William Faulkner was not keen on giving interviews. More often than not,
he refused, as when he wrote an aspiring interviewer in 1950, "Sorry but
no. Am violently opposed to interviews and publicity." Yet during the
course of his prolific writing career, the truth is that he submitted to
the ordeal on numerous occasions in the United States and abroad.
Although three earlier volumes were thought to have gathered most of
Faulkner's interviews, continued research has turned up many more.
Ranging from 1916, when he was a shabbily dressed young Bohemian poet to
the last year of his life when he was putting finishing touches on his
final novel The Reivers, they are collected here for the first time.
Many of these articles and essays provide descriptions of Faulkner, his
home, and his daily world. They report not only on the things that he
said but on the attitudes and poses he adopted. Some capture him making
up tall tales about himself, several of which gained credibility and
became a part of the Faulkner mythology. Included too are the interviews
from Faulkner at West Point. Taken together, this material provides a
revealing and lively portrait of a Nobel Prize winner who many believe
to be the century's greatest writer.