Oxford: The seat of Lafayette County appears is named in several of Faulkner’s works, most notably Sanctuary and Absalom, Absalom! as the location of the University of Mississippi. The town was the principal model for the fictional Jefferson, seat of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County. Other towns that have been noted as models are New Albany (Union County), where Faulkner was born; and Ripley (Tippah County), home of Faulkner’s great-grandfather, William Clark Falkner, upon whom the character of Colonel John Sartoris was closely modeled.