Falkner, Murry Cuthburt, (attributed to)

Typescript of an untitled short story, 13 pages (11 1/8 x 8 1/2 in.; 282 x 216 mm) on versos of University of Mississippi, Office of the Secretary, embossed letterhead, holes punched in left margins, with a few minor corrections in pencil, [Oxford, Mississippi, ca. 1920's]; the first leaf browned and spotted, occasional marginal browning on some of the other leaves.

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A short story by William Faulkner's father, Murry C. Falkner (1870–1932), preserved among the family's papers and only recently discovered.  While it is well known that William Faulkner and his father did not get along and did not share a passion for literature, Murry Faulkner was a reader of sorts (Zane Grey was his favorite author) and he did attempt to write fiction from time to time.  He also claimed never to have read any of his son's novels.  The present example of Murry's work can be dated by the stationary to the 1920's when he served as Secretary of the University of Mississippi.  According to Judith L. Sensibar, who interviewed two of Murry's secretaries in 1989, one of them, Martha Ida Wiseman, read a melodramatic romance Murry had written in purple ink in an Ole Miss ledger.  Wiseman did not think much of Murry as a writer, but did remark that he considered himself a better writer than his son.  The present story, which concerns a backwoods trapper who pursues romance in the big city, reflects Murry's interest in pulp fiction and dime novels.

Murry was not William Faulkner's only scribbling antecedent.  His great-grandfather, William Clark Falkner (1825–1889), model for the fictional John Sartoris, was the author of The White Rose of Memphis (1880), a melodrama which remained in print for thirty years and sold 160,000 copies.