WILLIAM FAULKNER

Doreen Fowler and Ann J. Abadie, eds. Faulkner and Humor: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 1984. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1986. 243 pp. Michael Grimwood. Heart in Conflict: Faulkner's Struggles with Vocation, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987. xx + 378 pp. He surely must be America's most written-about author. Indeed, in a good year the scholars of William Faulkner probably produce more printed pages, a larger mountain of manuscripts, than did Mr. Bill himself in his fairly lengthy career. Much of that scholarly material is quickly forgotten, and perhaps rightly so; but a few studies do manage to emerge as valuable contributions to Faulkner scholar- ship, shedding important light on little-known or under-appreciated aspects of his mind and art, and changing — perhaps permanently — our understanding of Faulkner's unique achievement as a writer of fiction. Two such studies are Faulkner and Humor, a collection of essays edited by Doreen Fowler and Ann J. Abadie of the University of Mississippi, and Heart in Conflict by Michael Grimwood of North Carolina State University. Although read in tandem, they are mutually illuminating, each warranting serious consideration in its own right.