William Faulkner Collection

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

This collection is open for research use with the following exceptions: Material pertaining to individual student records may be restricted in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Please contact the Archives with specific questions regarding access to such records.

We are currently organizing and describing this collection—which spans 180 different catalog records—to create a single William Faulkner Collection (MSS 16807) and finding aid that will improve access and discoverability. Due to the very large size and complexity of this collection, we are enacting partial, rolling closures while processing to facilitate and expedite this work. We expect to complete the project in late 2026.

Material pertaining to individual student records is restricted in accordance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Please contact the Archives with specific questions regarding access to such records.

Terms of access:

This collection contains some in-copyright material. Visit our Permissions and Publishing page for more information about use of Special Collections materials. The library can provide copyright information upon request, but users are responsible for making their own determination about lawful use of collections materials.

Permissions and Publishing Page: https://www.library.virginia.edu/special-collections/services/publishing

Please note that W.W. Norton holds copyright to all of Faulkner's published works.

If you would like to publish images in print or online of original manuscript materials from our collection that pertain to these published works, including holograph drafts and typescripts, please contact: Penguin Random House LLC Random House Publishing Group 1745 Broadway New York, NY 10019 Attention: Permissions Department Phone: 212-782-9000

For permission to quote from or publish images in print or online of any of Faulkner's unpublished works or correspondence, please contact: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Attention: Permissions Department 500 5th Avenue New York, NY 10110 Phone: 212-354-5500 Email: permissions@wwnorton.com

For permission to use copyrighted Faulkner materials in any way than listed above, please contact: Faulkner Literary Rights, LLC P.O. Box 1408 Charlottesville, VA 22902 Phone: 434-296-2156

Photocopies of correspondence between Andrew Brown and T.F. Hickerson regarding "William Faulkner: Man of Legends" came from original copies housed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and are not to be quoted in print without their permission.

Photocopies of correspondence between Andrew Brown and T.F. Hickerson regarding "William Faulkner: Man of Legends" came from original copies housed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and are not to be quoted in print without their permission.

Because of the assembled nature of these photographs, copyright status varies across the series. Reproduction rights for photographs marked "for reference use only" are not owned by the University of Virginia. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creator of individual items in the series; the University of Virginia is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce these items. Researchers are responsible for securing permission to publish or reproduce photographs from the rights holders.

Preferred citation:

MSS 16807 William Faulkner collection, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

Summary

Extent:
115 Cubic Feet
Creator:
Faulkner, William, 1897-1962
Language:
Materials primarily in English, with some publications in French and German.
Preferred citation:

MSS 16807 William Faulkner collection, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

Series III of the William Faulkner Collection contains the personal papers, files, belongings, and related realia of William Faulkner. Materials in the collection range in date from 1824 to 2003 and are divided into eight subseries: William Faulkner's working papers related to his literary works, drawings made by Faulkner, his childhood ephemera and student records, military and flight records, family papers, honors and awards, belongings and related realia, and reminiscences or accounts of William Faulkner.

Many of William Faulkner's student and family records differ in the spelling of his last name due to changes made over time by family members and by Faulkner himself. For this reason, Faulkner's student and childhood records will often refer to him as "William Falkner." William Faulkner's family papers are also listed as "Faulkner/Falkner Family Papers" for this reason.

The Faulkner/Falkner Family Papers are divided into smaller sub-subseries based on the order in which they would fall within Faulkner's family tree and arranged chronologically within each. The first sub-subseries is comprised of Faulkner's extended family, grandparents, parents, and siblings, including John Wesley Thompson, William Clark Falkner, John Wesley Thompson Falkner, Alabama Falkner McLean, Murry Falkner, Maud Butler Falkner, Murry Falkner II, John Wesley Thompson Falkner/Faulkner III, and Dean Swift Falkner. The second sub-subseries within the Faulkner/Falkner Family subseries includes papers belonging to William Faulkner's wife, Estelle Oldham Faulkner, and the Oldham family. The third sub-subseries includes papers belonging to Estelle's son from her first marriage to Cornell Franklin and William Faulkner's stepson, Malcolm Argyle Franklin. Included with Malcolm Argyle Franklin's papers is a small amount of material once belonging to William F. Fielden, which was originally acquired with and has been kept with Franklin's papers. Next, within the subseries are the papers once belonging to William and Estelle Faulkner's daughter Jill Faulkner Summers and the Summers family.

Series IV of the William Faulkner Collection contains William Faulkner's publication records. Materials in the collection range in date from 1924 to 1986 and are divided into three subseries based on record provenance. The first subseries is comprised of records relating to the original publication of Faulkner's works from Random House, Inc., and Albert Erskine. The second subseries is made up of records from Noel Polk, a Faulkner scholar and editor who worked on posthumous editions and publications of Faulkner's writings. The third and last subseries, Subseries C, contains all publishing-related records not from Random House, Albert Erskine, or Noel Polk. Prominent individuals whose publishing-related correspondence and records are featured in this subseries include William Faulkner's literary agents Harold Ober and Morton Goldman.

Series V of the William Faulkner collection contains William Faulkner's business and legal records. Materials within the series range in date from 1922 to 2006 and are divided into four subseries, the first of which includes William Faulkner's contracts and agreements, including a copy of Faulkner's will and legal agreements pertaining to his work and property carried out by his daughter, Jill Faulkner Summers, after his death in 1962. The second subseries includes all papers from William Faulkner's literary agent, Harold Ober, with the exception of Ober's papers relating to William Faulkner's publishing records, which are included in Series IV. Subseries C contains records relating to William Faulkner's cultural diplomacy work and travel. These records include papers gifted to the University of Virginia by Hal Howland, an employee of the United States Foreign Service/State Department. Subseries C additionally contains records and correspondence relating to William Faulkner's work with the People to People diplomatic program, given as part of a gift from Joseph Blotner, scholar and biographer of William Faulkner. The final subseries in Series V contains records pertaining to the William Faulkner Foundation. Whenever possible, the original order of each of the previous MSS numbers within Series V has been prioritized in the arrangement of the series.

Series VI of the William Faulkner collection contains photographs and portraits of and pertaining to William Faulkner. The photographs and portraits in this series range in date from 1898 to 2005 and cover a wide range of accession numbers, one of these being Faulkner's original deposit, MSS 6074. Materials within Series VI have been arranged in order of their original accession number to emphasize their provenance and chronologically therein.

Series VII of the William Faulkner collection includes press and publicity materials related to William Faulkner. Materials within the series range in date from 1922 to 2005 and are divided into three subseries. The first subseries consists of news clippings and press coverage articles about William Faulkner, many of which were gifted by Linton Massey and Jill Faulkner Summers. The second subseries contains William Faulkner's publicity films and audio recordings of Faulkner reading his works. The final subseries includes ephemera relating to William Faulkner's publicity films. Within each of these three subseries, materials are arranged chronologically.

Series VIII of the William Faulkner collection contains materials from Faulkner's time working at the University of Virginia, where he was the university's Writer-in-Residence from 1957 to 1958, Consultant on American Literature to the Alderman Library, now Shannon Library, from around 1958 to 1961, and Balch Lecturer in American Literature from 1961 to 1962. The series is divided into three subseries: Audio Recordings from Talks and Lectures, Ephemera Related to Faulkner's Tenure, and Exhibitions about Faulkner at the Library. Materials are then arranged chronologically within each subseries.

Series IX of the William Faulkner collection contains the materials of scholars of William Faulkner and collectors of Faulkner's archival and manuscript materials. Original Faulkner materials collected by some of these individuals, such as Joseph Blotner and Linton R. Massey, have been arranged and integrated into other series of the collection, but materials related specifically to their collecting work and scholarship are included in this series. Materials within this series are organized into subseries based on the corresponding scholar/collector names, which have been arranged in alphabetical order by last name.

Series X of the William Faulkner collection includes typescripts and ephemera from adaptations of William Faulkner works for theatre, film, and television. Materials within Series X are arranged in chronological order.

Biographical / historical:

The William Faulkner Collection, MSS 16807, also known as "The William Faulkner Papers," centers on the life and work of William Faulkner, a renowned American author and a foundational voice in Southern Gothic Literature. William Faulkner was born on September 15, 1897, in New Albany, Mississippi, to Murry Falkner and Maud Butler Falkner. Faulkner was primarily raised in Oxford, Mississippi. He left high school shortly after the eleventh grade in 1915 to work at his grandfather's bank. William Faulkner would go on to briefly join the Canadian Royal Air Force from 1918-1919 before coming back to Oxford, Mississippi and holding various jobs throughout Mississippi and New York until he published his first book, Soldier's Pay, in 1926. He married Lida Estelle Oldham in 1929, and together they had one daughter to survive past infancy, Jill Faulkner, in 1933. Faulkner grew in popularity as an author after the publication of The Sound and the Fury in 1929. Though a Mississippi native, William Faulkner moved to Charlottesville, VA, in 1957 to be closer to Jill, her husband, Paul Summers, and their children. It was during this time that Faulkner began work as the University of Virginia's first ever writer-in-residence. Faulkner continued to teach at the University of Virginia in several different positions until his death on July 6, 1962.

Source: Materials within the collection.

Processing information:

This collection was reprocessed during 2024-2026 by archivists Elizabeth Nosari and Kaylin Preslar. The collection was originally described in 180 different catalog records and housed in non-consecutive boxes. Archivists worked to bring these disparate parts together to create a single William Faulkner Collection (MSS 16807) and finding aid to improve access and discoverability.

The William Faulkner collection has historically been represented by numerous different manuscript numbers (collection identifiers). MSS 16807 is a new manuscript number which serves to identify the collection as a whole. Original manuscript numbers have been retained in this guide and are noted in the title of each item.

In this example, the original manuscript number is 6074, and "Series IA, Item 9b" refers to the item's original location within MSS 6074, prior to reprocessing.

Absalom, Absalom! - Typescript (17 Leaves) - 6074, Series IA, Item 9b, 1936

While original order has been prioritized in the arrangement of Series IV, specific folders related to William Faulkner have been pulled from the rest of Albert Erskine's materials within MSS 10280-d and 10280-e for Subseries A. For ease of researcher use, these materials were pulled so that all of William Faulkner's publication records would be together, and so that the remaining materials within 10280-d and 10280-e relating to other authors would not be included within the William Faulkner collection.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard