Faulkner Friday: William Faulkner's connection with the University of Mississippi was a varied one, including a stint as an abysmal postmaster. Regardless, Ole Miss has put together a vast website dedicated to the writer. Learn about his life, his family tree, his home at Rowan Oak, and even a FAQ for those common questions. Learn about his novels, his short stories, and his poems. And if that's all old hat, how about information on his work in Hollywood, a source of academic resources on the writer, a listing of other websites on Faulkner, and lastly, a page of trivia, quotes, and quizzes.
posted by Atreides on Aug 14, 2009 - 7 comments

Faulkner Friday: Listen to William Faulkner read from As I lay Dying, while enjoying a photo montage of his life. Part Two. Still not satisfied? Then listen to Faulkner read from Old Man. Part II. Bonus: Audio of most of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
posted by Atreides on Aug 7, 2009 - 20 comments

The Sound and the Fury. 75 years ago, William Faulkner finished his fourth novel. It was published later in the fall (October 7, 1929), and for the first fifteen years sales totaled just over 3,300 copies (an appendix was added in 1946, when most of Faulkner's books were out of print. Of course, a few years after that he was awarded the Nobel Prize). It was Faulkner's own favorite novel, primarily, he said, because he considered it his "most splendid failure". Many critics think it's the finest work of an American Master: the key to Faulkner, wrote Alfred Kazin (.pdf file), lies not only in the unflinching extremity of his God-blasted characters, but in the odd and unaccountable moments of redemptive human tenderness. The Internet is very kind to Faulkner's fans: we can check out the Faulkner home, his manuscripts and even his pipe, trivia from his Postmaster's days, we can read examples of his snarkiness (hurled against Hemingway and Clark Gable), we can admire the pages of screenplays from his Hollywood days. We can go to Faulkner academic conferences, too: in the USA and Japan. Want to know what Bunny Wilson and Ralph Ellison had to say about Faulkner? Here. (more inside, with Conan O'Brien)
posted by matteo on Jun 11, 2004 - 30 comments