William Faulkner

William Faulkner knew the south very well because he spent most of his life there. This is seen in his writing when he talks about family, community, and the people he knew there. In 1949 he earned the nobel prize in literature and gave an amazing speech. He travelled to Europe after he wrote his first novel. One of his favorite places there was the Luxembourg gardens. He wrote a long description about them which he later incorporated into one of his novels, Sanctuary. He was scrutinized a lot by the public and tried to keep his personal life a secret. 

In the beginning of his career he published a collection of poetry in 1924 called The Marble Faun. He moved to New Orleans and published a lot of essays in The Double Dealer and the Times-Picayune which were literary magazines. After writing his first novel and traveling to Europe he returned and focused on writing novels. His second novel was called Mosquitoes and was a satire about his experience in New Orleans. This was one of his weakest novels. His next novel would not get published, so he had to trim it down and change the name. This novel, Sartoris, was finally published. While getting that novel published he was writing another one for pleasure. This novel was called The Sound and The Fury and was liked a lot by the publishers for being stylistic and for the character's growth. He wrote As I Lay Dying to make money for his family. This book is about the journey of a family that is taking their dead matriarch to be buried. In 1930 he went further into debt when he bought himself a house way too expensive.

 His novels slowly stopped selling so he began to write and publish lots of short stories for financial support. His publishers finally agreed to publish Sanctuary, which got him to revise it. It became his number one novel for 8 years. His first collection of short stories, These 13, was dedicated to his wife and dead child, Alabama. He went on to write Light in August. 

He then became a screenwriter in Hollywood. He received on screen credit for 6 screenplays. He needed more money so he sold Hollywood the rights to make Sanctuary into a movie. He published his second and last collection of poetry, A Green Bough. In 1934 he published a collection of stories called Doctor Martino and Other Stories as well as the novel Pylon. His brother's child died and he took the role to educate her. He had an affair with his secretary in Hollywood and later had to go to a nursing home due to his drinking. He published Absalom, Absalom! He bought a wooded area that he had his brother manage. In 1939 he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1942 he published  Go Down, Moses and Other Stories. He then went back to his career on screen writing.