THE LIFE OF WILLIAM FAULKNER

The concluding volume of a comprehensive account of the life and work of the Nobel laureate.

Rollyson, a professor of journalism and prolific biographer—his many subjects have included Norman Mailer, Susan Sontag, Lillian Hellman, and Marilyn Monroe—returns to finish his dense, informative biography of Faulkner. The format remains: sturdy chronology, sometimes lengthy summaries of Faulkner’s books (and reviews thereof), his speeches and interviews, nonjudgmental accounts of his private life (he had several extramarital affairs, most notably with Meta Carpenter, secretary for Howard Hawks), and some analysis of his attitudes about race in his work, letters, behavior, and public utterances. (He was a gradualist, but he befriended a number of African Americans, even helping to pay college tuition for one.) Rollyson also provides detailed accounts of Faulkner’s numerous screenwriting sojourns in Hollywood, and he gives him more credit than is usually afforded to the author. (Hawks loved his work.) The current volume also covers Faulkner’s Nobel Prize (1949) and his time, near the end of his life, as writer-in-residence at the University of Virginia, where he learned to enjoy fox hunting. Rollyson shows us Faulkner’s nearly endless struggles with money (his wife, Estelle, loved to spend) and chronicles his acquisition of property to supplement the land he had earlier acquired, Rowan Oak, in Oxford, Mississippi. Also appearing continually are accounts of Faulkner’s well-known drinking problems (Estelle also had issues), which will make many readers wonder how he accomplished as much as he did. Rollyson concludes with a swift, sad summary of Faulkner’s death (heart attack) while he was a resident of a “drying out hospital.” Although the author does not create a galloping narrative, he is relentless and all-inclusive in his research, and Faulkner aficionados will be grateful for his diligence.

A lush story of a genius and his substantial achievements, failures, and demons.