Overview

By the end of volume 1 of The Life of William Faulkner (""""A filling, satisfying feast for Faulkner aficianados""""- Kirkus), the young Faulkner had gone from an unpromising, self-mythologizing bohemian to the author of some of the most innovative and enduring literature of the century, including The Sound and the Fury and Light in August. The second and concluding volume of Carl Rollyson's ambitious biography finds Faulkner lamenting the many threats to his creative existence. Feeling, as an artist, he should be above worldly concerns and even morality, he has instead inherited only debts- a symptom of the South's faded fortunes- and numerous mouths to feed and funerals to fund. And so he turns to the classic temptation for financially struggling writers- Hollywood. Thus begins roughly a decade of shuttling between his home and family in Mississippi- lifeblood of his art- and the backlots of the Golden Age film industry. Through Faulkner's Hollywood years, Rollyson introduces such personalities as Humphrey Bogart and Faulkner's long-time collaborator Howard Hawks, while telling the stories behind films such as The Big Sleep and To Have and Have Not. At the same time, he chronicles with great insight Faulkner's rapidly crumbling though somehow resilient marriage and his numerous extramarital affairs- including his deeply felt, if ultimately doomed, relationship with Meta Carpenter. (In his grief over their breakup, Faulkner- a dipsomaniac capable of ferocious alcoholic binges- received third-degree burns when he passed out on a hotel-room radiator.) Where most biographers and critics dismiss Faulkner's film work as at best a necessary evil, at worst a tragic waste of his peak creative years, Rollyson approaches this period as a valuable window on his artistry. He reveals a fascinating, previously unappreciated cross-pollination between Faulkner's film and literary work, elements from his fiction appearing in his screenplays and his film collaborations influencing his later novels- undamentally changing the character of late-career works such as the Snopes trilogy. Rollyson takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the composition of Absalom, Absalom!, widely considered Faulkner's masterpiece, as well as the film adaptation he authored- unproduced and never published- Revolt in the Earth. He reveals how Faulkner wrestled with the legacy of the South- both its history and its dizzying racial contradictions- and turned it into powerful art in works such as Go Down, Moses and Intruder in the Dust. Volume 2 of this monumental work rests on an unprecedented trove of research, giving us the most penetrating and comprehensive life of Faulkner and providing a fascinating look at the author's trajectory from under-appreciated """"writer's writer"""" to world-renowned Nobel laureate and literary icon. In his famous Nobel speech, Faulkner said what inspired him was the human ability to prevail. In the end, this beautifully wrought life shows how Faulkner, the man and the artist, embodies this remarkable capacity to endure and prevail.

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Reviews

The concluding volume of this two-part biography of Faulkner shows Rollyson, a Baruch College professor emeritus, as both a careful observer of Faulkner the man, and an adept and perceptive reader of his work.... Rollyson's painstakingly researched and beautifully written biography should be a touchstone for Faulkner scholarship for years to come. A lush story of a genius and his substantial achievements, failures, and demons.

"A lush story of a genius and his substantial achievements, failures, and demons.- Kirkus, starred review; """"The concluding volume of this two-part biography of Faulkner shows Rollyson, a Baruch College professor emeritus, as both a careful observer of Faulkner the man, and an adept and perceptive reader of his work.... Rollyson's painstakingly researched and beautifully written biography should be a touchstone for Faulkner scholarship for years to come.""""- Publishers Weekly, starred review"

This is the most comprehensive, most accurate, and most revealing biography of Faulkner yet written. Thoroughly and painstakingly researched, it draws upon sources and materials not available to previous biographers. It will almost certainly come to be viewed as the definitive biography of the famous author. --Robert W. Hamblin, Founding Director of the Center for Faulkner Studies It has now been fifteen years since the publication of the last full-length biography of one of the twentieth century's most important writers, so the moment is ripe for a life of Faulkner with something new to offer readers and scholars. Rollyson has delivered a book that taps into new primary and secondary resources, and that draws on his own unique expertise as a professional biographer. This is a valuable new biography, whose sound, thorough research and judicious interpretive insights make for an appealing, balanced book. --Jay Watson, University of Mississippi, author of William Faulkner and the Faces of Modernity Carl Rollyson has done a fine job here, bringing together a vast range of source materials, drawing a sharp and convincing portrait of Faulkner. This reads like a good story, and it is. It's a great story, in fact, and all admirers of Faulkner should be grateful. --Jay Parini, author of One Matchless Time: A Life of William Faulkner A deeply detailed account of the 1949 Nobel laureate's early life and work.... Throughout, the author, an expert biographer, delivers arresting details and telling images from his subject's life... A filling, satisfying feast for Faulkner aficionados. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) [Rollyson] suggest[s], tantalizingly, that Faulkner's Hollywood stint affected his novel writing. --Publishers Weekly

Author Information

Carl Rollyson, Professor Emeritus at Baruch College, The City University of New York, has published numerous biographies of literary figures such as Sylvia Plath, Susan Sontag, and Norman Mailer, as well as film icons Marilyn Monroe and Dana Andrews. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New Criterion, and the Washington Post.

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