Every Day by the Sun: A Memoir of the Faulkners of Mississippi

In 2010, Wells, William Faulkner's niece, became the oldest surviving Faulkner and found herself alone with firsthand memories of the long-deceased people that shaped and supported the literary legend. After the death of her father months before she was born, Wells's uncles, including the Nobel-prize winning author, became important figures in her life. William%E2%80%94or "pappy"%E2%80%94took Wells under his wing, paying for her education and participating in her wedding. Wells remembers sailing excursions where William would allow Wells and her cousin to sip his stout-champagne mixture if they could guess the author of his poetry recitations. In these reminiscences, by turns humorous and tedious, Wells focuses mostly on her relationship with her famous uncle, but also draws upon previously unseen letters and other archival material to recreate a portrait the Faulkner family and their rapscallion legacy, which includes ties to thieves, adulterers, killers, racists, and liars. Readers will likely be familiar with many of these tales about William Faulkner, as Wells leans heavily on Joel Williamson's William Faulkner and Southern History and Joseph Blotner's definitive Faulkner biography to complement her own recollections. (Mar. 22)