Aviation Lore in Faulkner

Book excerpt: William Faulkner was an aviation cadet in Canada in the closing days of WW I. He later owned his own airplane, and even put on a few air shows. When he wrote of flying, as he often did, it was with a great deal of expertise but little concern for the edification of his readers. The result is that many of the five hundred or so passages dealing with aviation in his works are all but incomprehensible to the non-pilot. This work elucidates all the aeronautical references in Faulkner’s fiction and verse which might prove troublesome to the general reader. This monograph contains three main sections: An introduction to flight, designed especially for the non-technical reader and intended to provide enough background in aerodynamics and aircraft design to enable one to follow Faulkner’s argument intelligently; a brief biography of Faulkner as a pilot and aviation enthusiast; and a reader’s guide through the individual works in which aviation plays a part.