Backstory

Dean Faulkner Wells (1936-2011), niece and ward of William Faulkner and the daughter of Dean Swift Faulkner, William's youngest brother, was educated at the University of Mississippi and University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her first book was The Ghosts of Rowan Oak: William Faulkner's Ghost Stories for Children. Wells edited The New Great American Writers' Cookbook and The Best of Bad Faulkner and authored an autobiography, Every Day by the Sun: A Memoir of the Faulkners of Mississippi. Her articles have been published in The Paris Review, Parade, Ladies' Home Journal, Southern Living, and other magazines. Lawrence Wells edited William Faulkner: The Cofield Collection, by Jack Cofield, and RIOT: Witness to Anger and Change, by Ed Meek. He wrote three historical novels, Rommel and the Rebel, Let the Band Play Dixie, and Fair Youth; scripted the Emmy-winning PBS documentary Return to the River narrated by James Earl Jones; and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Syndicate. Wells's autobiographies, In Faulkner's Shadow: A Memoir and Ghostwriter: Shakespeare, Literary Landmines, and an Eccentric Patron's Royal Obsession, were published by University Press of Mississippi.

"Entertaining and insightful, the words come off these pages as if they were written this morning. - Walter Anderson, former editor in chief of Parade Dean Faulkner Wells, the niece of Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner, and husband Larry Wells, a noted historical novelist, offer a delightful collection of literate and invariably entertaining dispatches from their lifetime of journalistic storytelling. A must for readers who appreciate learning about fascinating people, adventurous journeys, and insights into cultural milestones." - John Clark, former editorial director of American Way and Southwest Airlines Spirit magazines