Faulkner Memorabilia Goes to Auction

Early manuscripts for literature fans

William Faulkner typed the story on the back of University of Mississippi letterhead, an early exercise in fiction writing about a fur trapper's trip to a big city. Its 13 browned pages, stashed in an old, mismarked box in a barn on the Faulkner family farm in Charlottesville, Va., were discovered just last year. Now they, along with a stack of hand-corrected manuscripts, letters, a hand-bound poetry book and Faulkner's Nobel medal, are headed to Sotheby's for auction in June.

For collectors Faulkner's 1949 medal, his Nobel diploma and an early handwritten draft of the speech he made when accepting the award are likely to be the most sought-after items at the sale. Sotheby's estimates they alone will fetch his family between $500,000 and $1 million.