There are few individuals as associated with the Southern Renaissance as the prolific William Faulkner. For those who aren’t as familiar with the world of prose fiction, William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25th, 1897, but spent most of his life in Oxford, Mississippi. He would go on to be arguably the greatest literary mind that America ever produced or in my opinion ever will. Over the course of his career, he would go on to write 19 novels, 5 poetry collections, and approximately 125 short stories, among many more other written projects not counted here.
Bearing all of this in mind, there is a very important anniversary that we have come upon… that would be Wednesday, February the 25th. For it was exactly one hundred years before on Thursday, February the 25th of 1926 that the publishing company Boni & Liveright (pronounced "BONE-eye" and "LIV-right") would publish William Faulkner’s very first novel, ‘Soldiers’ Pay.’ I recently had the pleasure of handling a first edition ‘Soldiers’ Pay’ at the fabled Elder’s Bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee. It was really something to see the title page, how the type was set, and the beautiful pattern on the Endsheets just as Mr. Faulkner would have seen it when it was first published.
The reason that I would like to draw attention to this day specifically, is because I feel that some of us in the South, especially those of us who have a more historical bend in our interests, often fail to give our poets and authors their due. More so, it is because we don’t have many days of celebration to call our own, to celebrate our own, and to fully take possession of a part of our heritage that is just as important as anything accomplished by the settlers and soldiers that came before.
That being said, I propose that we collectively celebrate Mr. Faulkner on February the 25th, going forward. I have a hope that the celebration of this incredible author can transcend the divisions that have heretofore kept the modern South at odds with itself and become something that all true Southerners can celebrate together.
Now, in celebration of this new holiday, I myself will be starting William Faulkner’s ‘Soldiers’ Pay’ on the 25th. If you don’t have access to this book, don’t despair, you can get the title as a PDF online here, or for a small price on Amazon’s Kindle platform here. But please don’t feel limited to this work, I am reading it because it is the 100th anniversary of the title, but this isn’t a holiday in celebration of ‘Soldiers’ Pay’ alone, but all of Faulkner’s works. You should have no problems finding his books at any library around the country, but if you do, you can search for PDFs of his books and poetry online. There are even great interviews of him such as this one on Youtube if you prefer audio/visual media over reading text.
So, I humbly and happily wish you a happy William Faulkner Day!
— J.R. Dunmore
Last fall, I passed through Oxford, and paid my respects at Rowan Oak. Mr. Faulkner wrote about a specific place that had a universal character. I read and listened to The Sound and The Fury twice last year. I know those characters. They have different names, but the same manifestation of human beauty and corruption.
I wrote about this as William Faulkner’s Generational Memory - https://edbrenegar.substack.com/p/william-faulkners-generational-memory.