Talk:William Faulkner

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Lead: Why so much talk of OTHER writers?
The lead for this article says very little about its subject, William Faulkner, yet goes on at some length about other writers who aren't Faulkner — most of whom, quite honestly, are not the equal of Faulkner. Isn't the lead supposed to encapsulate the article to follow and compel me to read on in the article? This lead justs encourages me to link away to some other writers, probably not as good. Anyone else bothered about this? — HarringtonSmith (talk) 17:39, 27 March 2011 (UTC)


 * 154 watchers of this page, and no one thinks the lead to the article is, ummm, thin? Twain, Warren, O'Connor, Capote, Welty, Wolfe, Lee and Williams are all notable writers, but what do their names do to describe Faulkner's writing? There needs to be a paragraph summarizing Faulkner's themes, style and influence. I'd write one myself, but I'm not a good enough Faulkner scholar even to make a start. I know there are watchers who can do justice to this. C'mon, give it a shot. — HarringtonSmith (talk) 03:52, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

Biography
It seems to me that the organization of the biography could use some improvement and more detail. Perhaps different sections for different phases of Faulkner's life as opposed to how it's currently organized? Maybe "Life in California" could be kept if citations can be found for it, but I think it might be better to get rid of the "Personal Life" section and work that information into a more chronologically organized biography. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Crecio (talk • contribs) 19:21, 21 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Also, his it says "Faulkner died from a heart attack on July 6, 1962, following a fall from his horse the prior month."
 * —(A) What is the connection between the fall off a horse and the heart attack, and (B) Something happening a month later isn't really "following." Gdrope8 (talk) 17:44, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

Writers influenced by Faulkner?
I've noticed that many writer pages have a list of writers that they've influenced in addition to the list of their influences. Is there any reason the Faulkner page doesn't have a list of writers he has influenced? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.206.204.118 (talk) 21:29, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Personal Life
I would not say that Rowan Oak is maintained much as it was in Faulkner's life: it's now heavily air conditioned, and therefore completely different from when he lived there.Paulhummerman (talk) 23:21, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

''Unlike many of the others, though, Faulkner liked to drink while he was writing. In 1937 his French translator, Maurice Edgar Coindreau, was trying to decipher one of Faulkner’s idiosyncratically baroque sentences. He showed the passage to the writer, who puzzled over it for a moment and then broke out laughing. “I have absolutely no idea of what I meant,” Faulkner told Coindreau. “You see, I usually write at night. I always keep my whiskey within reach; so many ideas that I can’t remember in the morning pop into my head.”'' http://www.openculture.com/2011/12/drinking_with_william_faulkner.html 193.40.6.118 (talk) 18:04, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Organization of section 1. Biography and subsection 1.1 Personal life
I have deleted the subsection 1.2 Death as it was redundant; information, in greater detail, already existed in subsection 1.1 Personal life. The split structure of section 1 Biography and subsection 1.1 Personal life, given the overall state of the article, has no justification. The flow is better with the two parts melded. - Neonorange (talk) 19:52, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

Mistaken date of wife's death
There is a mistake on his wife's death. In the right side bar it says she died in 1962, the same year as Faulkner. In the article itself, it says she died in 1972 which is much more likely as she was considerably younger than Faulkner. 69.206.161.80 (talk) 22:13, 18 March 2015 (UTC) Jon Mundy, Ph.D. Sorry, I didn't know how to sign my comment when I posted it.^^^^ — Preceding unsigned comment added by David A. Phipps (talk • contribs) 19:57, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Actually both dates in the right side bar were incorrect. I've changed them based on the Find a Grave website (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13603052) which shows a photo of her headstone which gives the dates. These dates correspond to those that were in the article proper already. So Estelle was not, in fact, considerably younger than Faulkner, but she did outlive him by ten years.Schoolmann (talk) 15:47, 26 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Somebody changed the dates of birth and death of Estelle Oldham in the right sidebar back to 1929 and 1962. If the correct dates are 1897 and 1972 as stated in the body of the article, why would anyone undo the correction in the sidebar?  If the person making the latest change believes that 1929 and 1962 are correct, I would think that person would also change the dates in the body of the article.  Does this happen often - people changing correct information to revert to incorrect?  I'm won't make a correction myself - I don't know how and I wouldn't want to mess it up.  One of you experts will get around to it, I trust.^^^^  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 45.48.221.113 (talk) 19:39, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I am not the one making the edits but please note that the sidebar dates are the beginning and end dates of his marriage, not the birth and death year of his wife. That is why they are being reverted to 1929 and 1962.Juve2000 (talk) 23:22, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Is there a template or a standard of which I am unaware that lists a spouse's dates in an infobox as the beginning and end of the marriage, rather than the spouse's life? To a reader happening upon such information, the dates given to a spouse seem like they should be the birth and death dates of that spouse. If the dates of the marriage are to be given, wouldn't it be more intuitive to have the heading be "Marriage"? (As in, "Marriage: Estelle Oldham, 1929–1962"). Schoolmann (talk) 17:12, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
 * A good question. This template is used for almost 30,000 articles in the English language Wikipedia. The field is named 'Spouse'. To make the change you suggest would require gaining concensus on the change—a good starting place might at the talk page for that template. Until then, this Faulkner infobox is about William Faulkner—Estelle Faulkner's death is given in the text of section '1.1 Person life' and the phrase 'his death' after 1962 makes the date unambiguous. On alternate mornings I agree with you, but inertia and the absolute necessity for consensus are powerful forces. — Neonorange (talk) 18:29, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Excellent points all, Neonorange. I certainly don't want to try to change policy on 30,000 entries. I do, however, like the format used on Hemingway's page: "Mary Welsh Hemingway (m. 1946; his death 1961)." The "m." gives all the disambiguation needed. But I'm not going to change this page again if I'm the only one having a problem with it. Schoolmann (talk) 17:48, 26 January 2017 (UTC)

Falkner Family Names
William Faulkner's father is addressed in this entry with both the name he was born with (Falkner) and the one the subject later adopted (Faulkner).

Mother and siblings are addressed "Faulkner".

Someone with access to the actual surnames ought to clean this up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jsusky (talk • contribs) 19:30, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

Faulkner in Toronto
The section about Faulkner in Toronto seems to indicate, from the way is written, that Faulkner was never really a member of the British Air Force. It is well documented that Faulkner was a cadet at the "School of Military Aeronautics" at the University of Toronto in 1918. I'd appreciate your comments. See:

File:Carl Van Vechten - William Faulkner.jpg to appear as POTD soon
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Carl Van Vechten - William Faulkner.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on September 25, 2017. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2017-09-25. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 01:55, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Modern Library rankings
The Modern Library rankings are for its imprints, not for novels in general. See Talk:Ulysses (novel). Given that, consideration should be given to removing the those rankings from the lede, and if used in the text, they should be appropriately qualified. Kablammo (talk) 18:53, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

Looking for W. Faulkner book with Joe Christmas as character? Thanks.
Looking for W. Faulkner navel with Joe Christmas as character. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.212.176 (talk) 02:57, 10 November 2018 (UTC)


 * Light in August. Pretty good book. —Malan88 (talk) 15:22, 21 December 2018 (UTC)

US Army rejection
I just wanted to point out the conflicting information in this paragraph—hoping someone else can provide more insight? "Faulkner attempted to join the US Army, but was rejected for being under weight and his short stature of 5'5".…. Accounts of Faulkner being rejected from the United States Army Air Service due to his short stature, despite wide publication, are false." 74.129.65.242 (talk) 02:06, 5 September 2023 (UTC)