William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, to a genteel southern family that had lost most of its money during the Civil War. Faulkner grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, which is recast as the fictional town of Jefferson in many of his stories. Jefferson is placed in fictional Yoknapatawpha County, the setting for fifteen of Faulkner's novels and many of his short stories.

As a child, Faulkner was a capable but uninterested student. He left school in 1915, prior to graduating, and went to work in his grandfather's bank as a clerk. A friend of Faulkner's, Phil Stone, went to Yale after graduation. Stone recognized Faulkner's literary ability, and when Faulkner briefly attended Yale Law School, the two enjoyed discussing literary theory and literary movements. With the outbreak of World War I, Faulkner decided to enlist but was turned away. (He was short and slightly built.) With Stone's...