Sept. 25, 1897
Born as William Cuthbert Faulkner to Maud Butler and Murry Faulkner in New Albany, Mississippi.
Sept. 22, 1902
The family moves to Oxford, Mississippi.
1905
Attends Grade 1 at Oxford Grade School.
1906
He is too smart for Grade 2 and skips to Grade 3. It is here that he is asked what he wants to be and he says he wants to be a great writer like his grandfather, William Clark Faulkner.
1908
Witnesses the lynching of a black man, Nelse Patton, who was shot dead, castrated, beheaded, and hung naked by his feet from a tree.
1911
Hangs out with his girlfriend Estelle Oldham at Chilton's, a drugstore and ice-cream parlor.
Summer 1914
Reads Ezra Pound, Yeats, and T.S. Eliot.
1916
Drops out of high school and becomes a bank bookkeeper.
April 18, 1918
His boyhood girlfriend, Estelle Oldham, marries Cornell Franklin.
July 9, 1918
After being turned down by the U.S. Army Air Corps to be a pilot because he's too short, he pretends to be an Englishman and is accepted by the Canadian Royal Air Force as a cadet.
Dec. 1918
The Canadian Royal Air Force discharges him and even though he never sees actual air combat, he has numerous stories to tell.
1919
His poem "L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune" is published in The New Republic.
Sept. 1919
Attends the University of Mississippi and during his time there publishes poems in the Oxford Eagle and The Mississippian.
1921
Becomes a postmaster at the Ole Miss, the post office for the University of Mississippi.
1922
Becomes a scoutmaster for the Oxford Boy Scouts.
1924
He is fired by the Oxford Boy Scouts for his overindulgence in alcohol and loses his three-year job as postmaster after a postal inspector accuses him of ignoring a potential customer, delaying mail from going on the train, and losing mail. He is also accused of playing bridge and Mah Jong with friends. He doesn't deny the charges and resigns.
1925
After exploring Switzerland and Italy, he falls in love with Paris and settles there, where his passion for writing is born.
Feb. 25, 1926
Publishes his first novel, Soldier's Pay.
June 20, 1929
Marries Estelle Oldham (who divorced Cornell Franklin earlier in the year) in College Hill, Mississippi. During their honeymoon in Pascagoula she attempts to drown herself because she is unable to handle the new lifestyle.
Oct. 6, 1930
Publishes As I lay Dying.
Late 1930
Purchases a house with a lot of land and names it Rowan Oak.
Jan. 11, 1931
Daughter Alabama is born prematurely.
Jan. 20, 1931
Alabama dies.
September 1931
He publishes his first collection of short stories, These 13. He dedicates it to "Estelle and Alabama."
April 1932
He signs a six-week screenwriting contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
July 1932
Meets director Howard Hawks and the two become friends. Hawks goes on to direct five movies written by Faulkner.
Aug. 7, 1932
His father dies suddenly and Faulkner returns to Oxford, Mississippi .
Aug. 6, 1932
Light in August is published.
October 1932
He returns to Hollywood, taking his mother and brother Dean with him.
Feb. 2, 1933
Begins taking flying lessons.
June 24, 1933
Daughter Jill is born.
March 25, 1935
Publishes Pylan.
Nov. 10, 1935
His youngest brother Dean dies after a plane he bought for him crashes.
Dec. 1935
Begins a stint at 20th Century-Fox to work again with Howard Hawks. He meets Meta Dougherty Carpenter, Hawks' secretary, and they begin a fifteen year love affair.
January 1936
He returns to Mississippi and checks into Wright's Sanatarium, a nursing home in Byhalia, in order to recuperate from his latest drinking binge.
Oct. 26 1936
Absalom, Absalom! is published.
April 1937
Meta Carpenter, his mistress of two years, marries Wolfgang Rebner and goes to Germany with him.
Feb. 15, 1938
Publishes The Unvanquished.
Jan. 19, 1939
April 1, 1940
Publishes The Hamlet.
May 11, 1942
Publishes Go Down, Moses.
1946
The Portable Faulker is published. Faulker's overall book sales increase as a result.
Sept. 27, 1948
Publishes Intruders in the Dust.
Nov. 27, 1949
Publishes Knight's Gambit.
Aug. 2, 1950
Publishes Collected Stories.
Nov. 8, 1950
Finds out that he has won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Dec. 8, 1950
He and his daughter Jill go to Stockholm, Sweden to receive the Nobel Prize.
Sept. 27, 1951
Publishes Requiem for a Nun.
Oct. 26, 1951
In New Orleans he is given the French Legion of Honor.
Aug. 2, 1954
Publishes A Fable.
May 1955
Wins the Pulizer Prize for A Fable.
Oct. 14, 1955
Publishes Big Woods.
April 15, 1956
Grandson Paul D. Summers III is born.
Mid 1956
Is challenged by African-American scholar W.E.B. Dubois to a debate on segregation. Faulkner declines.
May 1, 1957
Publishes The Town.
Dec. 2, 1958
Grandson William Cuthbert Falkner Summers is born.
1959
Requiem for a Nun debuts on Broadway.
March 14, 1959
In Charlottesville, he falls from a horse and fractures his right collarbone.
Nov. 13, 1959
Publishes The Mansion.
Oct. 16, 1960
His mother does at the age of 88.
May 30, 1961
Grandson A. Burks Summers is born.
Jan. 3, 1962
He is injured when he falls from another horse.
June 4, 1961
Publishes his last novel, The Reivers.
June 17, 1961
Falls from a horse again.
July 5, 1961
He is admitted to Wright's Sanatorium in Byhalia, Mississippi.
July 6, 1962
Dies of a heart attack at 1:30 a.m.
July 7, 1962
He is buried in St. Peter's Cemetery in Oxford.