Faulkner, originally spelt Falkner, was born on September 25 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. The eldest of four sons of a middle class family, William grew up the in the South and enjoyed the luxuries of life in a rural area. Faulkner never finished high school; he left in 1915 after he got a broken nose playing football.
Over the next few years Faulkner worked at miscellaneous jobs while beginning his writing career. Originally he worked with verse and had his writings published in smallscale journals and papers. In April of 1918, he enrolled in the British Royal Air Force but never made it into combat as the war ended before he finished training.
The following year he enrolled in classes at the tin University of Mississippi.In 1924, Faulkner published The Marble Faun, a verse-sequence and continued to write his short stories. It was not until 1926 that he published his first major novel, Soldiers Pay, in which lie depicted life of a soldier after returning from war In l929 Faulkner created the imaginary land of Jefferson and Yoknapatawpha County in Sartoris: it is these counties that are the setting for most of his following novels.
In 1929 he married Estelle Oldhain and within a year he bought Rowan Oak, where lie spent most of his time in the following years. In October of that year The Sound and the Fury was published and proceeded to gain Faulkner a lot of recognition. It was a different approach to fiction in that it provided a look at a story from four very separate viewpoints.
Each of Faulkners novels offers a little bit of enlightenment on the subject that they pertain to. Often they are stylistically enterprising, as well as the subject matter being of great interest Absalom Absalom! contrasts viewpoints from which the story is told as it depicts the life of a troubled. Southern family. The Wild Palms is another example of Faulkners creativity. The story is told from two distinctly contradicting points of view.
In 1942 Faulkner again shocked the literary world with his graphic depiction of racial, specifically black versus white, interactions on a Southern plantation. Many thought that Faulkner had under taken the task of historically representing the south during this era. In 1950, Faulkner completed Collected Stories, which was extremely popular and later that year he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
After this many critics claim that his work went down hill. He began to live the excessive life of drinking, affairs and travel. He began to profess his political views on the North versus South controversy in an attempt to obtain resolution. He continued to write but there was, in the minds of some something missing in his later novels. In July of 1962, one month after completing his final novel, The Reivers, he was dead from a heart attack at the age of 64.
Faulkners impact in the novel is unequaled; his style innovations offered a new approach to the novel. His portrayal of racial tensions in the South, as well as his look into other important social issues was a daring take on the realm of literatures reach. His writings were not only well received here but overseas as well, making him one of the most influential writers of this time.
