Henry James was born in New York City on April 15th, 1843. Henry was the second of five children in his family. His father, Henry James Sr., was an extremely wealthy and influential man during this time. Henry James Sr. was well known in the literaryworld and frequently associated with writers such as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and Longfellow. Henry James Sr. thought that formal education was extraordinary important and he sent his children to various tutors throughout Europe to study literature, language, science and mathematics. Henry James Jr. was not fond of taking mathematics but attempted to study law and science. 

Henry James Jr. attended Harvard Law School for one semester before leaving in 1862. Just two years later, James decided his new career would be as a writer. After this decision James spent much of his time traveling back and forth between America and various European cities working on his writing. In 1874 James lived in Italy for a period of time to compose his second novel Roderick Hudson. After completion of this novel he traveled back to New York for a period of time before returned to Europe to live in Paris. In Paris James worked for various newspapers and literary magazines as a way to make a living. Both Henry James Jr. and Sr. believed that journalism was not a sufficient type of writing but James used it as a way to make money so that he could spend more time focusing on his fiction work. James had a growing fan base but he did not capture the attention of Paris with his stories the way he had hoped, so he picked up and moved to London, England in 1876. While living in London, James worked on his story “Daisy Miller” that became one of his best known stories dealing with international issues.

Henry James was considered to be a highly social person because he often partook in social events but not much is known about his private life. James was known to be reserved in terms of his own life and did not often talk about relationships or other personal information. James’ family urged him throughout his life to get married but he refused and never formally married a spouse. It is not clear who James’ had relationships with though he had several female friends in his lifetime. James were also known for hanging out with younger, handsome men but it is unclear if he ever had any type of intimate relation with either men or women.

In 1904 James returned to the United States for the first time in 20 years to begin a cross country lecture tour, which later inspired him to write a series of essays. After this time James became increasingly depressed because he did not become as successful as he had hoped and was losing his audience. He spent four years revising various works of his to be published in a 24 volume “New York Edition” but received little monetary  gain or public attention from this venture. In 1911 and 1912 he received honorary degrees from both Harvard and Oxford. In 1915 James denounced his American citizenship because he was outraged at the United States’ unwillingness to join World War I and became an official British citizen. The following year Henry James received an Order of Merit from King George V. Sadly that same year on February 28th James died of pneumonia after experiencing several strokes and declining health.

Sources:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/american/genius/henry_bio.html

http://www.online-literature.com/henry_james/

William Faulkner was born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. He joined the Canadian Airforce after being rejected from the US Airforce for not meeting the physical requirements. Faulkner didn’t have much interest in formal education and dropped out of high school as well as the University of Mississippi which he attended for two years after his time in the Airforce. Previous to the Civil War Faulkner’s family  acquired a large sum of wealth which they lost in the course of the war. Because of this loss they experienced, Faulkner often talks of the history and traditions of the Old South.

Faulkner began his writing when his family relocated to Oxford, Mississippi. After dropping out if University of Mississippi, Faulkner took a job at the school and spent his time working on his writing; Faulkner was fired from his position in 1924. His first published piece was a collection of poems entitled The Marble Faun but it did not sell well. Sherwood Anderson advised him to try writing some prose as poetry was not his strong suit. Faulkner later published a novel MOSQUITOS satirizing New Orleans writing and writers, including Anderson. Their friendship suffered as a result and Anderson cut off their tied though Faulkner continued to admire his old friend.

Faulkner’s writing is often known for its stream of consciousness and distortion of time. He attempted to create his own world through several of his novels. Faulkner developed a town called Jefferson located in Yoknapatawpha County which he modeled after Oxford where he began his writing. Faulkner was also interested in the aftermath effects of slavery in the South and the struggle with identity many people of mixed race experienced.

Faulkner married Estelle Oldham in 1929 and had two children with her, one of them died just nine days after birth. In 1932 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios hired him to write screenplays and he relocated to Hollywood, CA. Faulkner was not comfortable in his new environment and began to drink heavily. However, Faulkner’s funds from screenwriting provided him with money to continue his own fiction writing. He later helped write the script for Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, however his novel sales twiddled and eventually his books went out of print during WWII.

Although Faulkner’s sales did not reach astounding heights, Faulkner received a number of writing awards, one of the most notable being the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. Other awards included the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Howell Medal for fiction (1951), National Book Award for his Collection of stories and the National Institute’s Gold Medal for fiction. Faulkner continued to travel the world writing screenplays, visiting places like Egypt, Brazil and Greece. He also became involved in advocating Civil Rights. Faulkner unfortunately passed away in 1962 as a result of a heart attack.

Sources:

http://www.egs.edu/library/william-faulkner/biography/

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-bio.html