Harrison, 1985

Robert Harrison (and Calvin Brown, according to some sources). Aviation Lore in Faulkner. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1985. WorldCat

Includes an introduction to aeronautics, flying, & engines. Describes Faulkner's personal experiences with aeronautics, which begin with an exhibition at the Lafayette County Fair in 1908, and include enlistment with the RAF in 1918. Faulkner (a re-spelling of Falkner intended to look more English) was enrolled at the No. 4 School of Military Aeronautics (= Royal Flying Corps school?) at the University of Toronto.

Also contains background on the military flying services during the war, and some of the aircraft they used.

Overview 1:

William Faulkner was an aviation cadet in Canada in the closing days of WW I. He later owned his own airplane, and even put on a few air shows. When he wrote of flying, as he often did, it was with a great deal of expertise but little concern for the edification of his readers. The result is that many of the five hundred or so passages dealing with aviation in his works are all but incomprehensible to the non-pilot. This work elucidates all the aeronautical references in Faulkner’s fiction and verse which might prove troublesome to the general reader.

Overview 2:

... Faulkner criticism is full of howlers committed by critics who are erudite in such abstruse fields of knowledge as semiotics, Freudianism, Marxism, narratology, and epistemology, but are both ignorant and contemptuous of even the rudiments of things like wagon-driving, plow gear, cotton farming, possum hunting--and aviation. The purpose of this book is simply to enable both the general reader and the scholarly critics ... to understand the extensive references to aviation in Faulkner's work. These references are far more extensive than one might expect.

References

Original title	Aviation Lore in Faulkner
Simple title	Aviation Lore in Faulkner
Authors	Robert Harrison, Calvin Brown
Date	1985
Countries	US, NL
Languages	en
Keywords	airplane, literature, William Faulkner
Journal
Related to aircraft?	1
Page count	195
Word count
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