Trivia

Director Howard Hawks related once how he took Faulkner and Clark Gable along with him on a hunting trip. Hawks was friends with both, but neither Faulkner nor Gable knew each other and Hawks didn't tell either one who the other was. During the trip the conversation turned to writers, and Gable asked Faulkner who he thought are the best writers. Faulkner replied, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Thomas Mann and myself." Gable said, "Oh, do you write, Mr. Faulkner?" Faulkner replied, "Yes. And what do you do, Mr. Gable?".

His screenplay for Ernest Hemingway's novel Le Port de l'angoisse (1944) marks the only time in film history that two Nobel Prize-winning authors were associated with the same motion picture... although Faulkner and Hemingway never felt much sympathy for each other.

A legendary, but possibly apocryphal, story about Faulkner relates how, after he had been hired by 20th Century-Fox as a screenwriter, he had been sitting around the Fox writers building for a few weeks without having done anything. A producer who had seen him wandering around the building asked what he was doing, and Faulkner replied that he had nothing to do. The producer asked if he had any ideas for a story. Faulkner replied that he had, but he would be better able to write it at home rather than in the Writers Building. The producer told him it was OK to go home, assuming that Faulkner meant the home in Hollywood that the studio was renting for him. A few days later the producer got a call from Faulkner, who had indeed gone home--to Oxford, Mississippi.

The character of the alcoholic Southern novelist-turned screenwriter W. P. Mayhew in the movie Barton Fink (1991) is based loosely on Faulkner.

Frequently worked with Howard Hawks.

While working in Hollywood, was friends with screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides and actor Humphrey Bogart.

His favorite TV show was Car 54, Where Are You? (1961). Though he despised television, he reportedly would visit a friend's house on Saturday nights to watch the cop comedy.

Was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Interred at Saint Peter's Cemetery, Oxford, Mississippi.

A short story by Faulkner, "Two Soldiers", which was originally published in The Saturday Evening Post (1942), was made into a short film directed by Aaron Schneider. The film went on to win a 2004 Oscar for Best Short Film, (Live Action). It is a poignant tale of brotherhood and the sacrifices of family ties American Soldiers must make for war.

Was close friends with his publisher, Random House owner Bennett Cerf. When introduced to Cerf's wife, Phyllis Fraser, Faulkner greeted her as "Miss Phyllis" and called her that forever after.

Faulkner fans always looked for "deeper meanings" to everything the author did or said. When asked during an appearance at the University of Virginia why he chose the particular stories for the book "Go Down Moses" the audience leaned forward in anticipation of a revelation. "Well", he said" , "when we put 'em all together it looked to be the right size for a book.".

Pictured on a 22¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the Literary Arts series, issued 3 August 1987.

Once worked as a house painter.

Served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War I. He later tried to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Forces during the Second World War but was rejected due to his age. He instead worked on local civil defense.

He always turned down all the offers he received to write screenplays based on his own books. And despite his long relationship with Hollywood, only one of the more than one hundred stories he wrote is set there: "Golden Land".

Born at 11:0pm-CST