The Yoknapatawpha Letters

Selected Letters of William Faulkner Edited by Joseph Blotner Random House, 488 pp., $15 There is a natural and necessary interest in the private correspondence of great men, and particularly of important writers. Now we are favored with a small selection of the letters of William Faulkner, assembled by his official biographer. As Professor Blotner acknowledges, they are not the handiwork of a self-conscious practitioner of the epistolary art, not a subdivision of his authorship prepared with posterity in mind. Faulkner had hoped that no such book would be made, just as he had hoped that there would be no inquiry into the other details of his personal life. But those who honor his artistic achievement must rejoice that, at least to some degree, his “ambition to be, as a private individual, abolished and voided from history” has not been fulfilled. For he wrote many good letters, some of them useful in understanding his work and the circumstances of its creation. In that enterprise we need all the help we can find.

As I said, this is a very small selection. Much of Faulkner’s correspondence is still sequestered in private hands. Other letters appear here under unusual conditions, or in a form too incomplete to be of use. Blotner has collected what he could get. I particularly appreciate the letters to editors, publishers, and agents. They inform us of how the books were put together, of the stages in their composition, and of their author’s intentions.

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M. E. Bradford

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Selected Letters of William Faulkner Edited by Joseph Blotner Random House, 488 pp., $15 There is a natural and necessary interest in the private correspondence of great men, and particularly of important writers. Now we are favored with a small selection of the letters of William Faulkner, assembled by his official biographer. As Professor Blotner acknowledges, they are not the handiwork of a self-conscious practitioner of the epistolary art, not a subdivision of his authorship prepared with posterity in mind. Faulkner had hoped that no such book would be made, just as he had hoped that there would be no inquiry into the other details of his personal life. But those who honor his artistic achievement must rejoice that, at least to some degree, his “ambition to be, as a private individual, abolished and voided from history” has not been fulfilled. For he wrote many good letters, some of them useful in understanding his work and the circumstances of its creation. In that enterprise we need all the help we can find.

As I said, this is a very small selection. Much of Faulkner’s correspondence is still sequestered in private hands. Other letters appear here under unusual conditions, or in a form too incomplete to be of use. Blotner has collected what he could get. I particularly appreciate the letters to editors, publishers, and agents. They inform us of how the books were put together, of the stages in their composition, and of their author’s intentions.