Overview

The life and works of William Faulkner have generated numerous biographical studies exploring how Faulkner understood southern history, race, his relationship to art, and his place in the canons of American and world literature. However, some details on Faulkner’s life collected by his early biographers never made it into published form or, when they did, appeared in marginalized stories and cryptic references. The biographical record of William Faulkner’s life has yet to come to terms with the life-long friendships he maintained with gay men, the Extent to which he immersed himself into gay communities in Greenwich Village and New Orleans, and how profoundly this part of his life influenced his ""apocryphal"" creation of Yoknapatawpha County. Gay Faulkner: Uncovering a Homosexual Presence in Yoknapatawpha and Beyond explores the intimate friendships Faulkner maintained with gay men, among them Ben Wasson, William Spratling, and Hubert Creekmore, and places his fiction into established canons of LGBTQ literature, including World War I literature and representations of homosexuality from the Cold War. The book offers a full consideration of his relationship to gay history and identity in the twentieth century, giving rise to a new understanding of this most important of American authors.

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9781496825988

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Reviews

Anything that wasn't a legally certified relationship, no matter how clear it might be in letters and interviews, doesn't make it into the official narrative. Pip Gordon's new book Gay Faulkner is a great approach to understanding a writer's life and work in terms of their relationship with queer people and ideas.--Jenn Shapland, author of My Autobiography of Carson McCullers bookweb.org Gordon seeks to reveal a gay presence not only in Faulkner's work, but also in his life as well, establishing Faulkner's awareness of homosexuality and homosexuals, and his acceptance and participation in gay culture. While Gay Faulkner is a solid academic work, the notes are as absorbing as the text, and the bibliography constitutes a summation of Queer Faulkner studies. Gordon offers insight, information, and even entertainment for the general reader.--Jesse Yancy The Clarion-Ledger / Hattiesburg American Mississippi Books Page

Phillip Gordon's Gay Faulkner: Uncovering a Homosexual Prescence in Yoknapatawpha and Beyond is a well-organized and soundly researched biographical study of William Faulkner.--Jacob B. Kelly Mississippi Quarterly 72.2 (2019) Anything that wasn't a legally certified relationship, no matter how clear it might be in letters and interviews, doesn't make it into the official narrative. Pip Gordon's new book Gay Faulkner is a great approach to understanding a writer's life and work in terms of their relationship with queer people and ideas.--Jenn Shapland, author of My Autobiography of Carson McCullers bookweb.org Gordon seeks to reveal a gay presence not only in Faulkner's work, but also in his life as well, establishing Faulkner's awareness of homosexuality and homosexuals, and his acceptance and participation in gay culture. While Gay Faulkner is a solid academic work, the notes are as absorbing as the text, and the bibliography constitutes a summation of Queer Faulkner studies. Gordon offers insight, information, and even entertainment for the general reader.--Jesse Yancy The Clarion-Ledger / Hattiesburg American Mississippi Books Page

Anything that wasn't a legally certified relationship, no matter how clear it might be in letters and interviews, doesn't make it into the official narrative. Pip Gordon's new book Gay Faulkner is a great approach to understanding a writer's life and work in terms of their relationship with queer people and ideas.--Jenn Shapland, author of My Autobiography of Carson McCullers bookweb.org Gordon seeks to reveal a gay presence not only in Faulkner's work, but also in his life as well, establishing Faulkner's awareness of homosexuality and homosexuals, and his acceptance and participation in gay culture. While Gay Faulkner is a solid academic work, the notes are as absorbing as the text, and the bibliography constitutes a summation of Queer Faulkner studies. Gordon offers insight, information, and even entertainment for the general reader.--Jesse Yancy The Clarion-Ledger / Hattiesburg American Mississippi Books Page Phillip Gordon's Gay Faulkner: Uncovering a Homosexual Prescence in Yoknapatawpha and Beyond is a well-organized and soundly researched biographical study of William Faulkner.--Jacob B. Kelly Mississippi Quarterly 72.2 (2019)

Author Information

Phillip Gordon is assistant professor of English and gay studies coordinator at University of Wisconsin–Platteville. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up just north of Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County.

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