"Old
Colonel" William Clark Falkner  1826-1889
Major Works
- The Life and Confession of A. J. MacCannon, Murderer of
the Adcock Family. 1845
- The Siege of Monterey. 1851.
- The Spanish Heroine. 1851.
- The Lost Diamond. 1867.
- The White Rose of Memphis. 1881.
- Rapid Ramblings in Europe. 1882.
- The Little Brick Church. 1882.
- Lady Olivia: A Novel. 1895.
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Biography of William Clark Falkner
By Frederick Macon (SHS)
Colonel William Clark Falkner was born on July 6, 1826 (some
references say 1825), in Knox County, Tennessee, to J.
W. T. Falkner and his wife. He moved to Ripley, Mississippi,
when he was seventeen. That is where he wrote his first
published piece, The Life and Confessions of A. J. McCannon
(Lloyd 60).
At the age of twenty, Falkner became a lieutenant in the Second
Mississippi Army during the Mexican-American War. He organized
a regiment and fought with them at the battle of Bull Run.
He also organized a calvary regiment and fought in Virginia
(Falkner 5). After the Civil War, Falkner got married
and pursued his career in law (Lloyd 60). He started the
Ripley Railroad Company in 1862 (Firstmonday), became rich,
and wrote several novels. One of them , The White Rose
of Memphis, became a best-seller.
It was reissued posthumously in 1953 with an introduction by
Robert Cantwell.
The Old Colonel's son John was a lawyer and a banker. When
John's son Murry and his wife moved to Oxford in northern Mississippi,
they already had three sons: William, who was four and would
grow up to be a world-famous writer; Murry, three; and John,
one. A fourth boy, Dean, would be born in 1907. Some people
think that Faulkner's growing up with three brothers may have
helped him work out the intricate relationships of the four
brothers in As I Lay Dying.
 Colonel
Falkner's life was filled with controversy. For example,
a man named Robert Hindman accused Falkner of slandering his
name. Hindman attacked Falkner by shooting twice at him.
Hindman missed both shots, but after tussling for awhile, Falkner
managed to get his pocket knife, and he stabbed Hindman to death.
Falkner was indicted on murder charges but was acquitted
on self-defense After the trial, a friend of Hindman challenged
Falkner to a duel, and Falkner accepted. Falkner won the
duel and went to trial for murder again.
Again, he was acquitted on self-defense.
After the conflicts, Falkner settled down again and began a
life in politics. He got elected to the state legislature,
and on the night of the election of 1889, he was shot and killed
by a former railroad partner (Lloyd 60).
Today, there is a tombstone and a  statue
of Col. William Clark Falkner in Ripley, Mississippi.
He had been dead eight years when his famous great grandson
William Faulkner (who added the "u" to the family name) was
born in 1897. Falkner appears in somewhat altered form as a
character in Faulkner's writing. He is the model for Colonel
Sartoris in A Rose for Emily and the novel Sartoris.
In Requiem for a Nun, Faulkner describes his
fictionalized version of his great-grandfather, "with his virgin
blade and his pristine colonel's braid on the courthouse balcony,
bareheaded too, while the Baptist minister prayed and the Richmond
mustering officer swore the regiment in." Much in The
Unvanquished is also autobiographical in nature.
Faulkner draws heavily on the stories he had grown up with.
He uses stories about his great-grandfather, Colonel William
Clark Falkner: his war service, his post-war business
dealings, and his death. Like young Bayard's great-grandfather
John Sartoris, William Faulkner's great-grandfather, Colonel
William Clark Falkner, had fought in the Mexican War, had served
in the Civil War, and commanded local troops because he had
been voted out or declined rank. Both the fictional character
and Faulkner's great-grandfather had killed two men in a setting
other than war and each had married two women (Bayard and Horace:
The Two Faces of Faulkner).
Two rare letters from Faulkner's great-grandfather, Colonel William Clark Falkner, were on display at the University of Mississippi in Oxford for the A Faulkner 100: The Centennial Exhibition. One is a Civil War dated letter in which Falkner expresses chagrin at the dispersal of several companies from his regiment. The other is a four-page letter that constitutes a brief history of the Ripley Railroad Company.
Donald Philip Duclos has written of biography of Falkner called Son of Sorrow : The Life, Works and Influence of Colonel William C. Falkner, 1825-1889, but it is currently not in print.
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Timeline
1826-William Clark Falkner was born
1843-Moved to Ripley, Mississippi
1845-Wrote first published piece
1846-Fought in Mexican war
1849-Attacked by Robert Hindman
1871-Started Ripley Railroad company
1881-Wrote his most famous book The White Rose of Memphis, a best seller
1889-Falkner was murdered by a railroad company partner
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Related Websites
Ole
Miss Writers site has biography of William Clark Falkner.
Special
Collections Library at The University of Michigan has photos
and information.
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Bibliography
Falkner, Murry C. The Faulkners of Mississippi. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967. 5-6.
Lloyd, James B. The Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1981. 60-62.
<online> Available at http://www.firstmonday.com/ (Type in firstmonday.com then click Ripley, MS, and then click on history)
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