From Booklist
Simply put, "This book collects Welty's writings on Faulkner." Eudora Welty and William Faulkner are, of course, the pair of giants on whose shoulders the literature of the state of Mississippi--indeed, all of southern literature--rests. The older Faulkner and the younger Welty were acquaintances but never buddies; Welty didn't need a mentor, and Faulkner didn't need an acolyte. But from the 1940s until Faulkner's death in 1962, Welty wrote, on several occasions, about the man who lived in the same state, which, for another writer, "was like living near a big mountain." But, as the introduction states, "the frequency with which [Welty] celebrates his work signals the evidence that . . . Faulkner was one of her touchstones." Components of this package of materials include a passage from a letter she wrote to novelist Jean Stafford about sailing with Faulkner in his little sailboat to a review of Intruder in the Dust appearing in the Hudson Review to a letter she wrote to the New Yorker defending this same Faulkner novel against Edmund Wilson's negative review. Brad Hooper
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Book Description
Eudora Welty (1909-2001) and William Faulkner (1897-1962) were almost unquestionably Mississippi's leading literary lions during the twentieth century. Their influence on American literature is immeasurable. On William Faulkner brings together Welty's reviews, essays, lectures, and musings on Faulkner, including such gems as her reviews of Intruder in the Dust and The Selected Letters of William Faulkner, as well as her comments during her presentation of the Gold Medal to Faulkner during the National Institute of Arts and Letters awards ceremony in 1962. The collection also features an excerpt from a letter she wrote to the novelist Jean Stafford, telling of meeting Faulkner and of going sailing with him. Included too are Welty's impassioned defense of Faulkner's work---published as a letter to the New Yorker---and the obituary of the Nobel laureate that she wrote for the Associated Press. In addition, the book includes a cryptic postcard Faulkner wrote to Welty from Hollywood, plus five photographs, and a caricature of Faulkner drawn by Welty during the 1930s. Commenting on the place of both writers in contemporary literature, an essay by the noted literary scholar Noel Polk puts the collection in context and offers assessment and appreciation of their achievements in American literature. On William Faulkner is a valuable resource for exploring Faulkner's work and sensing Welty's critical voice. Her sharp critical eye and graceful prose make her an astute commentator on his legacy.

About the Author
Eudora Welty is the author of many novels and story collections, including The Optimist's Daughter (Pulitzer Prize), Losing Battles, The Ponder Heart, The Robber Bridegroom, A Curtain of Green and Other Stories, as well as three collections of her photographic work---Photographs, Country Churchyards, and One Time, One Place: Mississippi in the Depression (all from the University Press of Mississippi). William Faulkner is the author of The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, Sanctuary, As I Lay Dying, among others. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. Noel Polk, a professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi, is the author of many critical studies on Welty and Faulkner and is the co-editor of the Library of America edition of Faulkner's works.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Eudora Welty (1909-2001) and William Faulkner (1897-1962) were Mississippi's foremost literary lions of the twentieth century. Their influence on American literature is immeasurable. As Faulkner's compatriot and as a fellow writer, Welty had a unique view of his work. For her comprehensive vision and for her understanding discussions of his art she is one of the most astute critics of the Faulknerian legacy. They were not close friends but literary neighbors, for Welty's Jackson and Faulkner's Oxford were some 150 miles apart. The two writers remained independent of each other and rarely ever had meetings. Early in her career the remote, taciturn Faulkner offered her praise and encouragement in a warm note that came to Welty out of the blue. "You're doing all right," he wrote from Hollywood, having read her first two books. Welty, secure in her own work, felt no Faulknerian influence or any sense of competition. Throughout her long career, her speeches, interviews, and critical writings acknowledged him as a great literary master. She relished his sense of time, place, character, comedy, and tragedy.

On William Faulkner, a record of her admiration, brings together Welty's essays, lectures, and musings on Faulkner. These include such gems as her reviews of Intruder in the Dust and The Selected Letters of William Faulkner, her impassioned defense of Faulkner's work (published as a letter to the New Yorker), her comments when she presented the Gold Medal for Fiction to Faulkner at the National Institute of Arts and Letters awards ceremony in 1962, an excerpt from a letter she wrote to the novelist Jean Stafford, telling of meeting Faulkner and of going sailing with him, and the obituary of the Nobel laureate that Welty wrote for the Associated Press. In addition, this collection reprints the cryptic postcard Faulkner wrote to Welty from Hollywood and publishes for the first time a caricature of Faulkner that Welty drew in the 1930s, about fifteen years before she met him. In a lengthy afterword that comments on the place of both writers in contemporary literature, the noted scholar Noel Polk connects their work, puts it in context, and offers assessment and appreciation of their achievements.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Throughout her writings on William Faulkner, Eudora Welty maintains a deferential tone, content to appreciate or navigate rather than analyze deeply, and there emerges a conception of Faulkner as godlike and ''unanalyzable.'' On William Faulkner collects Welty's various writings on Faulkner -- reviews, lectures, letters, even the obituary Welty wrote for The Associated Press and a caricature she drew of him, years before they met. — Christina Cho

Library Journal