1897 |
Born Sept. 25 in New Albany, Mississippi
|
1899 |
Brother Murry C. (Jack) Falkner, Jr. born
|
1901 |
Brother John Wesley Thompson (Johncy)
Falkner, III born
|
1902 |
Family moves to Oxford, Sept. 22
|
1905 |
Enters first grade, Oxford Graded School
|
1906 |
Skips to third grade
Grandmother Sallie Murry Falkner dies
|
1907 |
Grandmother Lelia Dean Swift Butler dies.
Brother Dean Swift Falkner born
|
1908 |
Possibly witnesses the lynching of a black
man, Nelse Patton, on the square in Oxford
|
1909 |
Works in father’s livery stable
|
1911 |
Enters eighth grade; signs of increasing
truancy
|
1914 |
Takes poetry to lawyer Phil Stone, beginning
a long friendship with Stone
Enters eleventh and final grade of Oxford
High School, but drops out in December
|
1915 |
Returns to school to play football, and
breaks his nose; quits school for good that fall
Goes bear-hunting at “General”James
Stone’s camp
|
1916 |
Works briefly at grandfather’s First
National Bank as a clerk
Starts hanging out on University of Mississippi
campus, and writes verse influenced by Swinburne and Housman
|
1917 |
Begins supplying drawings for yearbook Ole
Miss
|
1918 |
Estelle Oldham engaged to Cornell Franklin,
whom she marries on April 18
Tries to enlist in U.S. Army; he is turned
down
Joins Phil Stone in New Haven, Conn.,
in April; begins working as a ledger clerk for Winchester
Repeating Arms Co.
Accepted by the Canadian Royal Air Force
as cadet; reports to Recruits’ Depot, Toronto, on July
9 and enters active service the next day
Posted to Cadet Wing in Long Branch on
July 26, then to School of Military Aeronautics, Toronto,
on Sept. 20
Discharged from RAF in December and returns
to Oxford
|
1919 |
Poem “L’Apres-Midi d’un
Faune” appears in The New Republic
Enters the University of Mississipi in
September as a special student; begins publishing poems in The
Mississippian and the Oxford Eagle
|
1920 |
Wins $10 poetry prize offered by Prof.
Calvin S. Brown
Joins the Marionnettes, university drama
club, in September
Commission arrives as honorable 2nd Lt.,
RAF, in November
Hand-letters six copies of The Marionnettes,
a verse play
|
1921 |
Presents a gift volume of poems, Vision
in Spring to Estelle Franklin
Accepts Stark Young’s invitation
to visit in New York, where he is hired as a bookstore clerk
by Elizabeth Prall
Accepts a job as postmaster at the University
of Mississippi post office
|
1922 |
Grandfather J. W. T. Falkner, Jr. dies
Becomes scoutmaster of a Boy Scout troop
in Oxford
Poem “Portrait” published
in The Double-Dealer (New Orleans)
|
1924 |
Four Seas Co. agrees to publish The
Marble Faun, sent by Phil Stone, for $400; the book
published on Dec. 15
Compiles gift booklet, Mississippi
Poems, for Myrtle Ramey
Removed as scoutmaster because of drinking
Resigns from post office because of charges
brought by postal inspector
Visits Elizabeth Prall in New Orleans
and meets her husband, author Sherwood Anderson
|
1925 |
Leaves Oxford for New Orleans, intending
to sail for Europe
Begins to contribute to New Orleans Times-Picayune in
February
Sails for Europe from New Orleans on July
7 with William Spratling; arrives in Genoa, Italy, on Aug.
2 and travels through Italy and Switzerland, eventually settling
in Paris until he returns home in December
|
1926 |
Moves in with Spratling in New Orleans
during the winter
Dates Mayday, a hand-lettered tale
he wrote for Helen Baird, Jan. 27
Soldiers’ Pay published
Feb. 25
Vacations at Pascagoula, Miss., during
the summer
Dates a hand-lettered gift book of poems, Helen:
A Courtship for Helen Baird in June
Returns to Oxford, then to New Orleans,
in September
Collaborates with Spratling in December
on Sherwood Anderson & Other Famous Creoles
|
1927 |
Mosquitoes published
April 30
|
1928 |
Sartoris accepted
by Harcourt, Brace
|
1929 |
Sartoris published
Jan. 31
Estelle Franklin divorced; marries her
in College Hill, Miss., on June 20; they honeymoon in Pascagoula
until late summer
Takes job at university power plant in
early fall
The Sound and the
Fury published Oct. 7
|
1930 |
Begins publishing stories in national
magazines in April
Purchases house and land, naming it Rowan
Oak
As I Lay Dying published
Oct. 6
|
1931 |
Daughter Alabama born Jan. 11; she dies
nine days later
Sanctuary published
Feb. 9
These 13 published
Sept. 21
|
1932 |
Arrives in Culver City, Calif., as MGM
contract writer on May 7
Father Murry Falkner dies Aug. 7
Light in August published
Oct. 6
|
1933 |
Begins flying lessons Feb. 2
A Green Bough published April 20
Daughter Jill born June 24
|
1934 |
Doctor Martino
and Other Stories published April 16
Leaves for three-week assignment at Universal
Studios on July 1
|
1935 |
Incorporates Okatoba Fishing and Hunting
Club with two others Jan. 30
Pylon published
March 25
Brother Dean killed in plane crash Nov.
10
Leaves for five-week assignment at Twentieth
Century-Fox on Dec. 10, where he meets Meta Dougherty Carpenter
and begins intimate relationship that would last intermittently
for fifteen years
|
1936 |
Absalom, Absalom! published
Oct. 26
|
1937 |
Leaves on three-and-a-half-week trip to
New York in mid-October, where he suffers a severe back burn
during a drinking spree
|
1938 |
The Unvanquished published
Feb.15, and screen rights are sold to MGM
Purchases land in northeastern Lafayette
County and names it Greenfield Farm
|
1939 |
Elected to National Institute of Arts
and Letters in January
The Wild Palms published
Jan. 19
|
1940 |
Mammy Caroline (Callie) Barr dies on Jan.
31, and Faulkner delivers eulogy
The Hamlet published
April 1
|
1941 |
Organizes county aircraft warning system
in late June
|
1942 |
Go Down, Moses published
May 11
Begins five-month segment of a long-term
Warner Brothers contract on July 26
|
1946 |
Viking Press publishes The
Portable Faulkner, edited by Malcolm Cowley
|
1947 |
Meets a series of six classes at Ole Miss
in April
|
1948 |
Screen rights to Intruder
in the Dust sold to MGM on July 11
Intruder in the
Dust published Sept. 27
Elected to American Academy of Arts and
Letters on Nov. 23
|
1949 |
In February, helps with preparations for
filming of Intruder
in the Dust in Oxford
Meets Joan Williams in August
Knight’s
Gambit published Nov. 27
|
1950 |
Receives American Academy’s Howells
Medal for Fiction in May
Collected Stories published
Aug. 2
Notified on Nov. 8 he has won the Nobel
Prize for Literature; he and Jill depart for Stockholm,
Sweden on Dec. 8
|
1951 |
Goes to Hollywood in February for five
weeks scriptwriting for Howard Hawks
Notes on a Horsethief published
Feb. 10
Receives National Book Award for Fiction
in March for Collected Stories
Leaves April 12 for three-week trip to
France and England
In July, goes to New York to work for
one week on stage version of Requiem
for a Nun
With Estelle, drives Jill on Sept. 12
to Wellesley, Mass., to enter Pine Manor Junior College
Requiem for a
Nun published Sept. 27
Receives Legion of Honor in New Orleans
on Oct. 26
|
1952 |
Addresses Delta Council in Cleveland,
Mississippi, on May 15
Goes on one-month trip to France, England,
and Norway on May 16
Leaves Oxford in mid-November to work
on A Fable in Princeton
and New York
|
1953 |
Returns to New York on Oct. 31; alternates
between there and Oxford until October
Leaves for Paris on Nov. 30 to begin work
on Land of the
Pharaohs for Howard Hawks, then on to Stresa and
St. Moritz
Meets Jean Stein on Dec. 24
|
1954 |
Visits England, France, and Switzerland
in January, then arrives in Rome on Jan. 19
Visits Paris for three days in February
before joining Hawks on location near Cairo; returns to Oxford
in late April
A Fable published
Aug. 2
In August, goes to São Paulo,
Brazil, for six-day stay at International Writers Conference
Jill marries Paul D. Summers, Jr. on Aug.
21
Between September and February, alternates
between Oxford and New York
|
1955 |
Accepts National Book Award for Fiction
on Jan. 25 for A Fable
Speaks in mid-April at the University
of Oregon and Montana State University
A Fable wins
the Pulitzer Prize in May
Leaves July 29 for Japan on a State Department
trip; also visits Manila, the Philippines, and Italy in August,
France in September, and Iceland in October before returning
to New York in mid-October
Big Woods published
Oct. 14
|
1956 |
From February to September, alternates
between Oxford and New York, with visits to Charlottesville,
Virginia
Grandson Paul D. Summers III born April
15
Goes to Washington on Sept. 11 for four
days as chairman of Writers’ Group, People- to-People
Program
|
1957 |
Goes to New York in February for People-to-People
Program
Goes to University of Virginia Feb. 15
for second semester as writer-in-residence
Arrives in Athens on March 18 on two-week
mission for State Department, accepts Silver Medal of Greek
Academy
The Town published
May 1
|
1958 |
Returns to Charlottesville on Jan. 30
for another semester as writer-in-residence
Arrives in Princeton on March 1 to spend
two weeks at University for Council on Humanities
Beginning in mid-March, alternates between
Oxford and Charlottesville for the remainder of his life
Grandson William Cuthbert Falkner Summers
born Dec. 2
|
1959 |
American debut of Requiem
for a Nun on Broadway
Fractures right collarbone on March 14
in fall from horse in Charlottesville
Purchases house at 917 Rugby Road in Charlottesville
Goes to Denver on Sept. 29 for four-day
UNESCO conference
The Mansion published
Nov. 13
|
1960 |
Accepts appoints to the University of
Virginia faculty on Aug. 25
Mother Maud Butler Falkner dies Oct. 16
Invited to wear the colors of the Farmington,
Va.., Hunt Club
Wills manuscripts on Dec. 28 to the William
Faulkner Foundation
|
1961 |
Arrives in Venezuela on April 2 on two-week
State Department trip
Grandson A. Burks Summers born May 30
|
1962 |
Injured in fall from horse on Jan. 3 in
Charlottesville
Goes on two-day visit on April 19 to U.S.
Military Academy at West Point
Accepts Gold Medal for Fiction of the
National Institute of Arts and Letters on May 24 in New York
The Reivers published
June 4
Injured June 17 in fall from horse in
Oxford
Enters hospital in Byhalia, Mississippi,
on July 5
Dies of heart attack on July 6 at 1:30
a.m. He is buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery in Oxford
on July 7
|