William Faulkner in Holly Springs
William Faulkner in Holly Springs describes places and people in this small Mississippi town and defines how these newly identified individuals and locales affected Faulkner’s writings. Author Sally Wolff uncovers new information about Faulkner’s sources and examines how the town of Holly Springs, its people, and its culture influenced the Nobel Laureate and the literature he produced. Wolff argues that this information can serve as touchstone sources for some of Faulkner’s most renowned fiction, including The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!,Intruder in the Dust, and Requiem for a Nun.
Information from various interviews with over twenty current and former citizens of Holly Springs also helps to reveal Faulkner’s presence in this small town and the ways in which he drew from and then transformed what he found there into some of the greatest works in American letters. A clearer understanding of Faulkner’s sources helps elucidate the breadth of creativity and imagination with which he forged his world-famous literature.
Sally Wolff, who earned her doctorate in English from Emory University, has taught and served in the administration there for forty-five years. She previously has published four books about southern literature and several others about Emory University history. Her earlier book about William Faulkner, Ledgers of History: William Faulkner, an Almost Forgotten Friendship, and an Antebellum Plantation Diary,has been called “one of the most exciting literary finds in recent history” and “a major discovery in Faulkner scholarship.”
