October Museum Moments to hear Faulkner biographer

Museum Moments will feature Dr. Robert Hamblin, writer and teacher, on Thursday, October 19, at noon at Union County Heritage Museum in New Albany talking about the latest biography on William Faulkner, Myself and the World

Hamblin, a north Mississippi native, has spent a career working with the Brodsky Collection, the premier collection of the life and work of Noble Prize winner, William Faulkner. He is professor emeritus at Southeast Missouri State University, which houses a large portion of the collection. He is also the author of other books including My Life with Faulkner and Brodsky, Living in Mississippi: The Life and Times of Evans Harrington, and several books of poetry.

William Faulkner (1897–1962) once said of his novels and stories, “I am telling the same story over and over, which is myself and the world.” This biography provides an overview of the life and career of the famous author, demonstrating the interrelationships of that life with the characters and events of his fictional world.

The book begins In Ripley, Mississippi with a chapter on Faulkner’s most famous ancestor, W. C. Falkner, “the Old Colonel,” who greatly influenced both the content and the form of the writer’s work. Hamblin examines the highlights of Faulkner’s life, from his childhood to his youthful days as a fledgling poet, through his time in New Orleans, the creation of Yoknapatawpha. He examines the years of struggle and his season of prolific genius, and through his time in Hollywood and his winning of the Nobel Prize. Hamblin’s book concludes with Faulkner’s last years as writer in residence at the University of Virginia and beyond. .