William Faulkner was not particularly
well-suited to public speaking. His short stature, his shy
demeanor, quiet voice and deep Southern dialect all were
factors which made it difficult at times for listeners to
understand, or even to hear, what he was saying. Nevertheless,
he sometimes struck gold, as his 1950 Nobel
Prize speech demonstrates. A reluctant prize recipient,
who tried to find good cause not to go to Sweden to accept
the award, and a terrified speaker, his speech was initially
unintelligible to those in attendance. It was only the next
day, when the words of his speech were printed in the newspaper,
that commentators would recognize the quality of his speech.
Faulkner did not write very many nonfiction
essays, and those few that he did write often bore strong
stylistic similarities to his fiction. In fact, he mingled
fact and fiction in his most famous essay, “Mississippi.”
Many of Faulkner’s essays and
other public nonfiction works were collected in Essays,
Speeches, and Public Letters (New York: Random House,
1965), edited by James B. Meriwether. A revised edition of
this book with additional material was published in 2004.
Essays
- A Note on Sherwood Anderson (1953)
- Mississippi (1954)
- A Guest’s Impression of New England (1954)
- An Innocent at Rinkside (1955)
- Kentucky: May: Saturday (1955)
- On Privacy (1955)
- Impressions of Japan (1955)
- To the Youth of Japan (1955)
- Letter to a Northern Editor (1956)
- On Fear: Deep South in Labor: Mississippi (1956)
- A Letter to the Leaders in the Negro Race (1956)
- Albert Camus (1961)
Speeches
- Funeral Sermon for Mammy Caroline Barr (1940)
- Upon Receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature (1950)
 Text
of Speech
- To the Graduating Class, University High School (1951)
- Upon Being Made an Officer of the Legion of Honor (1951)
- To the Delta Council (1952)
- To the Graduating Class, Pine Manor Junior College (1953)
- Upon Receiving the National Book Award for Fiction (1955)
- To the Southern Historical Assocation (1955)
- 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 (1957)
- To the Raven, Jefferson, and ODK Societies of the University
of Virginia (1958)
- To the English Club of the University of Virginia (1958)
- To the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO (1959)
- To the American Academy of Arts and Letters upon Acceptance
of the Gold Medal for Fiction (1962)
Introductions
- Foreword to Sherwood Anderson & Other Famous
Creoles (1926)
- Introduction to the Modern Library Edition of Sanctuary (1932)
- Foreword to The Faulkner Reader (1954)
Book Reviews
- The Road Back, by Erich Maria Remarque (1931)
- Test Pilot, by Jimmy Collins (1935)
- The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway (1952)
Public Letters
- To the Book Editor of the Chicago Tribune (July
16, 1927)
- To the President of the League of American Writers (1938)
- To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (July
12, 1941)
- “His Name Was Pete,” Oxford Eagle (August
15, 1946)
- To the Editor of the Oxford Eagle (March
13, 1947)
- To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (March
26, 1950)
- To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (April
9, 1950)
- To the Secretary of the American Academy of Arts and
Letters (June 12, 1950)
- “To the Voters of Oxford” (September
1950)
- To the Editor of the Oxford Eagle (September
14, 1950)
- To the Editor of Time (November
13, 1950)
- Statement to the Press on the Willie Mcgee Case, Memphis Commercial
Appeal (March 27, 1951)
- To the Editor of the New York Times (December
26, 1954)
- To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (February
20, 1955)
- To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (March
20, 1955)
- To the Editor of the New York Times (March
25, 1955)
- To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (April
3, 1955)
- To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (April
10, 1955)
- To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (April
17, 1955)
- Press Dispatch on the Emmett Till Case (September
9, 1955)
- To the Editor of Life (March
26, 1956)
- To the Editor of the Reporter (April
19, 1956)
- To the Editor of Time (April
23, 1956)
- To the Editor of Time (December
10, 1956)
- To the Editor of the New York Times (December
16, 1956)
- To the Editor of Time (February
11, 1957)
- To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (September
15, 1957)
- To the Editor of the New York Times (October
13, 1957)
- Notice, Oxford Eagle (September
24, 1959)
- “Notice,” Oxford Eagle (October
15, 1959)
- To the Editor of the New York Times (August
28, 1960)
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Books
for sale at
 Essays, Speeches & Public Letters
Edited by James B. Meriwether
First published in 1965
2nd edition with additional material
Modern Library, 2004
ISBN: 081297137X
 New Orleans Sketches
Edited by Carvel Collins
First published in 1958
Reprint edition
University Press of Mississippi,
2002
ISBN: 1578064716
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