Apparently William Faulkner only stood at 5′ 5 1/2″ or 5′ 6″ according to some sources. Because of his height he wasn’t allowed to enlist in the U.S. Army during the First World War, so he decided to join the British Royal Flying Corps instead and tried to pass himself off as British, accent and all. Although he trained at RFC bases in Canada and Britain, Faulkner never witnessed any wartime action himself. The war ended before he finished training. But that didn’t stop him from over-exaggerating telling his war stories. When he returned home to Oxford he went on about his exploits and his injuries, one of which supposedly ended up with a silver plate in his head. He falsely acquired an RAF lieutenant’s uniform and strutted about in it. Faulkner even enrolled at Ole Miss under a special program for war veterans.

Tags: Lying Liars, Military, William Faulkner, WWI