[Faulkner, William]

Five photographic studies of William Faulkner by two unidentified photographers.  The first, a portrait in profile of the author with pipe, being a publicity short for promotion of The Marble Faun, (6 7/8 x 4 7/8 in.; 175 x 125 mm), on the original mount, [Memphis, late summer 1924]; photo and mount with some foxing — 4 photographic portraits of the author at work at his desk in the library at Rowan Oak, (7 1/8 x 9 in.; 181 x 228 mm), [Oxford, Mississippi, ca. October 1932]; few small marginal creases on one photograph. 

Blotner, Faulkner: A Biography, I, pp. 359–361, 790

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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"Mr. Faulkner is not keen on photography and flatly refuses to put out any money on photographs"– Phil Stone, August 1924.  In late summer 1924, with the publication of The Marble Faun slated for the end of the year, Boston publisher Four Seas was eager to have publicity photographs of the young author.  Faulkner balked at this, and it was left to Phil Stone to get him to Memphis and into a photographer's studio.  The resulting photos were redolent of the haze and heat of late summer in the Deep South.  As Joseph Blotner describes them, "His white shirt was tieless and his dark hair slightly touseled.  His face seemed to have filled out a bit, almost to have lengthened.  The eyes and nose still dominated, but the mustache was full and the jaw was strong and firm.  Nothing indicated his slight stature, and the pictures were those of a man who looked appraising, both wary and intense."  Faulkner chose this profile with pipe and another, more "Byronic" pose to send to the publisher, along with a terse biographical sketch.

The other four photographs were taken at Rowan Oak, at about the time Light in August was released in the fall of 1932.