Writer Stephen Enzweiler at Rowan Oak

The birthday celebration also inaugurated the state of Mississippi's new initiative called "Mississippi Reads," which annually identifies an author from the state and, through public book readings, encourages people to read that author's works. Go Down Moses was the inaugural reading of choice.

Originally published as Go Down Moses and Other Short Stories in 1942, it is an episodic novel consisting of seven short stories in a unified, though seemingly fragmented, story. It tells the history of the McCaslin family, their trials and triumphs from the Civil War era to just after 1940. In it, Faulkner examines issues of slavery and race that prevailed during Jim Crowe and still existed into the 1960's. It also dealt with property and inheritance, and the relationship between man and nature. The novel is considered by many scholars to be the author's most spiritual book, connecting nature and the struggle of man in such stories as The Old People, The Bear, and Delta Autumn. The Bear has become one of Faulkner's best-known short stories.

The marathon reading, which took ten hours and forty-one minutes to complete, was begun at precisely 7 a.m. by Johnny Lott, Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi. Every ten minutes thereafter, a new reader would step to the mic and continue the reading of the words crafted by Faulkner in the house just behind them in 1942, until the book was finished.

The honor of reading the last lines was given to Mississippi writer and internationally recognized Faulkner scholar, Dr. Noel Polk. Polk, who is professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and Editor of The Southern Quarterly, read the last line of the work ten hours and forty-one minutes after the reading was begun.

Among the readers and attendees were Donald Kartiganer, Howry Professor of Faulkner Studies at UM; Jim Carothers, Faulkner expert and Professor at the University of Kansas. Also there were Curtis Wilkie, author of Dixie and a former prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe, and Ann Fisher-Wirth, Mississippi poet and writer.

NEWS	Faulkner At 110: "Go Down Moses" OXFORD, Miss. - September 25, 2007 - As the sun rose crimson against the eastern sky, a man stepped up behind a podium situated on the north portico of William Faulkner's Rowan Oak home. He opened a small paperback book, looked up, and waited for the signal that would tell him to begin reading. A small group of people, each clutching a copy of the same work in their hands, sat patiently on folding chairs in front of the man, waiting. The reader stood with a look of duty in the morning light and was quiet for several minutes more, when all at once the signal was given: he looked down, found his place, and began to read from William Faulkner's epic work, Go Down Moses. For the next ten hours and forty-one minutes, 60 readers ranging from English students at Ole Miss to world-class literary scholars and writers took turns reading passages from the book. If Faulkner could have been there, today would have been his 110th birthday.
		William Faulkner (1897-1962)
	The birthday celebration also inaugurated the state of Mississippi's new initiative called "Mississippi Reads," which annually identifies an author from the state and, through public book readings, encourages people to read that author's works. Go Down Moses was the inaugural reading of choice. Originally published as Go Down Moses and Other Short Stories in 1942, it is an episodic novel consisting of seven short stories in a unified, though seemingly fragmented, story. It tells the history of the McCaslin family, their trials and triumphs from the Civil War era to just after 1940. In it, Faulkner examines issues of slavery and race that prevailed during Jim Crowe and still existed into the 1960's. It also dealt with property and inheritance, and the relationship between man and nature. The novel is considered by many scholars to be the author's most spiritual book, connecting nature and the struggle of man in such stories as The Old People, The Bear, and Delta Autumn. The Bear has become one of Faulkner's best-known short stories. The marathon reading, which took ten hours and forty-one minutes to complete, was begun at precisely 7 a.m. by Johnny Lott, Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi. Every ten minutes thereafter, a new reader would step to the mic and continue the reading of the words crafted by Faulkner in the house just behind them in 1942, until the book was finished. The honor of reading the last lines was given to Mississippi writer and internationally recognized Faulkner scholar, Dr. Noel Polk. Polk, who is professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and Editor of The Southern Quarterly, read the last line of the work ten hours and forty-one minutes after the reading was begun. Among the readers and attendees were Donald Kartiganer, Howry Professor of Faulkner Studies at UM; Jim Carothers, Faulkner expert and Professor at the University of Kansas. Also there were Curtis Wilkie, author of Dixie and a former prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe, and Ann Fisher-Wirth, Mississippi poet and writer.
	Dr. Noel Polk, the world's leading scholar on the works of William Faulkner, reads the last lines from "Go Down Moses" on the north portico of Rowan Oak, the author's home. Polk is Professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi.
	At the conclusion of the reading, the celebrants partook in birthday cake as the choir of East St. Peter's Missionary Baptist Church performed the book's namesake spiritual song, "Go Down Moses," and other works.
	# # # To respond to this article: news@stephenenzweiler.com. Related article: The Agony and The Sweat