1919 William Faulkner Handmade Poetry Book
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GUEST:
I've got a book of poems written by William Faulkner.
APPRAISER:
And how did you come about this?
GUEST:
A lady actually was my parents' first landlord in Memphis, Tennessee. We were very close afterwards, and she was like my grandmother. She gave that to me, and she passed away in 1985. And she told us that she, years ago in 1921, had a summer fling with William Faulkner.
APPRAISER:
Wow.
GUEST:
So he had his eye on her, and evidently thought highly of her and created this book of poems, and I think he handcrafted it himself.
APPRAISER:
And so did she talk about William Faulkner with you guys?
GUEST:
Yeah, she said, you know, he was a little different, but she had a good time. I don't think it lasted very long.
APPRAISER:
Where did they meet?
GUEST:
They met in Mississippi. He was born and raised there and grew up in Oxford and has the Rowan Oak House.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
I think she was in high school when they met, and I'm not sure how much older he was than her.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. Well, what you've brought today is just an incredible find. It's poems by William Faulkner, and he produced the entire book. The handwriting is by him, the poems are by him, and there are also drawings in here that are absolutely beautiful. And let me just turn to this page here. You get the date, March 1919, so this is long before...
GUEST:
Well, I take that back. It wasn't 1921, it looks like it was 1919.
APPRAISER:
1919. Yeah. It was long before Faulkner became a published author. His first published work was not until 1924. William Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in 1949. He wasn't really known or recognized until he got the Nobel Prize in Literature. While he was at the University of Mississippi, he crafted a handful of very interesting poem books, and I don't know who got them specifically, but with this one, we know. It is a beautiful combination of poems and drawings, and it's really in keeping with the time period. The drawings have sort of an Art Deco look to them. And let me just turn to this page here. You see the beautiful balance between the drawing and the handwritten poetry that is also, in a certain typographical way, you would also kind of see that this is an Art Deco piece. It is also bound in this-- let's turn to the cover-- in this beautiful vellum binding. And Faulkner did a handful of these books, but they're incredibly rare. They hardly come up at auction. If they do, you know, they draw a lot of attention. And at auction, which is a conservative estimate, we would think that this could be estimated at about $70,000 to $100,000.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
It is a unique piece, it's all done by him, he did the writing, the typography...
GUEST:
It is authentic.
APPRAISER:
It is authentic. And it's just such a staggering, beautiful piece, and a wonderful story.
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