Faulkner: A Biography

by Joseph Blotner

Book Overview

William Faulkner (1897-1962) remains the pre-eminent literary chronicler of the American South and a giant of American arts and letters. Creatively obsessed with problems of race, identity, power,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679730532
• ISBN13: 9780679730538
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Vintage Books USA
• Length: 778 Pages
• Weight: 1.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The facts- all the facts-

This is a very long and detailed biography which tells more than most people will want to know about its subject. What disappointed me however was not the work of Blotner which was painstaking and caring, but the figure he depicted. The great writer and Faulkner truly is a great writer seems in his life much smaller than his work. It is not only his unhappy relationship with wife and family, but a general spirit of meanness which prevailed in many of his human relationships. One heartwarming element though is the recognition he received at the end of his life, and the way that seemed to transform him into being more outgoing and generous.

Blotner's compendium of Faulkner's life.

Originally published in two volumes, Joseph L. Blotner's biography of the imminent writer of the American South, William Faulkner, is often touted as THE chronicle of Faulkner's life. Blotner's style is really quite readable. Indeed, this text is so accessible, one must question his accountability on some instances of Faukner's words to friends and loved ones. (Who really remembers what his wife's father said to him on a particular day--famous or not?) All in all, though, this chronicle sits on the top of the biographical heap for the time being. And it probably won't be displaced for many years to come.