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ldiers' Payis thefirst novelpublished by the American authorWilliam Faulkner. It was originally published byBoni & Liverighton February 25, 1926.[1][2]It is unclear ifSoldiers' Payis the first novel written by Faulkner. It is however the first novel published by the author. Faulkner was working on two manuscripts while finishingSoldiers' Pay.[3]
Plot overview
The plot ofSoldiers' Payrevolves around the return of a wounded aviator home to a small town in Georgia following the conclusion of theFirst World War. He is escorted by a veteran of the war, and a widow. The aviator himself suffered atraumatic brain injury, and is in a state of perpetual silence, and blindness. Several conflicts revolve around the aviator's return including the state of his engagement to his fiancée, the widow's desire to marry the dying aviator herself, and the intrigue surrounding the fiancée who had been unfaithful to the aviator during his absence.[4]
Soldier's Payis one of only a few of the author's novels not set in his fictionalYoknapatawpha County,Mississippi.
Publication history
William Faulkner was a friend of American writerSherwood Andersonand a member of his literary circle in 1920s New Orleans. As the story goes, it was Anderson who agreed to send theSoldiers' Paymanuscript to his publisher as long as Anderson himself did not have to read it.
In a 1950 letter from Faulkner's lifelong friend Phil Stone to Glenn O Carey, Stone acknowledges that it was Anderson who was instrumental in gettingSoldiers' Paypublished. "With all the efforts we made, I was not able to get Faulkner published and Sherwood Anderson was the one who got him started as far as publication goes."[5]
Horace Liverightagreed to pay Faulkner $200.00 for the manuscript, which was originally titledMayday. Editor and chief at Boni & Liveright T.R. Smith is likely the source of the title change.[6]The first print run ofSoldiers' Paywas 2,500 copies.[7]
By the standards of the day,Soldiers' Payand Faulkner's second novelMosquitoeswere commercial failures. Neither novel sold more than 1,200 copies after its initial release.[8]Since Faulkner was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature,Soldiers' Payhas remained in print.[9]First edition copies are valuable among collectors, often selling for upwards of $35,000.
The original manuscript ofMaydayfrom whichSoldiers' Paywas edited was dedicated in Faulkner's manuscript to a love interest named Helen Baird.[10]
Hollywood producer Jerry Wald once considered makingSoldiers' Payinto a movie.[11]
