Unbound
1980 · (Winston-Salem NC)
by FAULKNER, William
(Winston-Salem NC): Palaemon Press, 1980. Unbound. Fine. Facsimile edition. Broadside. Measuring 8" x 11". Fine. This is one of 26 hors commerce lettered copies of a total edition of 126. In 1944, Faulkner's hometown of Oxford outlawed beer. A few years later a letter from most of the town's clergymen appeared in the *Oxford Eagle* recommending an additional five year ban. Faulkner wrote a letter in response, laconically enumerating errors of fact and chastising the clergymen for their position. As recounted in *Blotner*, when the editor of the *Eagle* refused to publish it, Faulkner had them print this broadside and he hand distributed it with the help of his brothers and their children. The local Baptist minister was outraged by the employment of youth for this purpose (though they had observed the proprieties by handing it out at the back door of the Baptist Church), while his Methodist counterpart received it in better humor, allowing that "Bill Faulkner would know more about both beer and whiskey than we do." The ban was renewed by a vote of 480-313, and two months later the text of the broadside appeared in *The New Yorker*. A facsimile of one of the rarest (and shortest) of Faulkner's "A" items.
(Inventory #: 57156)