F26zk 63-24t;97 reference to collection ^""' book Kansas ''"'^ city ic library city, misuri faulkner's people UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley and Los Angeles, faulkner's %/ A COMPLETE GUIDE AND INDEX TO CHARACTERS IN THE FICTION OF WILLIAM FAULKNER BY ROBERT W. KIRK with MARVIN KLOTZ VLttMYY |' f!AUtrmMlA I'fttx* Bl'.ttKf.U<Y AW* I Oft A*t<l,tt'4 *<)C3 v THE t,r,<;;i';M'r8 v Tim LtHRARY Ol NC;i*,SS C IN run To Bruce R* McElderryf Jr. f mi wCJfoitutk&tain C HICK AS AW Mi tow* mt wklck imw few ft> x" -t H I L L S &rd*r tit reac PINE V 'i,i eo*lti\n9t ttotttt wttk\ ^^fk>^r5>?*t * * 1 - , /^^^CT'Ci , .v J> Md tttfan wpyt kilkd 7wwy J E F F E RS OH YOKNAPATAWPHA co, SfuzwJHil<&~fypufati0nWfa$t Nejproes, % ' FAUIKNER> The map of Jefferson, Yoknapauwpha Clqunty, rcprtluce4 in the 19 H Modem Library edition of Afemhm t INTRODUCTION TUB GUIDE includes approximately 1,200 named persons found in 19 novels and 94 short stories and sketches (21 o which, often in an extensively revised form, have been incorporated in the novels). About 175 of these persons are participants, or are mentioned, in more than one of Faulkner's fictional works. In addition to setting forth a brief description, chiefly as to function, of every named character in each story in which he (or she) is found, the Guide lists every page on which each character's name appears, whether the character is there taking part in the action or is merely referred to. All variations of the names, in cluding nicknames, are listed, but no more than once to a page, regard less of how many versions of a given character's name appear on one page. For example, if Narcissa, Narcissa Benbow, Miss Benbow, Mrs. Bayard Sartoris, and Narcy all appear on, say, page 283 of Sartoris, one listing only is made for her on that particular page. Personal titles alone are not listed even though their designation is clear. To qxialify for inclusion in the Guide they must be accompanied by family names, given names, or some variation of one of these. For example, Colonel or Gunnel or Lawyer is excluded from the Guide; Colonel John or Lawyer Stevens is, of course, included. The same dis tinction applies to designations of family relationship: Uncle and Aunt are not listed. Uncle Maury and Aunt Jenny are. (In this connection it should be borne in mind that in general the entries have been ar ranged according to the customary rules of indexing: when two or more persons have the same surname, those with the least identification pre cede those with more complete identification; titles such as Aunt, Uncle, and Colonel are disregarded when the full name or initials are given; and names beginning with "Me" are listed as if the prefix were spelled "Mac,") There are six exceptions to this rule: the principal character in Pylon has no name other than that of "the Reporter"; hence he is so listed, under R. The same arrangement applies to "the Convict" in The Old Man, listed under C, as well as to "the Cajan" in the same story, and to "the Runner" in A Fable, listed under K. The fifth exception is Mrs, Vlll : INTRODUCTION countless Rosa Millard, of The Unvanquished, who is called Granny of her real name. She becomes times. Only rarely do we get any part Granny to the reader and she is therefore listed under this name as well Reivers Lucius Sr. is as under her legal name. Finally, in The Priest, references to him most important as plain Grandfather; therefore, by that name are also listed. of a name. The listing also includes possessive forms personal "Horace's sister," for example, is listed under the name Horace. Listing as the of a of the possessive also extends to such a situation designation home or a store or a farm. In such instances it was necessary to take a "It is near the Mac- peculiar liberty. If, for example, the author says, Callum place" or "We were ten miles from MacCallum's," Virginius MacCallum, Sr., the nominal head of the family, qualifies for a listing; such a reference is not interpreted to include any of his six sons. Like wise "VarnerV or "Varner's store" means, for our purpose, "Will Varner's," not "Jody Varner's," even though the son is just as active about the store and the farm as is his father. Still another difficulty presents itself in relation to the identity of characters. Since in a single story there are often two persons with iden tical names (in Sarforis there are three John Sartorises and four Bayard the casual be even in to Sartorises) , reader may confused, baffled, trying decide which John or which Bayard is being referred to. Faulkner is of no immediate help here because he will not slow up his narrative to put the reader straight. Yet the necessary evidence is almost invariably near at hand; and the reader can usually work out the answer, even if doing so often requires considerable effort. Part of the purpose of this Guide is, of course, to solve these problems and set the puzzling names under the proper headings. A much more difficult problem grows out of Faulkner's use of "his torical" and "fictional" characters. Robert E. Lee, Jeb Stuart, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and a host of other historical characters, military and nonmilitary, appear from time to time in this Southern writer's pages. In certain instances they interact somewhat convincingly with fictional people. For example, the brother of Miss Jenny, Bayard Sartoris, is killed on a raiding party with Jeb Stuart. Miss Jenny, in her narration of this escapade, speaks of General Stuart with a personal affection, a " 5 tenderness: 'Poor man, she says, *I danced a valse with him in Balti J more in *58, and her voice was proud and still as banners in the dust" (Sartoris, p. 40). And Andrew Jackson is described in the history of INTRODUCTION : IX the Compson family (sec The Sound and the Fury, p. 3) In such a vivid as to almost make it way possible for him to leap over into the empire of Faulkner's incomparable fictional folk. In the historical intcrchapters of a Requiem for Nun many real and unreal people (both types largely interact. Air. nonmilitary here) Vardaman, a famous Mississippi politi cal figure, is mentioned in many of Faulkner's novels; and we may be sure that the youngest Bundren boy in As I Lay Dying has been named after this old lion-mancd, picture-book Southern Congressman. But these are people allusions, not characters, and really come alive only through their impingement on Faulkner's creations; hence they are not listed in the Guide. Still another group of characters may or may not be historical. These are the persons who are at least partly legendary. Notable among these are the Indians in such short stories as "A Justice** and "Red Leaves": Issetibbeha, Moketubbe, Ikkemotubbc, Mohataha, Herman Basket, Louis Real or Berry. unreal, however, these people are woven so completely into the Yoknapatawpha texture as to forfeit whatever historical identity they may have in favor of a greater role; and this list includes such white as men Chevalier Socur-Blonde dc Vitry, who is closely as sociated with the Indians, All of these people, therefore, are included in the Guide. True, these distinctions are not scientific ones, and an occasional name that should not be listed may find its way into the Guide; but such names will be few and are relatively unimportant, for no actual histori cal character is of any real significance in Faulkner*s stories* Faulkner uses his historical people mainly for atmosphere. The whole problem of whether these borderline characters are historical, scmihistorical, or entirely fictional might well be the subject of a separate study. of the One most persistent challenges to be met in preparing the Guide was that of tense. Few writers are more aware of the past, even as they write of the present, than is Faulkner. To preserve a firm sense of perspective we have endeavored to state in the past tense all action that occurred prior to the actual events set forth in the stories. The tense is present normally reserved for current actions only* Faulkner's practice with regard to his "carryover" characters and incidents makes it clear that he allowed himself to be governed by needs rather than present by any slavish devotion to consistency* Many of his inconsistencies are extremely important, for they involve central shifts in the very nature of characters and relationships; notice, for in- X : INTRODUCTION stance, the development from the merely gossipy country salesman Suratt of Sartoris and As I Lay Dying to the wily Ratliflf of The Hamlet and the humane and philosophical Ratliff of The Town and The Man sion. Further, mark the switch in the presentation of Mink Snopes and Jack Houston in The Mansion from the original version in The Hamlet. In the earlier novel Mink is a vicious murderer, Houston a sympathetic, tragic figure. In the later novel Mink commands our sympathy and Houston is described as an acidulous and vindictive man. Even Flem Snopes, the giant among the Snopeses, a monster of avarice in The Ham let, is in The Mansion presented as a man who has at least a few appeal ing qualities. Lucas Beauchamp is in part a humorous character in Go Down, Moses, but in Intruder in the Dust, written six years later, he says in answer to an insult: "I ain't a Edmonds.