Talking about William Faulkner

by Jim Faulkner

In the 1970s and 1980s, Sally Wolff and Floyd C. Watkins, both of Emory University, took students of southern literature to Lafayette County, Mississippi, to explore the region where William Faulkner lived. They visited Faulkner's home, Rowan Oak, in Oxford, Mississippi; trekked around the countryside; and met people who were the prototypes for some of his characters. During these excursions, they discovered firsthand how profoundly Faulkner's family, community, and region imprinted themselves on his imagination and then both shaped and enriched his work. Their primary guide was Jimmy Faulkner, who was once described by his famous uncle as "the only person who likes me for what I am." Like his uncle, Jimmy is a born storyteller, and his recollections provide fascinating, often intimate details about Faulkner as author, friend and drinking buddy, member of the unusual Faulkner clan, and resident of the model for what may be the most famous county in American literature.