Early Life
He was born John Wesley Thompson Falkner, III in Ripley, Mississippi, the third son of Murry Cuthbert Falkner (August 17, 1870–August 7, 1932) and Maud Butler (November 27, 1871–October 16, 1960). His brothers were author William Faulkner (September 25, 1897–July 6, 1962); Murry Charles "Jack" Falkner (June 26, 1899–December 24, 1975); and Dean Swift Falkner (August 15, 1907–November 10, 1935).
The family moved to Oxford, Mississippi, where John grew up and lived most of his life. He attended college at Ole Miss, where he earned a B.S. degree in civil engineering. He was employed for a time as assistant city engineer in Greenville. He then went to work as a project engineer with the Mississippi State Highway Department and moved to Greenwood.
He and Lucille "Dolly" Ramey (November 1, 1903–September 1984) were married on September 2, 1922. They had two sons, Jimmy Faulkner (July 18, 1923–December 24, 2001), also a writer, and Murry Falkner (born February 22, 1928).
Faulkner eventually quit the highway department and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he became a commercial airline pilot. In 1935, his younger brother, Dean Faulkner, died crashing the airplane that brother William had sold to him.
John's airline company was not providing him with income and, in 1938, he moved from Memphis, to the hill country of northeastern Lafayette County, Mississippi, approximately 17 miles (27 km) from Oxford, as manager of his brother William's 320-acre (1.3 km2) farm, Greenfield, which was in Beat Two (Mississippi counties are divided into "beats," an autonomous section under its elected supervisor of roads).
The rural farmers around Greenfield fascinated Faulkner. Remarkably different from the small-town people he was familiar with, and fiercely independent, his contact with them inspired him to write. During the two years he managed the farm in Beat Two, the area that serves as the setting for much of his fiction, he was also a supervisor for the WPA and had to cope with the hillmen who were on its rolls.
During World War II, Faulkner served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy. After the war he earned his living by writing, lecturing and painting.
Read more about this topic: John Faulkner (author)
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