Celebrated American author William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, in New Albany, Mississippi. Known for using a wide range of styles, Faulkner explored America’s geography, history, economy, and social and moral life in his writing. Faulkner’s family moved to Ripley, Mississippi when he was one and then settled in Oxford, Mississippi when he was five. His mother and grandmother who loved to read largely influenced Faulkner. They taught him to read before he entered school. Faulkner was a bright child, skipping the second grade and performing well in third and fourth. However, he began to lose interest in school and preferred to study the history of Mississippi on his own. He never ended up graduating from high school. He also liked listening to his family stories about the Civil War and his great-grandfather, William Clark Falkner, who was a war hero. By his late teens, Faulkner realized he wanted to be a writer and attended the University of Mississippi for three semesters. While there he worked briefly as acting postmaster at the school’s post office. Some of his poems were published in school magazines during his time there. Faulkner attempted to enlist in the US Army during World War I, but was ineligible due to his height and instead enlisted as a reservist with the British Army in Toronto.