William Faulkner on his native soil in Oxford, Mississippi

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1952

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Documentary

Overview

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.