Faulkner on and Off the Page: Essays in Biographical Criticism

Though numerous biographies have been published on William Faulkner, readers are often presented conflicting interpretations of his life and work. Faulkner’s view of himself and his own family was mercurial, and it is widely acknowledged that Faulkner was an unreliable narrator of his own life. As a result, biographies of Faulkner echo and complicate the multitude of ways he portrayed himself, accepting that truth—if it exists—is subjective. Like his work, Faulkner’s own life, then, is not only open to different readings but welcomes them within the landscape of his oeuvre. Faulkner On and Off the Page acknowledges the challenges of "factifying" a life into a textual narrative, while also emphasizing the potential for biography to establish a throughline that traces how literature emerges from life and, in turn, shapes the life narrative Faulkner constructed for himself. Unburdened by the sanctity of the written word, Faulkner embraced mutability and perpetual evolution. This process of reinvention also manifests within the pages of Faulkner's biographies, as each biographer brings a unique context and perspective shaped by generations of Faulkner scholars. Rather than thinking of Faulkner as exclusively the great high modernist who strayed to Hollywood when he needed the money and stayed home when he didn’t, this book portrays an unsettled writer incessantly on the move incorporating what only looked like alien elements into his work, while maintaining a public persona that disparaged anything that did not fit the narrative of the novelist he created in interviews, essays, and speeches. This book attempts to carry on the work of finding the man on the page even as he is shaping a life off of it.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Life as a Text and the Text as Life Part One: Faulkner and Biography Building a Better Biography The Historians of Yoknapatawpha Biographical Fiction: A Faulknerian Novel Interview with Taylor Brown The Foreigner in Faulkner Counterpull: Estelle and William Faulkner "Sole Owner and Proprietor": William Faulkner and Jean Stein Reminiscing about William Faulkner at the University of Virginia: A Biographer’s Outtakes Part Two: Faulkner, Politics, and History Faulkner’s Conservatism Faulkner the Antifascist Faulkner as Futurist War No More: The Revolt of the Masses in A Fable Part Three: Faulkner and Hollywood Recreating Absalom, Absalom!: Revolt in the Earth Faulkner’s Shadow: Hollywood, Hemingway, and Pylon The Stories of Temple Drake "Tomorrow" and Tomorrow: Faulkner into Film The Reivers: On and Off the Screen Part Four: Faulkner and Race The White Man’s "Negro" in Faulkner Country The Twilight of Man in "Delta Autumn" "Shooting Negroes" Caste from a Faulknerian Perspective: Intruder in the Dust What Faulkner Could Not Imagine: The Life of James Meredith Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Carl Rollyson is professor emeritus of journalism at Baruch College, CUNY. He is author of many biographies, including Sylvia Plath Day by Day, Volumes 1 & 2; William Faulkner Day by Day; The Last Days of Sylvia Plath; A Real American Character: The Life of Walter Brennan; Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews; and Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress, Revised and Updated. He is also coauthor (with Lisa Paddock) of Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon, Revised and Updated. His reviews of biographies have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and New Criterion. He also writes a column on biography twice a week for the New York Sun.

Review :
“Rollyson is the foremost living authority on Faulkner’s life and career. This book enhances that reputation.” - Robert W. Hamblin, professor emeritus at Southeast Missouri State University