Myself and the World
Myself and the World
A Biography of William Faulkner
William Faulkner (1897–1962) once said of his novels and stories, “I am telling the same story over and over, which is myself and the world.” This biography provides an overview of the life and career of the famous author, demonstrating the interrelationships of that life, centered in Oxford, Mississippi, with the characters and events of his fictional world. The book begins with a chapter on Faulkner’s most famous ancestor, W. C. Falkner, “the Old Colonel,” who greatly influenced both the content and the form of Faulkner’s fiction. Robert W. Hamblin then proceeds to examine the highlights of Faulkner’s biography, from his childhood to his youthful days as a fledgling poet, through his time in New Orleans, the creation of Yoknapatawpha, the years of struggle and his season of prolific genius, and through his time in Hollywood and his winning of the Nobel Prize. The book concludes with a description of his last years as a revered author, cultural ambassador, and university writer-in-residence.
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Faulkner spoke of “the agony and sweat of the human spirit” that goes into artistic creation. For Faulkner, that struggle was especially acute. Poor and neglected for much of his life, suffering from chronic depression and alcoholism, and unhappy in his personal life, Faulkner overcame tremendous obstacles to achieve literary success. One of the major themes of his novels and stories remains endurance, and his biography exhibits that quality in abundance. Faulkner the man endured and ultimately prevailed.
Faulkner remains a mysterious individual to many current readers. He was a singularly private person, and his previous biographers have sometimes addressed this problem by providing overwhelming detail. In Myself and the World, Professor Hamblin brings us a clear, responsible, and useful account of William Faulkner’s life, showing his long apprenticeship, his brilliant breakthrough into both the Yoknapatawpha saga and high modernism, and his sustained achievements throughout his myriad career. Hamblin sees Faulkner steadily and whole.
Myself and the World: A Biography of William Faulkner is that rare example of scholarship that has been deliberately designed to appeal to first readers of Faulkner. Hamblin, an old hand in the Faulkner industry, as he terms it, writes fresh and crisp prose, grounding readers in the life of a writer often called difficult and yet by means of this biographer’s sure grasp, now accessible and engaging, fulfilling Dr. Johnson’s hope for biography—that it should illuminate the work of the writer who suffered and prevailed.
This biography is a clear-eyed account of the writer and his works. Although written out of admiration for the extraordinary genius of the Nobel Prize-winning writer, Hamblin does not shy away from less-than-laudable aspects of Faulkner’s personality and behavior. Readers will see that much deserved admiration for the work and the craft does not stand in the way of judicious and fair appraisal of the whole life and personality.
Robert W. Hamblin is professor emeritus of English and founding director of the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State University. He has authored or edited nineteen books on Faulkner, including A William Faulkner Encyclopedia and My Life with Faulkner and Brodsky.
