Faulkner biographer to join online discussion June 4

The History Book Festival and the Lewes Public Library will present Carl Rollyson discussing volume 1 of his new biography of one of America’s most famous authors, “The Life of William Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead, 1897-1934,” at 5 p.m., Thursday, June 4.

This event on the online meeting platform Zoom is free, but registration is required. To register, go to www.lewes.lib.de.us and click on Virtual Programs for Adults. Registrants will be sent instructions on how to join the discussion prior to the event.

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949, Mississippi author William Faulkner has been the subject of numerous biographies but in many ways has remained a paradoxical figure. He wrote some of the greatest novels in American literature while also turning out Hollywood screenplays and stories for popular magazines. He presented himself as a renegade artist but was also a dedicated family man.

In this first volume of a new biography, Rollyson follows Faulkner from his formative years through his introduction to Hollywood, giving new insights into the writer’s family life and his marriage to Estelle Oldman. Rollyson conducted extensive interviews with Faulkner’s family and friends, and he had access to primary and secondary source materials, some unseen by previous biographers. Rollyson argues that the totality of Faulkner’s screenplays, fiction and life are still relevant when examining issues of race, sexuality and equality today.

A professor emeritus of journalism at Baruch College at the City University of New York, Rollyson has published 14 biographies of literary figures such as Sylvia Plath, Susan Sontag, Lillian Hellman, Amy Lowell, Rebecca West and Norman Mailer.

Rollyson will be interviewed by Lawrence Wells. A native Mississippian, Wells has written three novels and edited six nonfiction books, including “William Faulkner: The Cofield Collection.” With his late wife Dean Faulkner Wells (William Faulkner’s niece), he operated Yoknapatawpha Press, an independent press in Oxford, Miss., and co-published a quarterly journal, The Faulkner Newsletter. Wells’ own book, “In Faulkner’s Shadow,” a memoir of life in his wife’s family amidst the literary milieu of Oxford, will be published in September.

Copies of volume 1 of “The Life of William Faulkner” are available from Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, the official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Browseabout is conducting business via phone from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at 302-226-2665 and online at www.browseaboutbooks.com.

This event is a joint effort of the History Book Festival, the Lewes Public Library, Delaware Division of Libraries, and Sussex County Libraries.