Presented in William Faulkner in Holly Springs (University Press of Mississippi 2025), Sally Wolff’s extensive research on the influence of the town of Holly Springs, Mississippi, on the fiction of one of this country’s finest authors will be of interest to a number of reading audiences. Most obviously, scholars and fans of William Faulkner’s fiction are likely to appreciate a new perspective on some of Faulkner’s most famous works, as well as on the nature of his creative imagination. Readers, too, who are interested in the culture of the South in the post-Civil War era into the early twentieth century–a period of considerable discontent and self-justification among White inhabitants and continued hardship and struggle for African Americans to enlarge their newly won freedom—will find much to deepen their awareness of the effects of the war and Southerners’ efforts to adapt to dramatically changed circumstances. A smaller readership may enjoy reading about Wolff’s research process.
Basing her analysis on her knowledge of Faulkner’s fiction; on interviews with twenty-seven descendants of Faulkner’s contemporaries in Holly Springs; and on numerous documents, such as diaries, ledgers, and newspapers, describing Holly Springs’ events during and before Faulkner’s lifetime, she offers a convincing account of the significant contribution of Holly Springs’ family histories to Faulkner’s characters, plots, and themes. Her discussion of her research goes beyond mere identification of influences on Faulkner’s fiction.
Whether purposely or unavoidably, her presentation recreates a poignant atmosphere of nostalgia and, in a sense, desperation, suggestive of the atmosphere of so many Faulkner stories, such as his well-known short story, “A Rose for Emily,” and his most acclaimed novels, including Absalom, Absalom, The Sound and the Fury, and Intruder in the Dust. Accounts of the inhabitants of Holly Springs, their doings, and their interconnections are interesting in themselves as an example of a time and place affected by the tumult and tragedy of war, the need to establish a new way of life, and the effort of reconciling dramatically different views of race.
Photographs contribute greatly to the atmosphere, especially the pictures of women, in old-fashioned gowns, lace-trimmed blouses, carefully coiffed hair, and demure poses. Even the photo of just the name “Ludie” etched on a window pane and explained in the text as evidencing Faulkner’s creative use of the original etching made on a window at the McCarroll home in Holly Springs is especially poignant.
This representation of a young girl’s single name, a simple nickname signifying intimacy with the place and a small attempt to leave a trace made an impression on the author, who referred to it obliquely and to his own comment on it in conversation with a friend, attributing a similar comment to a leading character in Intruder in the Dust. It’s one of many, many clear-cut connections between the visitor to Holly Springs and the Southern author, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature and two Pulitzer prizes.
Edwina Pendarvis
I was skeptical, at first, about Wolff’s claims for Holly Springs’ influence on Faulkner, as not all of her examples of connections between the two are compelling. However, I soon found so many connections so compelling that they gave weight to all the rest. Her book offers not only an important perspective on a giant of American literature, one whose shortcomings included racist views, but whose art in a sense out-ran narrower views in often expressing (and inspiring in many readers) a keen empathy with the desperate, often wrong-headed, struggles of members of both races drawing on meager resources, whether material or psychological, and trailing the past with them as they cope with the present and try to make headway as they move into an uncertain future..
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