William Clark Faulkner was born in New Albany , Mississippi on September 25, 1897. On September 22,1902, William and his family moved to Oxford, Mississippi. In 1909 William started working on his father's livery stable. William began writing poetry. In 1914, William took his poetry to Phil Stone. William and Phil began a long friendship. Then William dropped out of the 11th grade. In 1915, William returned to school to play football. That fall he once again quit school.

In 1918 William joined the Canadian Royal Air Force as a cadet. He reported to Toronto on July 9. The next day he entered active service. That same year he was discharged from RAF in December and returned to Oxford. When he got there he wrote L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune and it appeared in The New Republic. He entered University of Mississippi and wrote poems for The Mississippian and The Oxford Eagle.

On July 7, 1925, William sailed to Europe with William Spratling and arrived in Geona , Italy on Aug. 2. He traveled through Italy and Switzerland and settled in Paris until he returned home in December.

Between 1925 and 1950 William wrote many poems, and in 1950 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He continued to write more and more poems after that. In 1931 his daughter, Alabama, was born, and nine days later she died. In 1951, he received the Legion of Honor.

On June 17, 1962, while riding a horse in Oxford, he was injured. He entered the Byhalia Hospital on July 5. On July 6, he died of a heart attack at 1:30 A.M. He was buried in St. Peter's Cemetery in Oxford on July 7.

Back to Top

Back to Gritzley's LiterBEARy Portraits