Estelle Oldham Faulkner

By: Cindy Nguyen

Behind Estelle Oldham Faulkner’s Spendings

Growing up, Estelle Oldham had always been in a family with money. In their hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, William Faulkner and Estelle Oldham fell in love but did not marry due to Estelle’s parents disapproving of Faulkner’s career as a writer. When Estelle met and married Cornell Frankin, she moved away and had two children where she was still well off due to Franklin becoming a judge. When Oldham divorced her first husband[1] and came back to Oxford, she reunited with Faulkner and married him. Marrying Faulkner put her in a lifestyle that she was not use to. Learnings from Rowan Oak[2] itself have shown that she was okay with the life that was presented to her of being married to a writer who was not yet successful. Until William Faulkner wrote his bestseller, the family did not have much to their name expect their house, Rowan Oak.

Noted on many occasions, Estelle’s spendings only increased when Faulkner started to do work in Hollywood and would be gone traveling for long periods of time. Faulkner would give Estelle money in order to take care of the family while he was away. About two years after he was gone was when she started to spend more money than he could afford. At that point, Faulkner had to decided to start giving her a monthly allowance[3]. However, the monthly allowance did not stop Estelle from spending money whenever and wherever she wanted. It became a problem to the point where Faulkner had to publish in the newspaper, alerting store owners and clerks that he would not be paying any accounts under his wife’s name[4]. As for the Neilson’s Department Store, they had a letter from Faulkner himself about the situation. This letter is still hung up in the store where he stated that he is still paying off his account but also that he would not be paying more than his account[5].

Faulkner was not truly financially successful until he won the Nobel Prize for his bestseller, “Sanctuary” which was acclaimed in 1949. Noted in “William Faulkner: Writing & Marriage”[6], the writer speaks of how Faulkner felt like it was out of “duty” that the two of them were to marry. In a ledger[7] from Neilson’s, one can see “E. O. Faulkner” for Estelle Oldham Faulkner, a name she had gone by since the marriage, and her purchase of an item that was a total of fifty dollars. In many occasions, readers can noticed the burden that Faulkner could have had due to Estelle’s constant lashing out by spending money.

Estelle did at times buy a ton of items, and some of them are still displayed in the home today. Faulkner had a couple of love affairs, most of them being when he was working in Hollywood. With some knowledge from learning and seeing materials and information of the two at Rowan Oak, one can guess that Estelle most likely took her frustration out by shopping and leaving an account for Faulkner to pay.

Ledger 39, February 3, 1930 from Neilson’s Collection, Department of Archives and Special Collections, The University of Mississippi Libraries.

Letter from Faulkner to Neilson’s Department Store
Photo by Author

[1] “Mrs. Faulkner’s Wedding.” Mississippi Sideboard. July 4, 2016. Accessed January 08, 2019. https://jesseyancy.com/tag/estelle-oldham-faulkner/.

[2] William Faulkner’s Historic Home, Rowan Oak

[3] Sensibar, Judith Levin. Faulkner and Love: The Women Who Shaped His Art. New Haven (Conn.): Yale University Press, 2010.

[4] Ibit

[5] Photo by Author

[6] Shmoop Editorial Team. “William Faulkner: Writing & Marriage.” Shmoop. November 11, 2008. Accessed January 08, 2019. https://www.shmoop.com/william-faulkner/writing-marriage.html.

[7] Ledger 39, Dates: February 3 1930