William Faulkner with Joseph Blotner C’47 in 1962

This February 7, 2010, piece in the New York Times on how New Albany, Miss., will soon allow its residents to buy beer within city limits for the first time in a half-century made me remember the profile we ran on alumnus Joseph Blotner, who is considered William Faulkner’s preeminent biographer.

The Times story summarizes the contentious battle over local sales of the beverage, including the effort by imbiber William Faulkner, who attempted to sway public opinion in favor of lifting the ban in nearby Oxford, Miss., in the summer of 1950. (Faulkner was born in New Albany, but later moved to Oxford.) “According to Joseph Blotner’s Faulkner: A Biography, Faulkner distributed a broadside around town criticizing the ministers who had lined up in opposition, condemning them as meddling in civic affairs,” reports the paper.

Don’t miss the original broadside that Faulkner ends with, “Yours for a freer Oxford where publicans can be law-abiding publicans six days a week and ministers of God can be ministers of God all seven days in the week.”—Renée Olson, Editor, Drew Magazine