Biography of William Faulkner :: Writer Biographies Essays

Biography of William Faulkner William Faulkner was a prolific printr who became very famous during his lifetime but who shied by from the spotlight as much as possible. He is remembered as both a gentlemanly southern eccentric and an arrogant, snobbish alcoholic. But perhaps the trounce way to describe Faulkner is to describe his heritage, for, like so many of his literary characters, Faulkner was profoundly affected by his family.Faulkners great grandfather, Colonel William Falkner (Faulkner added the u to his name), was born in 1825 and move to Mississippi at the age of 14. He was a lawyer, writer, politician, soldier, and pioneer who was involved in several murder trials - including two in which he was accused - and was a best-selling novelist. During the Civil War he recruited a (Confederate) regiment and was elected its colonel, but his arrogance caused his troop to demote him and he left to recruit some other regiment. After the war he became involved in the railroad busin ess and made a lot of money he bought a plantation and began to write books, one of which became a best-seller. He ran for Mississippi state legislature in 1889, but his opponent shot and killed him before the election.Faulkners grandfather was the colonels oldest son, John Wesley Thompson Falkner. He transmitted his fathers railroad fortune and became an Assistant U.S. Attorney. He later became the president of the First National Bank of Oxford, Mississippi.Faulkners father was Murray Falkner, who moved from job to job before enough the business manager of the University of Mississippi, where he and his family lived for the rest of his life. William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897 and began to write poetry as a teenager. During World War I, he conjugate the Canadian Royal Flying Corps he was too short to join the U.S. Air Force but never fought the day he receive from the Flying Corps the armistice was signed. The only war injury he received was the result of getting drunk and partying too hard on Armistice Day, wherein he injured his leg.After the war, Faulkner came back to Oxford, enrolled as a special student at the University of Mississippi and began to write for the school papers and magazines, quickly earning a reputation as an eccentric. His strange routines, swanky dressing habits, and inability to hold down a job earned him the nickname Count Nocount.