Overview (5)

Mini Bio (1)

William Faulkner, one of the 20th century's most gifted novelists, wrote for the movies in part because he could not make enough money from his novels and short stories to support his growing number of dependants. The author of such acclaimed novels as "The Sound and the Fury" and "Absalom, Absalom!", Faulkner received official screen credits for just six theatrical releases, five of which were with director Howard Hawks. Faulkner received the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1949 and he received two Pulitzer Prizes, for "A Fable" in '1955 and "The Reivers", which was published shortly before he died in 1962.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: John B. Padgett

Spouse (1)

Trivia (16)

Was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature.



Born at 11:0pm-CST





The character of the alcoholic Southern novelist-turned screenwriter W. P. Mayhew in the movie Barton Fink (1991) is based loosely on Faulkner.



His screenplay for Ernest Hemingway 's novel Haben und Nichthaben (1944) marks the only time in film history that two Nobel Prize-winning authors were associated with the same motion picture... although Faulkner and Hemingway never felt much sympathy for each other.

He always rejected all the offers he received to write screenplays based on his own books. And despite his long relationship with Hollywood, only one of the more than one hundred stories he wrote is set there: "Golden Land".



Interred at Saint Peter's Cemetery, Oxford, Mississippi.



Pictured on a 22¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the Literary Arts series, issued 3 August 1987.





Frequently worked with Howard Hawks



A short story by Faulkner, "Two Soldiers", which was originally published in The Saturday Evening Post (1942), was made into a short film directed by Aaron Schneider . The film went on to win a 2004 Oscar for Best Short Film, (Live Action). It is a poignant tale of brotherhood and the sacrifices of family ties American Soldiers must make for war.

A legendary, but possibly apocryphal, story about Faulkner relates how, after he had been hired by 20th Century-Fox as a screenwriter, he had been sitting around the Fox writers building for a few weeks without having done anything. A producer who had seen him wandering around the building asked what he was doing, and Faulkner replied that he had nothing to do. The producer asked if he had any ideas for a story. Faulkner replied that he had, but he would be better able to write it at home rather than in the Writers Building. The producer told him it was OK to go home, assuming that Faulkner meant the home in Hollywood that the studio was renting for him. A few days later the producer got a call from Faulkner, who had indeed gone home--to Oxford, Mississippi.





His favorite TV show was Wagen 54, bitte melden (1961). Though he despised television, he reportedly would visit a friend's house on Saturday nights to watch the cop comedy.

Once worked as a house painter.





Was close friends with his publisher, Random House owner Bennett Cerf . When introduced to Cerf's wife, Phyllis Fraser , Faulkner greeted her as "Miss Phyllis" and called her that forever after.

Faulkner fans always looked for "deeper meanings" to everything the author did or said. When asked during an appearance at the University of Virginia why he chose the particular stories for the book "Go Down Moses" the audience leaned forward in anticipation of a revelation. "Well", he said" , "when we put 'em all together it looked to be the right size for a book.".



Personal Quotes (6)

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all . . . 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.



I'm just a farmer who likes to tell stories.



Hollywood is a place where a man can get stabbed in the back while climbing a ladder.



It's not Hollywood's fault. The writer is not accustomed to money. It goes to his head and destroys him.



If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate: The Ode on a Grecian Urn is worth any number of old ladies.



As long as I live under the capitalistic system, I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp. This, sir, is my resignation.

