William Faulkner was born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. He spent most of his life in Oxford, Mississippi, where he worked as a postmaster and wrote novels and short stories. Some of his most famous novels include The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Light in August. In 1950, Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novels and short stories that explored the history and culture of the American South.