Soldiers' Pay
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''Soldiers' Pay'' is the first novel published by the American author
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
. It was originally published by Boni & Liveright on February 25, 1926. It is unclear if ''Soldiers' Pay'' is the first novel written by Faulkner. It is however the first novel published by the author. Faulkner was working on two manuscripts while finishing ''Soldiers' Pay.''


Plot overview

The plot of ''Soldiers' Pay'' revolves around the return of a wounded aviator home to a small town in Georgia following the conclusion of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. He is escorted by a veteran of the war, as well as a widow whose husband was killed during the conflict. The aviator himself suffered a horrendous head injury, and is left in a state of almost perpetual silence, as well as blindness. Several conflicts revolving around his return include the state of his engagement to his fiancée, the desire of the widow to break the engagement in order to marry the dying aviator herself, and the romantic intrigue surrounding the fiancée who had been less than faithful to the aviator in his absence. ''Soldier's Pay'' is one of only a few of the author's novels not set in his fictional
Yoknapatawpha County Yoknapatawpha County () is a fictional Mississippi county created by the American author William Faulkner, largely based upon and inspired by Lafayette County, Mississippi, and its county seat of Oxford (which Faulkner renamed "Jefferson"). Faulk ...
,
Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
.


Publication history

William Faulkner was a friend of American writer Sherwood Anderson and a member of his literary circle in 1920s New Orleans. As the story goes, it was Anderson who agreed to send the ''Soldiers' Pay'' manuscript to his publisher as long as Anderson himself did not have to read it. In a 1950 letter from Faulkner's lifelong friend Phil Stone to Glenn O Carey, Stone acknowledges that it was Anderson who was instrumental in getting ''Soldiers' Pay'' published. "With all the efforts we made, I was not able to get Faulkner published and Sherwood Anderson was the one who got him started as far as publication goes."
Horace Liveright Horace Brisbin Liveright (pronounced "LIVE-right," anglicized by Horace's father from the German ''Liebrecht;'' 10 December 1884 – 24 September 1933) was an American publisher and stage producer. With Albert Boni, he founded the Modern Lib ...
agreed to pay Faulkner $200.00 for the manuscript, which was originally titled ''Mayday''. Editor and chief at Boni & Liveright T.R. Smith is likely the source of the title change. The first print run of ''Soldiers' Pay'' was 2,500 copies. By the standards of the day, ''Soldiers' Pay'' and Faulkner's second novel '' Mosquitoes'' were commercial failures. Neither novel sold more than 1,200 copies after its initial release. Since Faulkner was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature, ''Soldiers' Pay'' has remained in print. First edition copies are valuable among collectors, often selling for upwards of $35,000. The original manuscript of ''Mayday'' from which ''Soldiers' Pay'' was edited was dedicated in Faulkner's manuscript to a love interest named Helen Baird. Hollywood producer Jerry Wald once considered making ''Soldiers' Pay'' into a movie.Faulkner, William, Louis Daniel. Brodsky, and Robert W. Hamblin. Faulkner, a Comprehensive Guide to the Brodsky Collection. Jackson: U of Mississippi, 1984. Print. (Brodsy, 179)


References


External links

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John D. Paggett's plot overview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soldier's Pay 1926 American novels Novels by William Faulkner Novels set during World War I Novels set in Georgia (U.S. state) 1926 debut novels Boni & Liveright books