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William Faulkner - Banquet speech 2. William Faulkner - Facts 3. William Faulkner - Biographical The Nobel Prize in Literature 1949 * William Faulkner Share this * Share this content on Facebook Facebook * Share this content on Twitter Twitter * Share this content on LinkedIn LinkedIn * Share this content via Email Email this page William Faulkner Banquet speech William Faulkner's speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1950 * --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ladies and gentlemen, I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work - a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing. Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed - love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands. Until he relearns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail. From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969 --------------------------------------------------------------------- * The speech was apparently revised by the author for publication in The Faulkner Reader. These minor changes, all of which improve the address stylistically have been incorporated here. ** Disclaimer Every effort has been made by the publisher to credit organizations and individuals with regard to the supply of audio files. Please notify the publishers regarding corrections. Copyright (c) The Nobel Foundation 1950 To cite this section MLA style: William Faulkner - Banquet speech. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2021. Tue. 31 Aug 2021. Back to top Takes users back to the top of the page Learn more Nobel Prizes 2020 Twelve laureates were awarded a Nobel Prize in 2020, for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Their work and discoveries range from the formation of black holes and genetic scissors to efforts to combat hunger and develop new auction formats. See them all presented here. Nobel Prizes 2020 graphicsNobel Prizes 2020 graphics Explore prizes and laureates Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize. Select the category or categories you would like to filter by [Literature ] Select the category or categories you would like to filter by ( ) Physics ( ) Chemistry ( ) Medicine (*) Literature ( ) Peace ( ) Economic Sciences Decrease the year by one - Choose a year you would like to search in [1949 ] Increase the year by one + Explore [spinner] [spinner] About the Nobel Prize organisation The Nobel Foundation Tasked with a mission to manage Alfred Nobel's fortune and has ultimate responsibility for fulfilling the intentions of Nobel's will. 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