Willian Faulkner :: essays research papers

William Cuthbert Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, in New Albany, break awayissippi, the starting signal of four sons born to Murry and Maud Butler Faulkner. He was named after his great-grandfather, William Clark Faulkner, the out of date Colonel, who had been killed eight years earlier in a duel with his former parentage partner in the streets of Ripley, Mississippi. A lawyer, politician, planter, businessman, Civil War colonel, railroad financier, and in the long run a best-selling writer (of the novel The White Rose of Memphis), the Old Colonel, even in death, loomed as a larger-than- tone model of individual(prenominal) and professional success for his male descendants. A few days in advance Williams fifth birthday, the Faulkners moved to Oxford, Mississippi, at the urging of Murrys father, John Wesley Thompson Faulkner. Called the Young Colonel out of homage to his father rather than to authentic military service, the moderner Falkner had abruptly decided to s ell the railroad begun by his father. Disappointed that he would not inherit the railroad, Murry took a series of jobs in Oxford, most of them with the help of his father. The elder Faulkner, meanwhile, founded the First National Bank of Oxford in 1910 with $30,000 in capital. William demonstrated artistic talent at a young age, drawing and writing poetry, but around the sixth grade he began to grow increasingly bored with his studies. His earliest literary efforts were romantic, conscientiously sculptural on English poets such as Burns, Thomson, Housman, and Swinburne. While still in his youth, he also made the acquaintance of two individuals who would play an substantial role in his future a childhood sweetheart, Estelle Oldham, and a literary mentor, Phil Stone. Estelle was a popular, vivacious girl in Oxford with an active social life that included dances and parties. Despite her romance with William, she dated other boys, one of whom was Cornell Franklin, an Ole Miss law stud ent who proposed marriage. She lightheartedly accepted, apparently believing his request insincere since he was going to Hawaii to establish a law practice. When he move her an engagement ring several months later, however, her parents thought Franklin would be a charming husband for their daughter, and she found herself unable to escape the circumstances. She and Franklin were married in Oxford on April 18, 1918. Williams other close acquaintance from this period arose from their mutual by-line in poetry. When Stone read the young poets work, he at one time recognized Williams talent and set out to give Faulkner encouragement, advice, and models for study.