William Faulkner (1897-1962) was an American novelist and short story writer renowned for his profound influence on modernist literature and his creation of the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, a richly detailed setting based on Lafayette County, Mississippi. Faulkner's work often explored themes of the decay of the Old South, racial tensions, and complex family dynamics, as depicted in major novels like The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936). Faulkner earned the Nobel Prize in Literature, two Pulitzer Prizes, and the National Book Award. He spent much of his life in Oxford, Mississippi, where he wrote prolifically; he also worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. His legacy endures as one of the most significant American writers of the twentieth century.