20, 1962), Own words

  2. There is something about jumping a horse over a fence, something that makes you feel good. Perhaps it's the risk, the gamble. In any event it's a thing I need.

    Jul 14, 1961, As quoted in Elliot Chaze, "Visit to Two-Finger Typist", LIFE magazine (July 14, 1961), Own words

  3. Mr. Khrushchev says that Communism, the police state, will bury the free ones.

    Oct 3, 1959, Speech to the UNESCO Commission, as quoted in The New York Times (October 3, 1959), Own words

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Awards

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction1963
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction1955
National Book Award1955
National Book Award1951
William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters1950
Nobel Prize in Literature1949
O. Henry Award1939
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres

Family

William Faulkner

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About this person

Born in New Albany, Mississippi in 1897 and raised in Oxford, Faulkner joined the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War I but never saw combat. He dropped out of the University of Mississippi after three semesters, drifted to New Orleans, and published his first novel Soldiers' Pay in 1925. Back in Oxford, he created Yoknapatawpha County - a stand-in for Lafayette County - and set Sartoris there in 1927. The next stretch brought The Sound and the Fury in 1929, then As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! He also wrote screenplays for Howard Hawks, including To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep. Malcolm Cowley's 1946 anthology revived his reputation, and in 1949 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He took two Pulitzers after that, for A Fable and The Reivers, and died of a heart attack in 1962 after falling from his horse.

Country
United States
Category
Writers
Type
Writer / Author
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1897 to 1962 · aged 64

In common with William

Ernest HemingwayAlso in To Have and Have Not (1945)Orson WellesAlso in The Long, Hot Summer (1958)Humphrey BogartAlso in The Big Sleep (1946)Errol FlynnAlso in Adventures of Don Juan (1948)Rock HudsonAlso in The Tarnished Angels (1957)Lee RemickAlso in Sanctuary (1961)

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