William Faulkner bibliography
William Faulkner was an American writer known for his Southern Gothic novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on his hometown of Oxford in Lafayette County, Mississippi. He is widely considered the preeminent writer of Southern literature and among the most significant figures in American literature. In 1949, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel".
In 1919, as a student at the University of Mississippi, Faulkner published his first work, the poem "L'Après-midi d'un Faune", in The New Republic. While living in New Orleans in 1925, he published over a dozen short stories collectively known as the "New Orleans Sketches". Faulkner's first novels—Soldiers' Pay and Mosquitoes —were not successful, and his third, Flags in the Dust, was rejected by publishers before its publication as the abridged Sartoris. Convinced that he "would never be published again", Faulkner wrote the experimental and deeply personal The Sound and the Fury. Written in stream of consciousness, the novel was published in 1929 with few sales due to the onset of the Great Depression. It is now considered among his greatest works.
Faulkner expanded on his stream of consciousness approach in As I Lay Dying, which is narrated by 15 characters bringing a mother to her grave in Yoknapatawpha. Aspiring to create a commercial work, Faulkner wrote the sensationalist Sanctuary. Although its violence and sexuality were controversial, the novel was immensely successful and brought new attention to his previous works. Subsequent novels in that decade—namely Light in August and Absalom, Absalom! —are regarded as among his best and have both been hailed as the "Great American Novel". His 1949 novel The Hamlet launched the Snopes trilogy, completed by The Town and The Mansion. Faulkner's 1954 novel A Fable, which follows a Christ-like corporal in World War I, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He published his 19th and final novel, The Reivers, in 1962, the year he died. The work garnered him a second Pulitzer posthumously.
Beyond his novels, Faulkner was a prolific short story writer. In addition to short story collections, two novels—The Unvanquished and Go Down, Moses —consist of interrelated short stories. In 1932, director Howard Hawks, impressed by his work, invited Faulkner to California to adapt his short story "Turn About" into the film Today We Live. Until 1954, Faulkner split his time between Oxford and Hollywood, working as a screenwriter on some 50 film projects and becoming a frequent collaborator and close friend of Hawks. Some screenplay contributions, such as those to Gunga Din, were uncredited, and many of his scripts were never produced. In addition to several speeches, book reviews, and book introductions, Faulkner also wrote essays on topics ranging from Albert Camus to Japan.
Prose fiction
Novels
| Year | Title | Publisher | Notes | |
| 1926 | Soldiers' Pay | Boni & Liveright | Faulkner's debut novel | |
| 1927 | Mosquitoes | Boni & Liveright | Set on Lake Pontchartrain, features Faulkner himself in a cameo | |
| Sartoris | Harcourt, Brace | An abridged version of Flags in the Dust. The original manuscript was published posthumously by Random House in 1973. | ||
| Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith | First appearance of the Compson family. Faulkner wrote an appendix to the novel, "Compson 1699–1945", for The Portable Faulkner. | |||
| 1930 | As I Lay Dying | Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith | ||
| 1931 | Sanctuary | Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith | ||
| 1932 | Light in August | Harrison Smith & Robert Haas | ||
| 1935 | Pylon | Harrison Smith & Robert Haas | Not set in Yoknapatawpha County | |
| 1936 | Absalom, Absalom! | Random House | Second novel featuring Quentin Compson, after The Sound and the Fury | |
| 1938 | Random House | A collection of seven interrelated short stories, six of which are revisions of stories previously published in The Saturday Evening Post. "An Odor of Verbena" is original to The Unvanquished. | ||
| 1939 | The Wild Palms | Random House | Two stories, not set in Yoknapatawpha County, intertwined in what Faulkner called "counterpoint" structure. His original title was If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem. | |
| 1940 | Random House | The first book in Faulkner's Snopes trilogy | ||
| 1942 | Go Down, Moses | Random House | Consisting of interrelated short stories about the McCaslin family, Faulkner regarded it as a novel. | |
| 1948 | Intruder in the Dust | Random House | Shares characters like Gavin Stevens and Lucas Beauchamp with Go Down Moses | |
| 1951 | Requiem for a Nun | Random House | Sequel to Sanctuary, written as a play with prose parts preceding each act | |
| 1954 | Random House | Not set in Yoknapatawpha County, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award in 1955 | ||
| 1957 | Random House | The second book in the Snopes trilogy | ||
| 1959 | Random House | The third book in the Snopes trilogy | ||
| 1962 | Random House | Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1963 | ||
| 1973 | Flags in the Dust | Random House | Original manuscript of what became Sartoris, prior to extensive editing |
Short stories
| Year | Title | First published in | Collected in | Notes | |
| 1919 | "Landing in Luck" | Early Prose and Poetry | |||
| 1922 | Early Prose and Poetry | ||||
| 1922 | "Nympholepsy" | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1925 | "New Orleans" | New Orleans Sketches | The name "New Orleans Sketches" applies to several sketches published in the same issue of The Double Dealer. | ||
| 1925 | "Frankie and Johnny" | Mississippi Quarterly | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | One of the previous New Orleans Sketches; later rewritten as "The Kid Learns" | |
| 1925 | "Chartres Street" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | "Damon and Pythias Unlimited" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | "Home" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | "Jealousy" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | "Cheest" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | "Out of Nazareth" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | New Orleans Sketches | ||||
| 1925 | New Orleans Sketches | ||||
| 1925 | New Orleans Sketches | ||||
| 1925 | "Chance" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | "Sunset" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | New Orleans Sketches | ||||
| 1925 | "Liar" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | "Episode" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | "Country Mice" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1925 | "Yo Ho and Two Bottles of Rum" | New Orleans Sketches | |||
| 1930 | These 13 The Portable Faulkner The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||||
| 1930 | "Honor" | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1930 | "Thrift" | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1930 | "Red Leaves" | These 13 The Portable Faulkner The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1931 | "Dry September" | Scribner's Magazine | These 13 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1931 | "That Evening Sun" | These 13 The Portable Faulkner The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1931 | "Ad Astra" | American Caravan | These 13 The Portable Faulkner The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1931 | "Hair" | These 13 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1931 | "Spotted Horses" | Scribner's Magazine | The Portable Faulkner Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel The Hamlet | |
| 1931 | "The Hound" | Scribner's Magazine | Dr. Martino and Other Stories Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel The Hamlet | |
| 1931 | "Fox Hunt" | Harper's Magazine | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1931 | "Victory" | — | These 13 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1931 | "All the Dead Pilots" | — | These 13 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1931 | "Crevasse" | — | These 13 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1931 | — | These 13 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1931 | "Mistral" | — | These 13 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1931 | "Divorce in Naples" | — | These 13 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1931 | "Carcassonne" | — | These 13 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1931 | "Dr. Martino" | — | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1931 | "Idyll in the Desert" | Random House | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Published in a limited edition run of 400 copies | |
| 1932 | "Miss Zilphia Gant" | Book Club of Texas | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Published in a print run of 300 copies | |
| 1932 | "Death Drag" | Scribner's Magazine | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Portable Faulkner The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1932 | "Centaur in Brass" | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1932 | "Once Aboard the Lugger " | Contempo | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1932 | "Lizards in Jamshyd's Courtyard" | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel The Hamlet | ||
| 1932 | "Turn About" | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1932 | "Smoke" | Harper's Magazine | Dr. Martino and Other Stories Knight's Gambit | ||
| 1932 | "Mountain Victory" | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1933 | "There Was a Queen" | Scribner's Magazine | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1933 | "Artist at Home" | Story | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1933 | "Beyond" | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1934 | "Elly" | Story | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1934 | "Pennsylvania Station" | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1934 | "Wash" | Harper's Magazine | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Portable Faulkner The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1934 | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner Big Woods | ||||
| 1934 | — | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1934 | "Black Music" | — | Dr. Martino and Other Stories The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1934 | "Mule in the Yard" | Scribner's Magazine | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1934 | "Ambuscade" | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel The Unvanquished | ||
| 1934 | "Retreat" | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1934 | "Lo!" | Story | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1934 | "Raid" | The Portable Faulkner Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel The Unvanquished | ||
| 1935 | "Skirmish at Sartoris" | Scribner's Magazine | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Originally titled "Drusilla", renamed when it was revised and incorporated into the novel The Unvanquished | |
| 1935 | "Golden Land" | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1935 | "That Will Be Fine" | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1935 | "Uncle Willy" | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1935 | "Lion" | Harper's Magazine | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel Go Down, Moses | |
| 1936 | Scribner's Magazine | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1936 | "Two Dollar Wife" | College Life | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1936 | "Fool About a Horse" | Scribner's Magazine | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel The Hamlet | |
| 1936 | "The Unvanquished" | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel The Unvanquished as "Riposte in Tertio" | ||
| 1936 | "Vendee" | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel The Unvanquished | ||
| 1937 | "Monk" | Scribner's Magazine | Knight's Gambit | ||
| 1939 | "Barn Burning" | Scribner's Magazine | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel The Hamlet | |
| 1939 | "Hand Upon the Waters" | Knight's Gambit | |||
| 1940 | Collier's | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel Go Down, Moses | ||
| 1940 | "The Old People" | Harper's Magazine | Big Woods Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel Go Down, Moses and included in Big Woods | |
| 1940 | "Pantaloon in Black" | Harper's Magazine | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel Go Down, Moses | |
| 1940 | "Gold Is Not Always" | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1940 | "Tomorrow" | Knight's Gambit | |||
| 1941 | "Go Down, Moses" | Colliers | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel Go Down, Moses | |
| 1941 | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||||
| 1942 | "Two Soldiers" | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1942 | "Delta Autumn" | Story | The Portable Faulkner Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel Go Down, Moses | |
| 1942 | "The Bear" | The Portable Faulkner Big Woods Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Revised and incorporated into the novel Go Down, Moses and included in both The Portable Faulkner and Big Woods | ||
| 1943 | "Afternoon of a Cow" | Fontaine | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Later revised and incorporated into the novel The Hamlet; originally published in French | |
| 1943 | "Shingles for the Lord" | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1943 | "My Grandmother Millard and General Bedford Forrest and the Battle of Harrykin Creek" | Story | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1943 | "Shall Not Perish" | Story | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1946 | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Knight's Gambit | |||
| 1948 | Sewanee Review | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1949 | "Knight's Gambit" | — | Knight's Gambit | A shorter version remains unpublished. | |
| 1950 | Harper's Magazine | — | Revised version used for Act I prologue of Requiem for a Nun | ||
| 1951 | "Notes on a Horsethief" | Levee Press | — | Also published in Vogue in 1954 and incorporated into A Fable | |
| 1954 | "Mississippi" | Holiday | William Faulkner: Stories | ||
| 1954 | "Sepulture South: Gaslight" | Harper's Bazaar | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1955 | "Race at Morning" | Big Woods Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Revised for inclusion in Big Woods | ||
| 1955 | "By the People" | Mademoiselle | — | Incorporated into chapter 13 of The Mansion | |
| 1962 | "Hell Creek Crossing" | — | 20 page excerpt from a draft of The Reivers | ||
| 1965 | "Mr. Acarius" | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1967 | "The Wishing Tree" | Random House | — | Faulkner's only children's book, written in 1927 | |
| 1971 | "Al Jackson" | William Faulkner und die humoristiche Tradition des amerikanischen Südens | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1973 | "And Now What's To Do" | Mississippi Quarterly | — | ||
| 1976 | "Music – Sweeter than the Angels Sing" | Southern Review | — | ||
| 1976 | Mississippi Quarterly | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1976 | "Mayday" | University of Notre Dame Press | — | ||
| 1979 | "Don Giovanni" | Mississippi Quarterly | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1979 | "Peter" | — | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1979 | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||||
| 1979 | "Adolescence" | — | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1979 | "Snow" | — | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1979 | "Moonlight" | — | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1979 | "With Caution and Dispatch" | Esquire | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1979 | "Hog Pawn" | — | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Revised and incorporated into the novel The Mansion as the fourteenth chapter | |
| 1979 | — | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1979 | — | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | |||
| 1979 | — | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | An alternate version without the Popeye plot was not published. | ||
| 1979 | "Once Aboard the Lugger " | — | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | ||
| 1979 | "Evangeline" | Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner | Written around 1931 | ||
| 1988 | "Love" | — | Written around 1921 | ||
| 1995 | "Christmas Tree" | — | Written around 1921 but rediscovered at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in 1970 | ||
| 1995 | "Rose of Lebanon" | — | Written in 1930 but rejected by literary magazines, reworked into "A Return" in 1938 | ||
| 1999 | "Lucas Beauchamp" | Virginia Quarterly Review | — | 1948 excerpt of Intruder in the Dust reworked into short story. The extent of Faulkner's involvement is unclear. |
Screenplays
Produced
| Year | Film | Credit type | Based on | |
| 1933 | Today We Live | Dialogue and story | ||
| 1935 | Banjo on My Knee | Uncredited | Banjo on my Knee by Harry Hamilton | |
| 1936 | Screenplay | — | ||
| 1936 | Uncredited, screenplay | The Petrified Forest by Robert E. Sherwood | ||
| 1937 | Slave Ship | Story | ||
| 1938 | Submarine Patrol | Uncredited, screenplay | Ray Milholland's The Splinter Fleet of Otranto Barrage, 20th Century-Fox | |
| 1939 | Uncredited, treatment and dialogue revision | |||
| 1939 | Drums Along the Mohawk | Uncredited contributor | Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds | |
| 1943 | Northern Pursuit | Screenplay | To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway | |
| 1944 | To Have and Have Not | Screenplay | To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway | |
| 1945 | Uncredited | Hold Autumn in Your Hand by George Sessions Perry | ||
| 1945 | Mildred Pierce | Contract writer, uncredited | Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain | |
| 1946 | Screenplay | |||
| 1947 | Stallion Road | Uncredited, screenplay | Stephen Longstreet's eponymous novel, for Warner Bros. | |
| 1949 | Intruder in the Dust | Uncredited | Intruder in the Dust by Faulkner, suggestions and revisions may have been wholly rejected | |
| 1953 | Shall not Perish | Television screenplay | To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway, broadcast by CBS on Lux Video Theatre | |
| 1955 | Land of the Pharaohs | Screenplay | — | |
| 1955 | Uncredited, screenplay |
Essays
| Year | Title | Notes | |
| 1953 | |||
| 1954 | "Mississippi" | ||
| 1954 | |||
| 1955 | |||
| 1955 | "Kentucky: May: Saturday" | ||
| 1955 | "On Privacy" | With "On Fear", was part of larger unrealized essay collection "The American Dream" | |
| 1955 | "Impressions of Japan" | ||
| 1955 | "To the Youth of Japan" | ||
| 1956 | "Letter to a Northern Editor" | ||
| 1956 | "On Fear: Deep South in Labor: Mississippi" | See "On Privacy" | |
| 1956 | |||
| 1961 | "Albert Camus" |
Book reviews
| Year | Book reviewed | Author | Published in | |
| 1931 | The New Republic | |||
| 1935 | Test Pilot | American Mercury | ||
| 1952 | Shenandoah |
Public letters
| Year | Title | Notes | |
| 1927 | To the Book Editor of the Chicago Tribune | ||
| 1938 | To the President of the League of American Writers | ||
| 1941 | To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal | ||
| 1946 | "His Name Was Pete" | In the Oxford Eagle | |
| 1947 | To the Editor of the Oxford Eagle | ||
| 1950 | To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal | ||
| 1950 | To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal | ||
| 1950 | To the Secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Letters | ||
| 1950 | To the Voters of Oxford | ||
| 1950 | To the Editor of the Oxford Eagle | ||
| 1950 | To the Editor of the Time | ||
| 1951 | Statement to the Press on the Willie McGee Case | Published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal | |
| 1954 | To the Editor of The New York Times | ||
| 1955 | To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal | ||
| 1955 | To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal | ||
| 1955 | To the Editor of The New York Times | ||
| 1955 | To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal | ||
| 1955 | To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal | ||
| 1955 | To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal | ||
| 1955 | Press Dispatch on the Emmet Till Case | Provided to United Press International | |
| 1956 | To the Editor of Life | ||
| 1956 | To the Editor of the Reporter | ||
| 1956 | To the Editor of Time | ||
| 1956 | To the Editor of Time | ||
| 1956 | To the Editor of The New York Times | ||
| 1957 | To the Editor of Time | ||
| 1957 | To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal | ||
| 1957 | Notice | September 24, published in the Oxford Eagle | |
| 1957 | Notice | Published in the Oxford Eagle | |
| 1960 | To the Editor of The New York Times |
Speeches
| Year | Title | Notes | |
| 1940 | Funeral Sermon for Mammy Caroline Barr | Barr was a former slave and the "mammy" who had helped raise Faulkner. | |
| 1950 | Upon Receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature | Although he won the Nobel Prize in 1949, Faulkner accepted the award alongside 1950 Laureate Bertrand Russell in a combined ceremony. | |
| 1951 | To the Graduating Class, University High School | ||
| 1951 | Upon Being Made an Officer of the Legion of Honor | ||
| 1952 | To the Delta Council | ||
| 1953 | To the Graduating Class, Pine Manor Junior College | ||
| 1955 | Upon Receiving the National Book Award for Fiction | ||
| 1955 | To the Southern Historical Association | ||
| 1957 | Upon Receiving the Silver Medal of the Athens Academy | ||
| 1957 | To the American Academy of Arts and Letters in Presenting the Gold Medal for Fiction to John Dos Passos | ||
| 1958 | To the Raven, Jefferson, and ODK Societies of the University of Virginia | ||
| 1958 | To the English Club of the University of Virginia | ||
| 1959 | To the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO | ||
| 1962 | To the American Academy of Arts and Letters upon Receiving the Gold Medal for Fiction |