William Faulkner (born William Cuthbert Falkner), (September 25, 1897–July 6, 1962) was an American author. One of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, he was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. His reputation is based on his novels, novellas, and short stories. However, he was also a published poet and also was a screenwriter. He is now deemed among the greatest American writers of all time.

Awards 
Faulkner received the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature  for "his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel." He donated a portion of his Nobel winnings "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers," eventually resulting in the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He donated another portion to a local Oxford bank to establish an account to provide scholarship funds to help educate African-American education majors at nearby Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

Faulkner won two Pulitzer Prizes for what are considered as his "minor" novels: his 1954 novel A Fable, which took the Pulitzer in 1955, and the 1962 novel, The Reivers, which was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer in 1963. He also won two National Book Awards, first for his Collected Stories in 1951 and once again for his novel A Fable in 1955.

In 1946, Faulkner was one of three finalists for the first Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Award. He came in second to Manly Wade Wellman.

On August 3, 1987, the United States Postal Service issued a 22 cent postage stamp in his honor.

Selected writings

Novels 
 Soldiers' Pay (1926)
 Mosquitoes (1927)
 Sartoris/Flags in the Dust (1929/1973)
 The Sound and the Fury (1929)
 As I Lay Dying (1930)
 Sanctuary (1931)
 Light in August (1932)
 Pylon (1935)
 Absalom, Absalom! (1936)
 The Unvanquished (1938)
 If I Forget Thee Jerusalem (The Wild Palms/Old Man) (1939)
 The Hamlet (1940)
 Go Down, Moses (1942). Episodic novel made up of rewritten previous published short stories.
 Intruder in the Dust (1948)
 Requiem for a Nun (1951)
 A Fable (1954)
 The Town (1957)
 The Mansion (1959)
 The Reivers (1962)

Short stories 

 "Landing in Luck" (1919)
 "The Hill" (1922)
 "New Orleans"
 "Mirrors of Chartres Street" (1925)
 "Damon and Pythias Unlimited" (1925)
 "Jealousy" (1925)
 "Cheest" (1925)
 "Out of Nazareth" (1925)
 "The Kingdom of God" (1925)
 "The Rosary" (1925)
 "The Cobbler" (1925)
 "Chance" (1925)
 "Sunset" (1925)
 "The Kid Learns" (1925)
 "The Liar" (1925)
 "Home" (1925)
 "Episode" (1925)
 "Country Mice" (1925)
 "Yo Ho and Two Bottles of Rum" (1925)
 "Music - Sweeter than the Angels Sing"
 "A Rose for Emily" (1930)
 "Honor" (1930)
 "Thrift" (1930)
 "Red Leaves" (1930)
 "Ad Astra" (1931)
 "Dry September" (1931)
 "That Evening Sun" (1931)
 "Hair" (1931)
 "Spotted Horses" (1931)
 "The Hound" (1931)
 "Fox Hunt" (1931)
 "Carcassonne" (1931)
 "Divorce in Naples" (1931)
 "Victory" (1931)
 "All the Dead Pilots" (1931)
 "Crevasse" (1931)
 "Mistral" (1931)
 "A Justice" (1931)
 "Dr. Martino" (1931)
 "Idyll in the Desert" (1931)

 "Miss Zilphia Grant" (1932)
 "Death Drag" (1932)
 "Centaur in Brass" (1932)
 "Once Aboard the Lugger (I)" (1932)
 "Lizards in Jamshyd's Courtyard" (1932)
 "Turnabout" (1932)
 "Smoke" (1932)
 "Mountain Victory" (1932)
 "There Was a Queen" (1933)
 "Artist at Home" (1933)
 "Beyond" (1933)
 "Elly" (1934)
 "Pennsylvania Station" (1934)
 "Wash" (1934)
 "A Bear Hunt" (1934)
 "The Leg" (1934)
 "Black Music" (1934)
 "Mule in the Yard" (1934)
 "Ambuscade" (1934)
 "Retreat" (1934)
 "Lo!" (1934)
 "Raid" (1934)
 "Skirmish at Sartoris" (1935)
 "Golden Land" (1935)
 "That Will Be Fine" (1935)
 "Uncle Willy" (1935)
 "Lion" (1935)
 "The Brooch" (1936)
 "Two Dollar Wife" (1936)
 "Fool About a Horse" (1936)
 "Vendee" (1936)
 "Monk" (1937)
 "Barn Burning" (1939)
 "Hand Upon the Waters" (1939)
 "A Point of Law" (1940)
 "The Old People" (1940)
 "Pantaloon in Black" (1940)
 "Gold Is Not Always" (1940)
 "Tomorrow" (1940). Filmed in 1972, starring Robert Duvall.
 "The Tall Men" (1941)
 "Two Soldiers" (1942)
 "Delta Autumn" (1942)
 "The Bear" (1942)

 "Afternoon of a Cow" (1943)
 "Shingles for the Lord" (1943)
 "My Grandmother Millard and General Bedford Forrest and the Battle of Harrykin Creek" (1943)
 "Shall Not Perish" (1943)
 "Appendix, Compson, 1699-1945" (1946)
 "An Error in Chemistry" (1946)
 "A Courtship" (1948)
 "Knight's Gambit" (1949)
 "Nobel Prize Award Speech" (1949)
 "A Name for the City" (1950)
 "Notes on a Horsethief" (1951)
 "Mississippi" (1954)
 "Sepulture South: Gaslight" (1954)
 "Race at Morning" (1955)
 "By the People" (1955)
 "Hell Creek Crossing" (1962)
 "Mr. Acarius" (1965)
 "The Wishing Tree" (1967)
 "Al Jackson" (1971)
 "And Now What's To Do" (1973)
 "Nympholepsy" (1973)
 "The Priest" (1976)
 "Mayday" (1977)
 "Frankie and Johnny" (1978)
 "Don Giovanni" (1979)
 "Peter" (1979)
 "A Portrait of Elmer" (1979)
 "Adolescence" (1979)
 "Snow" (1979)
 "Moonlight" (1979)
 "With Caution and Dispatch" (1979)
 "Hog Pawn" (1979)
 "A Dangerous Man" (1979)
 "A Return" (1979)
 "The Big Shot" (1979)
 "Once Aboard the Lugger (II)" (1979)
 "Dull Tale" (1979)
 "Evangeline" (1979)
 "Love" (1988)
 "Christmas Tree" (1995)
 "Rose of Lebanon" (1995)
 "Lucas Beauchamp" (1999)

Poetry 
 Vision in Spring (1921)
 The Marble Faun (1924)
 A Green Bough (1933)
 This Earth, a Poem (1932)
 Mississippi Poems (1979)
 Helen, a Courtship and Mississippi Poems (1981).

References 

1897 births
1962 deaths
Writers from Mississippi
Pulitzer Prize winners
American Nobel Prize winners
O. Henry Award winners