Faulkner The Quintessential Southern Writer :: essays papers

Faulkner The Quintessential s fall outhern WriterWilliam Faulkner The Quintessential Southern Writer On September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, a boy was born to Murry Cuthbert and Maud Butler Faulkner. This baby, born into a proud, genteel Southern family, would conk a mischievous boy, an indifferent student, and drop out of school that his mothers faith in him was absolutely unshakable. When so some(prenominal) others easily and confidently pronounced her son a failure, she insisted that he was a genius and that the world would come to recognize that fact (Zane). And she was right. Her son would wrench one of the most exalted American writers of the 20th century, winning the Nobel simoleons for Literature and two Pulitzers during his lifetime. Her son was William Faulkner.As a child, Faulkner was well conscious of his family background, especially the notoriety of his great-grandfather who had moved to the Mississippi Delta from Tennessee in 1841 (Zane). Willi am Clark Faulkner was a well-behaved War Colonel, a lawyer, a planter, a politician, a railroad entrepreneur, and a best-selling novelist best known for The White Rose of Memphis. He died in the streets of Ripley, Mississippi, where a former business partner he had forced out of his railroad gunned him down (Padgett). While Faulkner had never met his great-grandfather, he was a healthy influence. When his third grade teacher asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, the young William replied I want to be a writer equal my great-granddaddy(Padgett). After dropping out of school, Faulkner worked as a clerk in his grandfathers bank and in his spare time wrote briefly stories and poetry and contributed drawings to the University of Mississippis yearbook (Locher). His talent was recognized archaeozoic on by his good friend Phil Stone, Faulkners first literary mentor. Stone encouraged and instructed him in his interests and was a constant source of topical books and magazin es (Faulkner 699). After laconic stints in the Royal Canadian Air hurtle and then as a postal service employee, Faulkner, with Stones financial assistance, published The Marble Faun, a collection of his poetry. Sales were poor, however, and it was apparent(a) that Faulkners real talent was in writing fictional short stories and novels. His first novel, Soldiers Pay, was published in 1926 and was an impressive performancestrongly evocative of the sense of alienation experienced by soldiers returning(a) from World War I to a civilian world of which they seemed no longer a part (Faulkner 699).