Wednesday, August 22, 2012

POSTCARD WITHOUT BORDERS:2-MEMPHIS/OXFORD



Read read read.Read everything.-Trash,classics,good and bad...Then write.If it is good,you'll find out.If it's not ,throw it out of window.
b.New Albany,Mississippi,Sep 25 1897-
d. 6 July 1962,Oxford,Mississippi
from William Faulkner's Nun



























OXFORD,MISSISSIPPI,WILLIAM FAULKNER'S ROWAN OAK
Our excursion to Oxford , Mississippi with my old friend ,Said,started from Square Book in downtown,a landmark by its own right with a good collection of books of their native son,William Faulkner,although missing two precious volumes of his poems.Then we discovered Faulkner's house in a wood ,down S.Lamar to the Old Taylor Road,off the main road to downtown.Faulkner bought this house of 1840 Greek revival in 1930 and lived there with his family until his death at 1962.He named the house ROWAN OAK in 1931,for Rowan Tree ,a symbol of peace.Later the house was sold by the family to The University of Mississippi to be well preserved.This is where William Faulkner's most stories and novels have been written Some of his illustrated letters from Paris,His manuscripts and Nobel Prize of 1949 found recently in this place are put in auction by the family . Faulkner won The Nobel Prize in literature in 1949 ,as well as Paulitzer and National Book award in 1954 for his  book: A Fable ,and became the most read and studied author in the world after William Shakespeare.William Faulkner,s First novel SOLDIERS' PAY was written in New Orleans and published in 1926 with the help of Sherwood Anderson,a friend and co-worker in the literary magazine:The Double Dealer ,who lived in Pontalba apartment in 1924 and found a publisher for him.Next to this place in Pirate's Alley
 a k a Cabildo Alley is where William Faulkner lived from 1925 to 1926 and now the first floor of the building is a bookstore with some memorabilia of faulkner .A plaque outside on the wall says: Here in 1925 William Faukner,Nobel Laureate wrote his first novel ,Soldier's Pay"Later ,he also wrote MOSQITOS,1927 and letters to his mother in the same place,New Orleans.He also wrote a foreword to his roommate,William Spratlingwho compiled $1 sketches of the people of French Quarter and published under the title of Sherwood Anderson and other famour creole.(..)
This was the beginning of Faulkner's inspiration by people and places of south like Indians and slaves and their stories,some happening in the imaginary YOKNAPATAWPHA Country, to contribute to Southern Literature along with Tennessee Williams*,Truman Capote,Eudora Welty of Jackson,Mississippi ,among others.
Images,note and weblography by: F.S.

1 comment:

  1. This was very interesting. I visited Oxford University in England on my trip with People to People. I had not heard about Faulkner before, but I will learn more about him.

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