Faulkner, William (Cuthbert)

Faulkner, William (Cuthbert) (originally William Cuthbert Falkner), (1897–1962), American novelist, born in Mississippi, where he spent most of his life; the history and legends of the South, and of his own family, were the material of his greater books. While working as a journalist in New Orleans he met S. Anderson, who encouraged him to write his first novel, Soldier's Pay (1926). Others followed, including Sartoris (1929), the first of the series about the decline of the Compson and Sartoris families, representative of the Old South, and the rise of the crude and unscrupulous Snopes family. The principal setting of these novels is ‘Jefferson’, a town in the mythical Yoknapatawpha County.

The Sound and the Fury (1929) is a narrative tour de force in which Faulkner views the decline of the South through several eyes, most remarkably those of Benjy Compson, a 33-year-old ‘idiot’. The work is an astonishing display of technical brilliance written in a sombre and lyrical mood. As I Lay Dying (1930) demonstrates Faulkner's comic as well as his tragic vision. He made his name with the more sensational Sanctuary (1931), and confirmed his reputation as one of the finest of modern novelists in Light in August (1932) and Absalom, Absalom! (1936). Other important works include The Hamlet (1940), Intruder in the Dust (1948), and several volumes of short stories. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1949. In England he found an early champion in A. Bennett, who wrote a preface for the 1930 English edition of Soldier's Pay.