Soldiers' pay

About “Soldiers' pay”

Soldiers’ Pay is William Faulkner’s first published novel. It follows two American soldiers, Joe Gilligan and Julian Lowe, returning from the First World War on a train. They meet Donald Mahon, a fighter pilot who was presumed dead but is now withdrawn and scarred. The novel explores Mahon’s slow deterioration and the romantic complications that arise after his return. Faulkner drew inspiration from his own experiences during the war. In 1918, he left Oxford, Mississippi, to join the Royal Air Force, though the war ended before he completed flight training. He later fabricated heroic stories about his time in the air force. Sherwood Anderson encouraged Faulkner to write Soldiers’ Pay, and Anderson pleaded with publisher Horace Liveright to publish it. The novel was a commercial failure at first but later gained recognition due to Faulkner’s growing fame.