The Portable Faulkner

Inbunden bok. The Viking Press | The Viking Portable Library . 1946. 756 sidor.

Mycket gott skick. Fint begagnat skick. Språk: engelska.

"Viking ignited a renewed interest in William Faulkner in 1946 through its publication of the Viking Portable Faulkner, an anthology of short stories and excerpts from his novels. Faulkner had been one of the bright stars of the prewar literary scene, hailed as a genius by many modernists, although not every critic was a fan. His books were not blockbusters but sold well enough for serious literature. However many readers found his convoluted stories and verbose prose, at times verging on stream of consciousness, hard to follow. Some thought his work was too sexual and nightmarish while others, looking for titillation, were put off by their serious tone. By 1946, Faulkner was in danger of fading into obscurity. Because of wartime paper shortages, his books, like many backlist titles, had gone out of print and were hard to find even in the independent bookstores that dealt with books on the backlist. Meanwhile Faulkner had gone to Hollywood to make a living as a screenwriter.

Viking had started its portable line in 1943. Although the volumes were thick, they were compact enough to fit into a pocket. The initial target market was servicemen, much as the wartime paperbacks.

The Portable Faulkner was widely seen as one of the greatest successes, reviving critical and reader interest in this often difficult writer. Cowley presented Faulkner’s work not as individual stories and books but as an epic saga composed of cycles dealing with Native Americans, blacks, the planter aristocracy and their descendants, the town folk and the poor whites of his mythical Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, over a 130 year span. For the Viking volume, Cowley took select short stories and excerpts from Faulkner's novels and arranged them by themes and in chronological order by when they took place, rather than by when they were written. The result was an eye-opener to many, placing a writer whom many had found obtuse into an understandable and relatable context."