About William Faulkner

William Faulkner was a well known American author who was born on September 25, 1897, in Mississippi. Arguably one of the greatest authors to ever come out of the South, Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature for his outstanding works. Much of his earlier pieces revolved around poetry, but as Faulkner became more and more developed as a writer, he began to write stories about life in the Deep South; these were the stories that would end up making him a wildly successful and popular author.
William Faulkner spent much of his early life moving from town to town in Mississippi; he moved twice before the age of 5 before finally settling down in Oxford, where he would live for a majority of the rest of his life. Faulkner learned most from the women in his life. His mother, grandmother, and "mammy" all influenced his education more than anyone else. His mother and grandmother were both very artsy; enjoying things like reading and art and photography. However, his mammy would instill the moral values that we see reflected in his writings.
Faulkner always seemed to have an interest in the South's history. Despite his lack of effort in school (Faulkner never finished high school, and briefly enrolled at Ole Miss before dropping out of there as well), he was fascinated by Mississippi's history, as well as stories of the KKK and the Civil War. This undoubtedly would guide him in his work for the rest of his life, as many of his books took place in the Southern United States. Its actually quite shocking that Faulkner became an author, and a successful one at that, because he never finished college and received a D in the only college-level English class that he ever took. In spite of his poor performance in school, his poems were consistently published in the school newspaper.
After he dropped out of college, Faulkner became obsessed with flying. He wanted to became a pilot in the United States' Air Force, however, since he was only 5'5, they refused to let him enlist. So he applied to the Canadian Air Force instead, which he did, in fact, get accepted to. However, he never actually saw any action during WWI despite common belief.
After his brief obsession with flying, Faulkner began focusing almost exclusively on his poetry before finally publishing his first book in 1927 after many of his poems and short stories were rejected by publishers. A little over a year later in 1928, Faulkner began work on The Sound and the Fury, which would become his most successful novel yet. Which would eventually lead to him winning the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature 11 years later. He would then go on to serve as a professor at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville from 1957 to 1958, Faulkner died in 1962 from a massive heart attack,
Faulkner's success story is one that is both surprising and heartwarming. To see a high school / college drop out not give up on their dreams and do so well as to win a Nobel Peace Prize is astounding, and few people can say that they have been as successful as William Faulkner even with a college education.