The Outrageous Life of Henry Faulkner, by Charles House

This absorbing account traces the life of painter and poet Henry Lawrence Faulkner (1924-81) from his traumatic childhood in rural Kentucky to a flamboyant bohemian existence in New York, Los Angeles, Key West, and Sicily. In his meticulous scrutiny of this not-quite-famous figure, the author sheds light on the tragic tensions experienced by the artist in contemporary America.

To the public, Faulkner was the eccentric rebel who brought his bourbon-drinking goat Alice to parties and exhibitions of his paintings. To his friend Tennessee Williams, who made Faulkner the subject of his last play, he was a "brilliant" poet. To the author he was "a most peculiar man who distilled the Appalachian experience as no other Appalachian has, hurt from it more than anyone else in literature or in fact."

Among the extensive sources used are countless interviews with people who knew Faulkner; the artist's personal correspondence with sources; and newly uncovered records of Faulkner's long tenure as ward of Kentucky child welfare agencies and of his psychiatric stays at St. Elizabeths Hospital (where he knew Ezra Pound) and Columbia University Hospital. (From the cover of the original University of Tennessee Press edition)

Praise for the Outrageous Life of Henry Faulkner from major writers:

A splendid, wonderfully readable biography of a Kentucky painter whose life reads like a novel by Tennessee Williams-victim of prejudices and of his own genius.
-Guy Davenport, author of "Eclogues," "The Jules Verne Steam Baloon" and other critically acclaimed books. "Davenport has earned a well-deserved reputation as the lustiest genius of contemporary American literature," according to Hilton Kramer of the New York Times.

Charles House has written a fine book about an extraordinary man, a man who was either stone crazy or a genius or both. I think probably both. His life makes for great reading if you can stand the pain, for like many great lives, it is filled with hurt clear to the bone.
-Harry Crews, author of "The Knockout Artist," "All We Need of Hell" and over a dozen other novels.

In this excellent book, an unknown writer discovers an unknown artist, and both are thereby lifted out of obscurity, and the readers are twice-rewarded.
-John Egerton, author of "The Americanization of Dixie" and several other highly regarded books of the south. He has written for the New York Times Magazine, and many other publications.

A stunning re-creation of one of the most bizarre and gifted men I've ever known. My hat's in the air for this superb biographer, Charles House.
-James Leo Herlihy, author of "Midnight Cowboy," "All Fall Down" and other best sellers of which several major motions pictures were made.