WILLIAM FAULKNER (1897-1962)

William Faulkner's first published book, The Marble Faun, is not a novel but a collection of verse--nineteen poems in a pastoral cycle--which appeared in December of 1924. In his preface to The Marble Faun, Faulkner's friend, the lawyer Phil Stone, who subsidized the book's publication, writes, "these are primarily the poems of youth and a simple heart. It is seldom that much can be truthfully said for a first book beyond that it shows promise. And I think these poems show promise." These are prophetic words, even though Faulkner would never be noted as a poet, and would publish only one other volume of poetry in his long career. Yet, Faulkner considered himself a poet, and surely a sense of poetry runs through all his works.

It is perhaps fitting, then, that of all his twenty seven books, including such world- acclaimed novels as The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary, and Absalom, Absalom!, the rarest is The Marble Faun. Of the conjectured 500 copies printed, barely 100 are now extant. The copy shown is in its original mottled green boards, with the paper label on the front cover designed by Marjorie Very, showing a faun with pipes seated among leaves.