The Portable Faulkner Author:William Faulknet The Portable Faulkner Edited by Malcolm Cowley — "This is the best comprehensive cross section of Faulkner's writing in one volume. By means of stories and episodes from ten of his books, it offers a panorama of life in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi--Faulkner's mythical kingdom--from the time of the first white settlers to the age of neon and... more » nylon. It includes three stories almost of novel length: "The Bear," "Spotted Horses," and "Old Man."
The original edition of The Portable Faulkner, published in 1946, was the book that introduced his work to a wider public. "The job is splendid," Faulkner said at the time in a letter to the editor. "Damn you to hell anyway. But even if I had beat you to the idea, mine wouldn't have been this good. By God, I didn't know myself what I had tried to do, and how much I had succeeded."
Besides the material in the original volume, and besides the indispensable Nobel Prize Address, this new edition includes "The Courthouse" and "The Jail," two long stories in which Faulkner adds episodes and characters to his Yoknapatawpha legend. Malcolm Cowley has rewritten his editorial notes. His Introduction, a landmark in Faulkner studies, has been lengthened with an Afterwork that considers Faulkner's work in retrospect.« less