February 2010

Diary that inspired Go Down, Moses discovered

A 19th-century diary from a plantation in Holly Springs, Mississippi, apparently inspired the commissary ledger that was so instrumental in Go Down, Moses. From a Feb. 10 article in The New York Times:

The climactic moment in William Faulkner’s 1942 novel “Go Down, Moses” comes when Isaac McCaslin finally decides to open his grandfather’s leather farm ledgers with their “scarred and cracked backs” and “yellowed pages scrawled in fading ink” — proof of his family’s slave-owning past. Now, what appears to be the document on which Faulkner modeled that ledger as well as the source for myriad names, incidents and details that populate his fictionalized Yoknapatawpha County has been discovered.

The original manuscript, a diary from the mid-1800s, was written by Francis Terry Leak, a wealthy plantation owner in Mississippi whose great-grandson Edgar Wiggin Francisco Jr. was a friend of Faulkner’s since childhood. Mr. Francisco’s son, Edgar Wiggin Francisco III, now 79, recalls the writer’s frequent visits to the family homestead in Holly Springs, Miss., throughout the 1930s, saying Faulkner was fascinated with the diary’s several volumes. Mr. Francisco said he saw them in Faulker’s hands and remembers that he “was always taking copious notes.”

Read the entire article online at www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/books/11faulkner.html.

2010 Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference to focus on “Faulkner and Film”

The 37th annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference will examine the topic ”Faulkner and Film” through five days of lectures and discussions by literary scholars and critics. In addition to formal lectures, there will be several shorter panel presentations, guided day-long tours of Northeast Mississippi and the Delta, and sessions on “Teaching Faulkner” by noted Faulkner scholars.

The conference will take place July 18-22, 2010, at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. For more information, visit the official conference web site: www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner.

Faulkner Society, E-mail discussion list information

The William Faulkner Society sponsors several scholarly presentations at the annual American Literature Conference in May and the Modern Language Association Conference in December. The society also sponsors other professional and financial incentives for scholars and graduate students. For more information, visit the society's website, faulknersociety.com.

Both scholars and non-scholars are invited to join the Faulkner Discussion Listserv by sending the message “subscribe faulkner” to md@listserv.olemiss.edu. For more information about the list, send the message “info faulkner” to the same address.

Faulkner dissertation on ‘War and History’ available

My doctoral dissertation, War and History in the Fiction of William Faulkner, is available for download or purchase online from Proquest.com. Click here to read the abstract and a free 24-page preview or to purchase a print or electronic version.

Questions about Faulkner's literary estate should be directed to Lee Caplin

If you have any questions regarding the licensing of Faulkner’s work for stage, screen, or any other commercial endeavor, you should contact Lee Caplin, the exclusive representative of the Faulkner literary estate. Caplin's website at www.pictureentertainment.com includes numerous ways in which to get in touch.