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Faulkner and Stolen Valor

 


My favorite canonical author, William Faulkner, had a phony war story to tell. 

While he was alive, biographers would say that Faulkner, born in 1897, left the US for Canada in 1916 because he was put off by Wilson's neutrality policy and wanted to get into the Great War. He trained in Canada to become a pilot in the RAF and spent some time flying in France before the war ended.

That was what would now be known as "stolen valor." It begins with his misdescription of when he left the US and why. The precipitating cause wasn't eagerness to fight, it was romantic heartbreak. His family (and the family of his sweetheart, Estelle Oldham, prevented the two young'uns from marrying in 1918. Broken hearted, and aware of course that there was a war on, Faulkner tried to enlist. He was rejected by the US Army because he was too short. He entered Canada then, hearing that the height requirement there was one he met. He was never anywhere near the fighting. He did enlist in the RAF and receive some training in Canada but he was still doing so when the war ended. 

Then he return to the US, with training-caused injuries that gave credibility to stories he would tell about his time in France. Over time he backdated his enlistment to 1916 simply to allow for a timeline that would make those stories plausible. 

Can we derive some valuable lesson or morale from this story? Only, I guess, that story tellers gotta tell. 

One bright note: he did eventually marry Estelle, in the late 1920s. 

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