William Faulkner’s Hollywood Typewriter Keepsake

Available now at the Museum Store

This commemorative keepsake is available for $25 plus tax.

This design features the typewriter that William Faulkner used while writing screenplays in Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s.

In 1932 when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer first offered Faulkner the opportunity to write scripts for them he was still newly famous from his successful novel Sanctuary. When Faulkner accepted the position, it was not the draw of the big city or the movie stars that led him so far from home, but the promise of a handsome salary during an economic depression. Altogether, Faulkner wrote 20 screenplays, notably including
To Have and Have Not, Gunga Din, and The Big Sleep.

The typewriter eventually came into the care of Dr. Nancy Norris-Kniffin, a Faulkner scholar, who in turn gifted it to Rowan Oak. Visit Rowan Oak to see it for yourself and to learn more about Faulkner’s work in Hollywood.

Limited to 5 per customer.

All keepsakes can be purchased through the Museum Store, at the intersection of University Avenue and Fifth Street, open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, or by credit card by calling 662-915-7073. Orders to be shipped must be placed by Dec. 13 and require a shipping and handling fee. Museum members receive a 10 percent discount on all merchandise in the Museum Store.