Biography

William Faulkner (1897-1962) Faulkner comes from Oxford, Mississippi. This town was the setting for most of his novels and stories. In 1918, he enlisted in the British Royal Flying Corps and left Oxford. He went to Canada for his training. He was training to fight in World War I, however, the war was over before he could fight. He then returned to Oxford 1926 and devoted himself to his writing. He never graduated from high school, but he always had a book in hand and was reading it. After the war, he moved back to Mississippi and then went to New Orleans. There, he became friends with the author Sherwood Anderson who helped Faulkner write his first novel, Soldier’s Pay. In 1926, Faulkner returned to his home of Oxford, Mississippi. There, he devoted himself to writing. Faulkner wrote a series of novels about the decay of the values in small counties and towns. He suffered serious injuries in a horse-riding accident in 1959, and died due to a myocardial infarction at age 64 at approximately 1:32 am on July 6, 1962.