Free Biography Essay Sample

William Faulkner was bon the year 1897 September, 25at Albany in Mississippi in a family of four, William being the first eldest. His parents were Murry Faulkner and Butler Faulkner who originated from the southern part. Faulkner's family later moved to Oxford shortly before his fifth birthday at the urging of Murry's father named Wesley Thomson Faulkner. Wesley's father was a colonel and so he was nicknamed Young Colonel. Faulkner though that his father might later convince him to inherit his railroad, as this was not what he expected, he sold it so as to avoid it . Murry engaged himself with many jobs with the help of his father.  In 1910, elder Faulkner came up with National Bank of Oxford.

Faulkner started to nurture his talent of art at his early age, he engage himself in drawing and poem writing. He was bored with his education at his sixth semester. He collaborated with Burns, Thomson, Housman and Swinburne in writing romantic poems in spite of his youthful age.  Later he was joined by Estelle who was a good dancer and his romantic partner and Phil Stone.

Being mutually interested in poetry, Faulkner's close acquaintance rose at this period. It was after Stone read his poem that William's talent was recognized. Stone encouraged him by advising him on what models and studies to undertake. William's first employment was at Winchester Arms Company when stone was a practicing lawyer and studying at Ole Miss in New Haven. It was after Stone got married to Estelle when he invited him to stay with him. Due to typing error was first spelled as Faulkner. The job did not take long when he accepted an invite from Royal Air Force in Canada to train cadet.

He trained in Toronto; he was unlucky because the war suddenly ended. He returned to oxford in 1918 believing that he had gained something, although he had never graduated in any high school, he was admitted at the university of Mississippi under a special program for war veterans. It was in January 1925 that William moved to New Orleans and met with literal crowd which comprised of Sherwood Anderson who is author of Winesburg, Ohio.

 He switched his mission from just writing for pleasure to making money in 1929 this was due to his growing family. He was married to Estelle after divorcing with Franklin. They lived in Miss Elma in oxford together with their two kids. He worked in a power plant during the night leading him to write the novel 'As I lay Dying'.

Early 1931, his wife gave birth to a premature Alabama, a daughter.  Due to his bad health, he was hospitalized and later his wife also got hospitalized due to heart attack where he was forced to return to Oxford. He lost his privacy when his sacrosanct was invaded by the publication of a two- part. His career in writing was ruined when he felled from a horse in 1959.

"I believe that man will not merely endure. He will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance."

Again in April and June he felled from the horse for the second and third time respectively. All of his work was delayed at he was receiving medication. William Faulkner's life came to an end when he was 64 years old through a heart attack.

William realized his talent of writing and drawing when he was still a youth. He started to feel bored with his studies when he was at the sixth grade.  He based his focus on romantic conscientiously model of English poets such as Burns, Thomson, Housman and Swinburne. He hooked himself to two individuals whom he believed will shed light to his future. These characters were Estelle Oldham and Phil Stone. Estelle was popular dancer in oxford while Phil was a literal mentor.  Other William's close acquaintances who were mutually interested in poetry emerged at this period. William, a young poet impressed Stone when he read some of his poems. Stone moved ahead to encourage him in his work and also giving him direction that he was to take. After quitting the Royal Air Force, he returned to oxford full of lies and exaggerations which helped him publish his first novel 'Soldiers' Pay' in 1926.

In 1924, The Marble Faun was secured by his friend Phil Stone so as to be published by the Four Seas Company. The volume was published in December in an edition of 1000 copies which he dedicated to his mother holding the preface of Stone. He sketched several essays in 'The double Dealer' and 'Times-Picayune' with help of Sherwood Anderson in 1925. William's first novel 'Soldiers' Pay' was sent to Horace Liveright following the advice of Anderson. It was at this time that he got a chance to sail to Italy and spent time at Luxembourg Gardens, describe in the novel 'Sanctuary'. The Double Dealer which is literary magazine with credits in first published works of Hart Crane, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Penn Warren and Edmund Wilson. In The Double Dealer and Times -Picayune of New Orleans, Faulkner published several essays.

Faulkner's first novel was, Soldiers' Pay, with influence from Anderson's encouragement, he sent it to Horace Liveright, a publisher. Immediately after Horace accepted his novel, he moved to Europe on August, 2. Faulkner was directed for France, Paris where he was to spend a good number of months specifically at Luxembourg Gardens where he spent most of his time. Despite of the fact that Faulkner spent in a café that James Joyce spent frequently, he never got the chance to speak to him. He later visited England and moved back to United States in December.

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Boni and Liveright published Soldiers' Pay in an edition of 2500 copies in February, 1926, back in New Orleans; he started working on the second novel, title Mosquitoes.

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.

The novel had satire in it in that its character was majorly based on his literary milieu in New Orleans; set aboard a yacht in Lake Pontchartrain. This novel is the weakest point of Faulkner according to the current reports.  In his third novel, he decided to follow Anderson's piece of advice in that he had to write in his native region so that he could draw regional geography and family history majorly to his great-grandfather's Civil War and Post-war exploits. So as to create Yocona county, that was later renamed Yoknapatawpha as per the interview dated 1956. He described the liberty that had an impact with his creation of fictional county for him as an artist.  He said that sartoris he had discovered as his own little postage stamp of native land was worth writing about and that he would not live long and that he will not exhaust it. He added that, direct changing of actual into apocryphal he would have completed liberty to utilize whatever talent he may have to it absolute top.

Faulkner switch his mission from pleasure to making money in October 1929 when his novel The Sound and the Fury was published immediately after writing Sanctuary early that year.  It was due to his growing family that made him write for money, as he had been married to Estelle after they had divorced with Franklin. They lived Miss Elma in Oxford together with their two children.  Working in a power plant during the night, made him to write a novel 'As I lay Dying' which lasted him six weeks before he could edit.

In April 1930, he made two achievements. The first one is that, he bought a house and the second was is novel that he had written 'A Rose for Emily' was in the national publication- Forum Magazine. 'Honor' appeared in the American Mercury, 'Thrift' and 'Red Leaves 'appeared in the Saturday Evening in the following year.  At the same time his publisher sent a gallery proofs to Faulkner so that his novel 'Sanctuary' is proofread, this did not impress him as he wanted to first revise it. The novel was about rape and kidnapping by a sinister named Popeye to an Ole Miss Coed.

It was early 1931 that Estelle gave birth to a premature Alabama, a daughter.  His short stories 'These 13' was expected to be published later in the year as a form of dedication to his wife Estelle and Alabama. As the child could not live long, Faulkner was inspired to write on 'Dark House' that explained the uncertainties of a man with respect to his racial lineage as in for his case was an orphan and named Joe Christmas. It was at this time that Faulkner moved to write on race.

He started by looking at Joanna Burden, a granddaughter of a civil rights activists that was killed the town square.  Another incident was on Rev. Gail Hightower, who was caught up in family pride and heritage to an extent of ignoring his wife's infidelity that let her to committing suicide. The last incident of his writing was on Lena Grove opened and closes the novel by a pregnant lady searching for the real father of her child. This book was published in 1932.

In 1932, he made a lot of moves, in April he made a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that was to last four six weeks. He initiated it on May and was his first attempt as a screenwriter in Hollywood.  In July, he got a chance to meet with Hawks where his films such as Today We Live was directed and based in his short story 'Turn About'.  It was during this year that his father passed away, this increased the number of dependants as his mother came in. 

He came up with a collection of stories in 1934 by the title Doctor Martino and other Stories that were to be sold to the Saturday Evening Post. He revised them all and summed them to come up with 'The Unvanquished' in 1938. He spent the whole of 1936, and three quarter of 1937 in Hollywood basically working for 20^th Century-Fox, receiving on-screen writing credit for Slave Ship which contributed to the story for Gunga Din in 1939. He went to Germany with company of Carpenter and his wife Rebner, he started working on 'If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem' which comprised of "The Wild Palms" and "Old Man" he wrote "The Barn Burning" in 1938.

Faulkner got a chance to work with the National Institute Of arts and Letters in 1939 at the same time when "If I forget Thee, Jerusalem was published bearing the title "The Wild Palms". The Barn Burning was reworked in 1940 to come up with "The Hamlet". 1941 was his writing year. He went to California in 1942 to work on another stint at screen writing but for Warner Brothers. He edited "The Portable Hemingway" for Viking Press in 1944 and published "The Portable Faulkner "in 1946.

He made an achievement in 1950 when he receives a Howells Medal having distinguished work in the entire American fiction. An invitation from the U.S State Department to attend an international conference made him known internationally. His novels "A Fable" despite being Faulkner's weak point managed to earn the National Book Award for fiction in 1955. While working on "A Fable", he adapted one of his stories "The Brooch" for television. Biographical article by Robert Coughlan featured in the issues of Life Magazine.

He published "The town "in 1957.Faulkner's career of writing was ruined when he felled from a horse in 1959. As he was working in both Charlottesville and Oxford, he based his entire concentration on these two stations by allocating them time that was in 1960. "A Remimitance" was published in 1962 and earned him a prize for fiction before dying.

 

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