William Faulkner

William Faulkner on his native soil in Oxford, Mississippi

Film

1952

William Faulkner on his native soil in Oxford, Mississippi

In November of 1952, the normally reclusive Faulkner allowed a film crew into his secluded world at Oxford to make a short documentary about his life. The film, shown here in five pieces, was funded by the Ford Foundation and broadcast on December 28, 1952 on the CBS television program Omnibus. The scripted film re-enacts events from November 1950, when Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in Literature, through the spring of 1951, when he spoke at his daughter Jill’s high school graduation. There are scenes of Faulkner at Rowan Oak, his antebellum house on the edge of Oxford, and at Greenfield Farm, 17 miles away, where he is shown driving a tractor and talking with workers. Faulkner is also shown briefly with his wife, Estelle, and with several prominent Oxford residents, including druggist Mac Reed, Oxford Eagle editor Phil Mullen, who collaborated with the filmmakers on the script, and lawyer Phil Stone, who was an early literary mentor and champion of Faulkner.

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Acting (4)

The Past Is Never Dead: The Story of William Faulkner

William Faulkner's Mississippi

Impressions of Japan

William Faulkner on his native soil in Oxford, Mississippi

Other work (14)

Mississippi Requiem

The Arsonist

A Rose for Emily

Tomorrow

Land of the Pharaohs

Adventures of Don Juan

The Big Sleep

The Southerner

To Have and Have Not

Northern Pursuit

Background to Danger

Slave Ship

The Road to Glory

Today We Live