William Faulkner at UVA

He came to Charlottesville in 1957 as UVA's first Writer-in-Residence — the 1949 Nobel laureate, already a fixed point in American literature, accepting an invitation from the English department. He returned for a second term in 1958. The sessions were recorded. You can still hear them: Faulkner fielding questions from students, explaining what he meant by "Virginia snobs" — which, in his telling, was a compliment.