Dean Faulkner Wells: "Every Day by the Sun"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-03-30/dean-faulkner-wells-every-day-sun
Dean Faulkner Wells
Larry Wells
William Faulkner is considered by many to be one of last century’s most important writers. He wrote series of novels set in a small southern town which include “As I Lay Dying”, “Light In August” and “Absalom, Absalom!“. The Mississippi born author was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, had legions of fans, but remained an intensely private man. He died at age 64 in 1962. In a new memoir the last of those who knew him well and offers an intimate portrait of the man she called “Pappy”. Please join me for a conversation with Dean Faulkner Wells, daughter of William Faulkner’s youngest brother, about growing up as a member of the Faulkner family of Oxford Mississippi.
Guests
Dean Faulkner Wells
the niece of William Faulkner
Read an Excerpt
From Every Day by the Sun. Copyright 2011 by Dean Faulkner Wells. Excerpted by kind permission of Crown Publishing, a division of Random House.
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
Nothiong humorous about tossing US Mail into the garbage can. Shame on you Diane Rehm. We now know your respect for the law.
This interview was deadly. Good grief!
In response to markieobrien:
Chillax, Newman.
What a wonderful interview with Dean Faulkner Wells. My 18-year-old daughter and I listened together. The exchanges prompted her to say:
"I can't wait until I'm an old lady. I'm going to piss off everybody and not care. I'm going to live on wine and peanut butter. And, I'm going to have a big, mean dog, and not train it."
My granddaddy knew Bill Faulkner. They drank and gambled together for a little while. Faulkner, Forney told me, was one of those unfortunate persons who is compelled to write, and compelled to condense and relate the truth of human behavior as he sees it. A person like that runs into problems pleasing publishers and movie producers and the compromises they're forced into drive them to depression and self-destructive behavior. I remember in the sixth grade when granddaddy was in his 80s and he insisted I read "God's Little Acre" for a school book report (by Erskine Caldwell, not Faulkner, but another of granddaddy's friends). It worried the teacher and Forney told her,"She's done seen ever'thing in the book right from our front porch at home." Yep, I'd seen the old bootlegger Martin from across the road delivering booze and strumpets. I heard all the crazy anti-communism, and we'd even had a treasure hunter in the family. That summer, before the 8th grade, he insisted I read "As I Lay Dying". My coached mastery of Faulkner's stream of consciousness enabled me to get the most from the Beats I read during high school. By the way, my mother is living, and she is not a fish. I owe my critical thinking skills and toleration of the entirity of human behavior to Forney and his outlaw writer friends.
Wonderful program and thanks for having her on.
tender. balanced. open. great interview. we (my family) are texan; since slavery, we birthed, toiled, and rested tired bones in the texas soil. your words and cadence took me back to those live oak trees burdened with Spanish moss and sweet ice tea the only earthly substance possible to relieve that oppressive heat.
I listen to the show every day and enjoy it every day. I learn something or I'm challenged or I find a book to read. This interview, though, caused me to come to the website just to say a special thank you. It touched me in many ways.