William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, but his family soon moved to Oxford, Mississippi. Almost all of his novels take place in and around Oxford, which he renames Jefferson, Mississippi. Even though Faulkner is a contemporary American author, he is already considered to be one of the world's greatest novelists. In 1949, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the highest prize that can be awarded to a writer.
Faulkner came from a rather distinguished Mississippi family. His great-grandfather, Colonel William Cuthbert Falkner (the "u" was added to Faulkner's name by mistake when his first novel was published and Faulkner retained this spelling), came to Mississippi from South Carolina during the first part of the nineteenth century. The Colonel appears in many of Faulkner's novels under the name of Colonel John Sartoris. Colonel William Falkner had a fairly notable career as a soldier both in the Mexican War and in the American Civil War. During the Civil War, Falkner's hot temper was responsible for his demotion from full colonel to lieutenant colonel. After the Civil War, Colonel Falkner was deeply involved in the problems of the reconstruction period. He killed several men during this time and became a rather notorious figure. He also built a railroad and ran for public office. During all of these fascinating activities, he took out time to write one of the nation's bestsellers, The White Rose of Memphis, which appeared in 1880. He also wrote two other books, but only his first was an outstanding success. He was finally killed by one of his rivals. The later members of the Falkner family were not quite so distinguished as was the great-grandfather.
