William Faulkner emerged from the ravaged South-half backwoods, half
defeated empire-transforming his corner of Mississippi into the fictional Yoknapatawpha County
and bestowing on the world some of the most revolutionary and enduring literature of the
twentieth century. The personal story behind the work has fascinated readers nearly as much as
the great novels, but Faulkner has remained elusive despite numerous biographies that have
attempted to decipher his private life and his wild genius. In an ambitious biography that will
encompass two volumes, Carl Rollyson has created a life of Faulkner for the new
millennium.
Rollyson has drawn on an unprecedented amount of material to
present the richest rendering of Faulkner yet published. In addition to his own extensive
interviews, Rollyson consults the complete-and never fully shared-research of pioneering
Faulkner biographer Joseph Blotner, who discarded from his authorized biography substantial
findings in order to protect the Faulkner family. Rollyson also had unrivaled access to the work
of Carvel Collins, whose decades-long inquiry produced one of the greatest troves of primary
source material in American letters.
This first volume follows Faulkner from
his formative years through his introduction to Hollywood. Rollyson sheds light on
Faulkner's unpromising, even bewildering youth, including a gift for tall tales that
blossomed into the greatest of literary creativity. He provides the fullest portrait yet of
Faulkner's family life, in particular his enigmatic marriage, and offers invaluable new
insight into the ways in which Faulkner's long career as a screenwriter influenced his
iconic novels.
Integrating Faulkner's screenplays, fiction, and life,
Rollyson argues that the novelist deserves to be reread not just as a literary figure but as a
still-relevant force, especially in relation to issues of race, sexuality, and equality. The
culmination of years of research in archives that have been largely ignored by previous
biographers, The Life of William Faulkner offers a significant challenge and
an essential contribution to Faulkner scholarship.