William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, and raised in Oxford, Mississippi, where he spent the majority of his life. After a brief stint in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War I and three semesters at the University of Mississippi, Faulkner moved to New Orleans. There, he wrote his debut novel, Soldiers' Pay (1925). He soon returned to Oxford and published Sartoris (1927), which marked his first work set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County—a stand-in for Lafayette County, Mississippi, that would serve as the setting for much of his future writing.
Faulkner's literary output during the late 1920s and 1930s established him as a major voice in American Modernism. He published some of his most celebrated and formally experimental novels during this period, including The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936). His works frequently explored the complex history, social structures, and psychological landscapes of the American South. In addition to his novels, Faulkner worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood, contributing to notable films such as To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep.
Although his work initially had a limited commercial reach, Faulkner's critical reputation grew significantly after the publication of The Portable Faulkner in 1946. He was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature for his unique contributions to the modern American novel. Later in his career, he received further acclaim, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice, first for A Fable (1954) and posthumously for The Reivers (1962). Faulkner died of a heart attack in July 1962, leaving behind a legacy as one of the twentieth century's most influential writers.
