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William Cuthbert Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, in New Albany, Mississippi.

The first of four sons born to Murry and Maud Butler Falkner (not Faulkner). A few days before William’s fifth birthday, the Falkners moved to Oxford, Mississippi.

He never graduated from highschool, but made every attempt to join the military.  But with his 5′6” frame, the American military would not take him. So he changed his name by adding a “u” (thinking it made his name seem more British), and with a phony British accent and a few white lies, Faulkner joined the British Forces.  Though he saw no combat, the material for his first novel, Soldier’s Pay stems from his brief experience in the military.

Through a provision by the government permitting all veterans to attend college, Faulkner entered The University of Mississippi.  However, he eventually dropped out and took a job in the university mailroom.  He quickly developed a reputation as an irresponsible postman and a drunk about town.

He was a misfit in Oxford, but he would always return to the town for one reason or another.  At the encouragement of one young friend, he moved to New York City and went to work at a bookstore where he met Sherwood Anderson.  Anderson introduced Faulkner to a literary community where he found support for his writing. He followed Anderson to New Orleans, but he did not settle down there.

Throughout his life, Faulkner would divide his time between Charlottesville, Virginia, New York, and Oxford.  Charlottesville seemed to be where he felt most at home, as though he should have been born there.  He gladly accepted a position teaching at the University of Virginia, but Oxford, Mississippi was home. And so, he returned to teach and visit often as well.

He won numerous literary awards including two Pulitzer Prize Awards. In the summer of 1962 he suffered an especially bad fall off a horse and his health continued to diminish. On July 6, 1962 William Faulkner died of a heart attack at the age of 64.

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