Chapter I Summary

William Stoner is a boy born on a farm in rural Missouri who attended the University of Missouri in Columbia from his undergraduate degree to the completion of his PhD. He taught in the English department until he died in obscurity, leaving an unexceptional impression of the memory of those who had known him.

As a boy, Stoner's life is dedicated to farm work and he never really knew of life outside of it. One day, when he was about twenty years old, his father tells him that a county official had told him about a new program in agriculture at the University of Missouri and Stoner, with some hesitation, decides to go. Farming has become increasingly difficult, and he and his father thought learning about it at a university might prove useful. Stoner travels to Columbia to begin school and...