The Life of William Faulkner : The Past Is Never Dead, 1897-1934

This first volume covers Faulkner's formative years. The oldest brother born into a family who had lost their glory, Faulkner at first excelled at school, until his teens when he defied family expectations by pursuing an interest in art and writing that promised no discernable profit for himself or others. World War I and its aftermath galvanized a new generation of writers, none more than Faulkner. Yet while his contemporaries Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald were establishing themselves in Paris and New York, the shy Faulkner kept his distance, not even crossing the length of a café to introduce himself to James Joyce.

Drenched in the culture of the Deep South, Faulkner came to write iconic novels of enduring literary significance, but his body of work also included Hollywood screenplays and potboilers for the Saturday Evening Post. Presenting himself as an aloof, self-proclaimed renegade artist, he was at the same time a dedicated family man. He could not create a cosmos of his own without having a sense of counterpull, of being in two places at once, like many of the characters in his novels. In letters to his friends and publishers, Faulkner frequently wrote of "this alarming paradox" that, Rollyson argues, would define his life.

Integrating Faulkner's screenplays, fiction, and life, Rollyson argues that the novelist deserves to be reread not just as a literary figure but as a still-relevant force, especially in relation to issues of race, sexuality, and equality. The culmination of years of research in archives that have been largely ignored by previous biographers, The Life of William Faulkner offers a significant challenge and an essential contribution to Faulkner scholarship.