Faulkner biography. Brief biography of Faulkner. Brief biography of William Faulkner by year

William Faulkner - famous American writer, laureate Nobel Prize on literature. He received the most prestigious award for a writer in 1949. His most famous works were the novels The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!, The Defiler of Ashes, collections of short stories The King's Gambit, The Great Woods, New Orleans Essays.

Childhood and youth

William Faulkner was born in 1897. He was born in the small town of New Albany in the United States in the state of Mississippi. His father was a business manager at the university, his name was Murray Charles Faulkner. The hero of our article was well known to his contemporaries, his grandfather, William, who during the years of the Civil War acted on the side of the Confederates, wrote a novel popular at that time called The White Rose of Memphis.

When William Faulkner was still young, his family moved upstate to the city of Oxford. There the writer spent almost his entire life. It is noteworthy that he was self-taught, did not finish his studies in high school, and after that he was engaged exclusively in self-education, from time to time he attended open lectures at the University of Mississippi.

To the front

In 1918, a personal tragedy occurred in the life of William Faulkner. A girl named Estelle Oldham, with whom he had been in love since childhood, preferred another to him. The frustrated hero of our article decided to volunteer for the front, while the First World War was going on. But he was not taken to the active army for several reasons, one of which turned out to be still too small. He was only 166 centimeters.

Therefore, he enlisted in the Canadian Royal Air Force, for which his small stature, on the contrary, turned out to be a plus. Faulkner entered the British Army flying school, which was located in Toronto. But the First World War ended before he completed the initial course of study.

Literary debut

After that, Faulkner returned to his native Oxford, still attended open lectures at the University of Mississippi, but soon abandoned them completely.

In 1919 he made his full-fledged literary debut. He managed to publish the poem "Midday rest of a faun". In 1924, William Faulkner's first book was published - it was a collection of poems "The Marble Faun".

In 1925 it happened an important event in his life - an acquaintance with a writer in New Orleans. He recommended that the hero of our article pay more attention to prose, not poetry, since his stories are more original. Anderson also advised writing about what he knows best - this is the American South, a specific piece of land, the size of a postage stamp, as he figuratively put it.

Yoknapatofa District

Soon, the writer William Faulkner invented a new county in Mississippi called Yoknapatofa, where he placed most of the heroes of his works. These novels and stories build into a Yoknopathof saga that becomes the original history of the American South, from the time of the first white settlers in these places, when the Indians still lived here, ending with the middle of the 20th century.

An important place in the novels of William Faulkner is the theme of the Civil War. The southerners suffered a crushing defeat in it, which was greatly experienced by several more generations of Americans living in these states. The heroes of the Faulkner saga are several families - de Spain, Snopes, Sartoris, Compsons, as well as other residents of this fictional family.

They wander from one work to another, turn for readers into old acquaintances, real people, about whose life each time they manage to learn something new and interesting.

"Sartoris"

The first work of William Faulkner, which brought him fame, was the novel "Sartoris", published in 1929.

It details the aristocratic Mississippian families in decline that followed the American Civil War in those states. Interestingly, it was originally released in an abbreviated version, only in 1973 it was published without cuts under the title "Flags in the Dust". The prototype for one of the main characters of the novel, Colonel John Sartoris, was the great-grandfather of the writer William Faulkner.

The novel takes place immediately after the end of the First World War. Sartoris live in the glory of John Sartoris, who built the first railway through Yoknapatofu.

"Sound and Fury"

In 1929, a new novel by William Faulkner was published. His best work is considered "The Sound and the Fury", which at first did not have commercial success for a long time. Popularity came to Faulkner only in 1931, when his "Sanctuary" came out.

The novel uses several storytelling styles, including the stream-of-consciousness technique pioneered by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce.

The action of this work takes place in the town of Jefferson in Mississippi. Main story line tells about the decline and disintegration of the large aristocratic Compson family living in the American South. The novel describes the events of about thirty years, during which the main characters face financial ruin, lose respect in the city and even their religious faith. Many tragically die.

The novel consists of four parts, which are interconnected by a large number of identical episodes, which are shown from different points of view, placing emphasis on different events and topics. The non-linear structure of the narrative makes it difficult to perceive the presentation. It is interesting that at first the author uses italics to help the reader understand when the transition from memories from the past to the events of the present occurs, but then he stops using this technique as well. It is known that initially he even wanted to use different printing ink, separating one episode from another. As a result, transitions often become so confusing and abrupt that it becomes very difficult for an inattentive reader.

Four parts

The first part of the novel "The Sound and the Fury" is written from the perspective of Benjamin Compson, a mentally handicapped man who is 33 years old. The reader does not manage to understand the features of his disease, apparently, he has mental retardation. Narratives from Benjy's point of view are constantly characterized by frequent and inconsistent chronological jumps.

The second part focuses on his older brother Quentin, including the events leading up to his suicide. The third part is written from the perspective of Quentin's younger brother, the cynical Jason. And in the fourth and final part of the work, Faulkner introduces the image of an objective author-observer, dedicating her to one of the dark-skinned maids of the Compson family, whose name is Dilsey. In it you can find references to the thoughts and actions of all family members.

The release of the new novel coincided with Faulkner's marriage to Estelle Oldham, waiting for her to divorce her first husband. They had two daughters. Jill and Alabama, who died in infancy. It is worth noting that Faulkner's works were very popular with critics, but not with readers, who considered him too complicated and too unusual.

Collaboration with Hollywood

With the advent of the family, the hero of our article had a need to earn more money than before. Therefore, he took up writing scripts for Hollywood films. In 1932, he even signed a contract with the well-known film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. According to him, he received $ 500 a week, which was solid money at that time.

Faulkner's responsibilities included writing original dialogues and plots, adapting and reworking existing scripts. The writer considered this work as a way to earn money, which would allow him to seriously concentrate on serious literature.

Colleagues remember the hero of our article as a very obstinate screenwriter, who, moreover, often went home. But with all this, he treated his work as conscientiously as possible, striking those around him with his efficiency. So, the standard norm for Hollywood screenwriters was to write 5 pages in one working day, Faulkner managed to write 35 pages during the same time.

His collaboration with Hollywood eventually stretched for a decade and a half. From 1932 to 1946, he supplied directors with his scripts, his collaborations with Howard Hawks were especially successful.

In parallel, as he had originally planned, he continued to work on his works. According to reviews about William Faulkner readers and authoritative literary critics his most amazing works belong to this period. These are "The Light in August", "Wild Palms", "The Undefeated", "The Village", "Absalom, Absalom!", the novel in the short stories "Come down, Moses", which included the famous story "The Bear".

"Absalom, Absalom"

Faulkner's 1936 novel "Absalom, Absalom!" already in early XXI century was recognized in America as the best work of the US South of all time. It tells about three families for quite a long time - before, during and after the Civil War.

The main story is dedicated to the fate of Thomas Sutpen, who came to Mississippi to get rich and build a patriarchal family. Reading this work is made difficult by the fact that the events in it do not develop in chronological order, you can often find contradictions in the details, a description of the same situation from different points of view. Thanks to this technique, the character and personality of Sutpen can be revealed from all sides.

Nobel Prize Award

The long-time American writer gained worldwide recognition in 1949 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Swedish academics appreciated his significant artistic contribution to the development of modern American novel.

In all his work, he repeatedly noted how important it is to explore the history and fate of one particular family, because in reality we know so little about the people who surround us, even about those whom we consider the closest in our lives. Here is one of William Faulkner's quotes:

Man knows so little about his fellow men. In his eyes, all men - or women - act from motives that would move them if he were mad enough to act like another man - or woman.

It was after the Nobel Prize was awarded that Faulkner's novels became popular in Europe as well.

Faulkner dies in 1962 at the age of 64.

William Faulkner is an American author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Also received a Pulitzer Prize. In this short biography of William Faulkner, we have tried to collect the main milestones in the life and work of the writer.

The future novelist was born on September 25, 1897 in New Albany. Faulkner's father was the owner of a paid stable in the city of Oxford. The writer spent his whole life in this city.

The writer graduated from junior high school, Faulkner studied and studied mostly on his own. He completed several special courses at the University of Mississippi, but in general he did not receive any specific education.

Brief biography of William Faulkner by year

1918 - Faulkner's girlfriend Estella Oldham marries another man and after that he enrolls as a volunteer in the Royal Canadian Air Force. But the first World War ends before Faulkner completes the main training course. After that, he returns to Oxford. For a while he takes courses at the university and works part-time in a small bookstore. At the same time, he often changes jobs and professions.

1919 - enters the University of Mississippi, choosing to study French and Spanish and English literature. However, Faulkner focuses on self-education, which is why he eventually abandons his studies at the university.

1925 - Faulkner's first book is published - a cycle of poems "The Marble Faun" (The Marble Faun), in which the influence of the poetry of the French symbolists is noticeably felt.

In the same year, the writer leaves for New Orleans, where he meets the writer Sherwood Anderson. Sherwood gives advice to pay more attention to Faulkner's prose. He also advises Faulkner to write about what he knows best - the American South.

1926 - With the help of Anderson, Faulkner publishes his first novel, Soldiers' Pay, about youthful false romanticism and the lessons of World War I.

For some period the writer lives in the bohemian quarter of New Orleans, and after a short time he moves to New York, then sails to Europe by ship, cycles around Italy and France, and from there returns back to Oxford.

1927 - After his arrival in Oxford, Faulkner finishes his second novel, Mosquitoes - satirical image literary circles in New Orleans. Here, the first setting is Yoknapatofa County, a fictionalized version of his hometown of Lincoln County, Mississippi, and the town of Jefferson, the epitome of America's small towns. On the map of this imaginary world, the writer writes: "The sole owner and proprietor is William Faulkner."

1929 - Faulkner's third novel, Sartoris, is published, beginning a series of works describing the history of families such as the Compsons and Sartoris.

Also in the same year, one of Faulkner's major works appeared, the novel that brought him fame, The Sound and the Fury. It is narrated in the novel about degradation before wealthy and famous family Compsonov. The leitmotifs of the novel are philosophical pessimism, the destruction of the way of life, the destruction of the individual, panic before history and time, and incest as the last factor symbolizing the doom of man. "The Sound and the Fury" is a work in 4 parts of which the events are narrated from different people. The most interesting of them is the look of the mentally ill Benji Compson. Interestingly, the title of the novel is borrowed from Shakespeare's Macbeth, where a person's life is called a story told by a madman, in which there is no meaning, but only noise and rage.

Speaking about the biography of William Faulkner, it should be noted that this year brings worldwide fame to Faulkner. He marries the divorced Estella Oldham and settles on the outskirts of Oxford.

1930 - As I Lay Dying is published, where the fate of a large farming family is revealed during the death and funeral of an old mother. In form, the work presents alternating monologues. actors.

1931 - The book "Sanctuary" (Sanctuary), written based on commercial success. The book was originally conceived as a novel about a nerd gangster who committed many crimes with impunity, but was executed on an accidental charge. The book, after a radical revision, turned into the story of a spoiled and frivolous girl Temple Drake.

1932 - the novel "Light in August" (Light in August), main character Joe Christmas, an unsociable and wayward mulatto, kills his white cohabitant. The interweaving of sexual, racial and religious motifs gives the story a high emotional intensity.

1934 - The collection Doctor Martino and Other Stories appears.

1935 - The novel "Pylon" (Pylon) is born.

1936 - Absalom, Absalom! (Absalom, Absalom!) - the story of futile attempts to create a "new dynasty" of planters - the dreams of Colonel Sutpen, who has escaped from poverty, are crumbling: his numerous descendants, white and mulatto, are degenerating.

1938 - The Unvanquished.

1939 novel The Wild Palms.

1940 - The Hamlet - the first three-part novel. The first book describes the history of the new southern kind of Snopes.

1942 - a cycle of stories "Go Down, Moses" (Go Down, Moses), mainly about the life of blacks, among which is the famous story "The Bear" (The Bear).

1948 - Intruder in the dust - a version of the detective novel, where a white boy saves a black man who is falsely accused of murder.

1949 - a collection of short stories Knight's Gambit.

1950 - Faulkner is awarded the Nobel Prize "for outstanding original creative contribution to the development of the modern American novel", which becomes an important milestone in the work and biography of William Faulkner. The collection "Collected Stories" is published.

1954 - the novel "A Fable" (A Fable), which is based on a real episode of the First World War, when the French refused to shoot at the Germans. The book is an allegory where an unknown soldier, likened to the gospel Christ, protests on behalf of the dumb soldier mass against the spiritual blindness of the rulers of the world.

1955 - Faulkner receives the Pulitzer Prize for The Parable.

1957 - The second part of the Snopes trilogy is published, the novel The Town and the collection of short stories big forest(Big Woods, 1957).

1959 - The third part of the Snopes trilogy, The Mansion.

1962 - The Rievers comic novel, which was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

After reading the biography of William Faulkner, you can rate this writer at the top of the page. In addition, we suggest you visit the Biographies section to read about other popular writers.

American writer, prose writer

short biography

(Eng. William Cuthbert Faulkner, 1897 - 1962) - American writer, prose writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1949).

Born September 25, 1897 in New Albany (Mississippi) in the family of the manager of the University of Murray Charles Faulkner and Maude (Butler) Faulkner. His great-grandfather, William Faulkner (1826-1889), served in the Army of the South during the War of the North and the South and was the author of the then-famous novel The White Rose of Memphis. When Faulkner was still a child, the family moved to the city of Oxford, in the north of the state, where the writer lived all his life. William was self-taught: he graduated from junior high school, then educated himself and occasionally attended courses at the University of Mississippi.

In 1918, Estelle Oldham, with whom Faulkner had been in love since childhood, married another. William decided to go to the front as a volunteer, but he was not taken, including because of his height (166 cm). He then volunteered for the Royal Canadian Air Force and entered the British Army Flying School in Toronto, but before he could complete the course, the First World War was over.

Faulkner returned to Oxford and again began to attend classes at the University of Mississippi, however, soon quit. The year before, in 1919, he had made his literary debut with the publication of his poem "Après-midi d'un faune" in The New Republic. Then in 1924 his first book was published - a collection of poems "The Marble Faun" ("The Marble Faun").

In 1925, Faulkner met writer Sherwood Anderson in New Orleans. He recommended that Faulkner pay more attention to prose than poetry, and advised him to write about what Faulkner knows best - about the American South, about one tiny plot of this land "the size of a postage stamp."

Soon a new district appeared in the state of Mississippi - Yoknapatofa, fictional by Faulkner, where the action of most of his works will take place. Together they make up the Yoknopathof saga - the history of the American South from the arrival of the first white settlers to the lands of the Indians until the middle of the twentieth century. A special place in it is occupied by the Civil War of 1861-1865, in which the southerners were defeated. The heroes of the saga were representatives of several families - Sartoris, de Spains, Compsons, Snopes, as well as other residents of Yoknapatofa. Passing from work to work, they become old acquaintances, real people about whose life you learn something new every time. The first novel in the saga was Sartoris, which portrayed the decline of the Mississippian slave aristocracy following the social upheavals of the Civil War (an abridged version of the novel was published in 1929; it was not published in its entirety until 1973 under the title Flags in the Dust).

Faulkner's first major recognition came with the publication of The Sound and the Fury (1929). In the same year he married Estelle Oldham, after her divorce from her first husband. They had two daughters: Alabama, who died in 1931, and Jill. However, Faulkner's works were mostly critical rather than reader success, being considered unusual and complex.

To support his family, Faulkner began writing scripts for Hollywood, signing a contract with MGM in April 1932. The contract provided for a fee of $500 per week. For this money, Faulkner pledged to "write original stories and dialogue, make adaptations, refine scripts, etc., and perform all other functions normally performed by writers." The writer considered this work as an income in order to be able to engage in serious literature (“I make up my salary for literary day labor in the cinema”). Once, summoned to the studio and crossing the border of the state of California, he said to his companion: “Here you should put up a pillar with the inscription:“ Abandon hope, everyone who enters here, ”or whatever it is with Dante. Nevertheless, despite some obstinacy and frequent absences home, he treated his work conscientiously. For example, Faulkner impressed screenwriter Joel Sayre Joel Sayre with his ability to work. In Hollywood, it was considered a very good result if the screenwriter wrote five pages a day, and Faulkner sometimes wrote 35 pages.

The writer was associated with Hollywood for fifteen years - from 1932 to 1946, making several films with director Howard Hawks. In the same years, he created novels: Light in August (1932), Absalom, Absalom! (1936), The Undefeated (1938), Wild Palms (1939), The Village (1940) and others, as well as the novel in short stories Get Down, Moses (1942), which included his most famous story, The Bear ".

Only the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 (for "a significant and artistically unique contribution to the development of the modern American novel") brought Faulkner, whose work has long been loved in Europe, recognition at home. In 2009, the Oxford American collegial journal of the American South called "Absalom, Absalom!" the best southern novel of all time.

Novels

Soldier's award / Soldiers Pay (1926)
Mosquitoes / mosquitoes (1927)
Sartoris / Sartoris (Flags in the Dust) (1929)
Noise and Fury / The Sound and the Fury (1929)
When I was dying As I Lay Dying (1930)
Sanctuary / Sanctuary (1931)
Light in August / Light in August (1932)
Pylon / Pylon (1935)
Absalom, Absalom! / Absalom, Absalom! (1936)
Undefeated / The Unvanquished (1938)
wild palms / The Wild Palms (If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem) (1939)
Village / The Hamlet (1940)
Come down, Moses / Go Down, Moses (1942)
Ash Defiler / Intruder in the Dust (1948)
Requiem for a Nun / Requiem for a Nun (1951)
Parable / A Fable(1954, Pulitzer Prize)
City / The Town (1957)
Mansion / The Mansion (1959)
Kidnappers / The Reivers(1962, Pulitzer Prize)

Storybooks

Thirteen / These Thirteen (1931)
Doctor Martino and Other Stories (1934)
Favorites / The Portable Faulkner (1946)
King's Gambit / Knight's Gambit (1949)
Collected Stories of William Faulkner (1950)
Big Woods: The Hunting Stories (1955)
New Orleans Sketches (1958)

Translations into Russian

Collected works in 6 volumes. M., Fiction, 1985 - 1987
Seven stories. M., ed. foreign lit., 1958
Pyro. Stories. Moscow, Pravda, 1959
Full circle turn. Stories. Moscow, Pravda, 1963.
Village. M., Fiction, 1964
City. M., Fiction, 1965
Mansion. M., Fiction, 1965
Sartoris. Bear. Ash Defiler. M., Progress, 1973, 1974
Light in August. Mansion. M., Fiction, 1975
Collection of stories. M., Nauka, 1977

Biography

William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi (USA) on September 25, 1897. In the family of a university worker. The family played an important role for William, he was the eldest son, and later he had to become the head of the family. Faulkner's talent for literary skill manifested itself early, as a child he began to write poetry. A more serious manifestation of creativity will begin after studying at the Royal Canadian Air Force.

After 1918, he studied at the University of Mississippi, worked as a laborer, published a volume of poetry. The most noticeable mark on his work was left by the acquaintance of the seventeen-year-old Faulkner with Philip Stone.

In 1925, he leaves for New Orleans, where he meets Sherwood Anderson, who, after viewing William's works, advises him to take prose seriously. In 1925 - 1927 his novels "Soldiers' Pay", "Mosquitoes" were published. In the summer of 1927, Faulkner began writing his famous novel from a series of books about the fictitious country "Yoknapatawpha County". In 1928, William changed his surname from the original Falkner. And the next year, 1929, William Faulkner marries Estelle Oldham and becomes stepfather to her two children from her first marriage. The family lives on the money they earn from literary activity Faulkner. Since 1930, the author has been sending his stories to various national publications and buying a house in Oxford.

But closer to 1932, the financial condition is deteriorating, and William decides to sell the copyright to the novel Light in August. But the publication did not accept the offer.

Then Faulkner accepted the proposition of MGM Studios and worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood from 1932 until the 1940s. From February to June 1957, William worked as a writer-in-residence at the University of Virginia. While riding in 1959 he was seriously injured.

William Faulkner(1897-1962), modernist writer of the same generation as E. Hemingway, who worked in the same genres (short and full-length prose); like Hemingway, winner of the Pulitzer and Nobel (1949) prizes, who died almost simultaneously with Hemingway, otherwise was almost his complete opposite. If Hemingway's work is based on the facts of his biography and is inseparable from his time (20-50s of the XX century), then W. Faulkner's prose is outside the specific events of his life and outside of time, even if the author accurately indicates the date of this or that event.

W. Faulkner grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, in a house full of close and distant relatives and family legends about glorious ancestors, among which the great-great-grandfather of the writer William Clark Faulkner stood out. The glorious great-great-grandfather was a lawyer, a colonel in the Confederate army in civil war, author of the popular romantic novel"White Rose of Memphis" (1881), had a solid income and sharp feeling honor. The Faulkner family, prominent and wealthy, who owned the railroad, experienced a financial decline by the beginning of the 20th century. W. Faulkner's father had to earn money: he kept stables, a store, then became the treasurer of the University of Mississippi.

Faulkner graduated from high school in 1915; in 1918 he volunteered for the Royal Canadian Air Force and served for several months in Toronto. In 1919, as a young veteran, he was admitted to the University of Mississippi, where he studied French language and literature, but left this occupation after a year and a half. He worked as a bookstore clerk in New York, as a carpenter, house painter and then as a university postmaster in his native Oxford. In 1924 he left for New Orleans, where he met S. Anderson, which determined his writing destiny.

From his school years, he tried without much success to compose poetry and short prose, who had several magazine publications and a poetic collection "The Marble Faun", Faulkner found in the person of S. Anderson a patron, inspirer and teacher. In 1925 he traveled through Europe, visited Italy, Switzerland, France and England and returned to New Orleans, and soon left for his Oxford to live there for the rest of his days. Thus, Faulkner's tribute to the cosmopolitan spirit of his generation was minimal; what fueled Hemingway, Henry Miller and others all their lives - travel, experiences, acquaintance with the world - Faulkner fit in one year. Only in the early 1950s, having become a Nobel laureate, did he leave Oxford for a while for short lecture trips to Europe and once to Japan.

The tribute given by Faulkner to the prose theme of the "lost" was also minimal and amounted to a collection of short stories and two novels (Soldier's Award, 1926; Mosquitoes, 1927). Already in the late 20s, he found his original theme- the history and modernity of the American South - and published two works ("The Noise and Fury", 1929; "Sartoris", 1929), which were then included in the so-called "Yoknapatofskaya saga".

Faulkner's Yoknapatotha is over seventy short stories, mostly combined into cycles ("Come down, Moses!", "The Undefeated", etc.), and seventeen novels: "Light in August" (1932), "Absalom, Absalom! " (1936), "Requiem for a Nun" (1951), the trilogy "Village" (1940), "City" (1957), "Mansion" (1960) and others, the action of which takes place in the fictional district of Yoknapatofa in the South of the United States, and the characters move from work to work.

Yoknapatofa, inhabited by aristocrats (Sartoris, Compsons, Sutpen, De Spain), the descendants of their black slaves and "white bastards", is an exact model of the southern province, behind which a certain global mythological model of life in general looms. The scale and significance of what is happening is emphasized by the author's explicit or implicit reference to the Bible, to ancient mythological ideas and rituals of Native Americans.

The very structure of the mythopoetic thinking of the departing America is embodied in the peculiar principle of organization artistic world"Yoknapatof saga", where the past is intertwined with the present, because time here does not move in a progressive sequence, but cyclically, and the fate of people is built into its eternal circulation.

The exact reproduction by the writer of the mythological concept of time and human life, the very style of myth-making thinking is the result of his intuitive approach to the fundamental principles of being, which, in turn, is associated with Faulkner's rootedness in the life of the patriarchal agrarian American South, which carefully preserves its traditions. This rootedness largely explains the fact that the work of W. Faulkner, closed in space, but infinitely expanded in time, based not on individual concrete historical, but on eternal human experience, broke out of the rather narrow aesthetic framework of the literature of the post-war generation.

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