house and the county were always a constant source of inspiration for his novels.”
Although he spent many years back and forth to Hollywood to write screen plays, Rowan Oak is where Faulkner wrote many of his novels. They came to be from how this rustic community inspired Faulkner to create the fictional Yoknapatawpha County that mirrored Lafayette County, where Oxford is the county seat. A map of the fictional county is in the museum alongside his books and even the typewriter he once used. What I find particularly stunning is in the home’s white-walled study, where Faulkner’s hand-scribbled writing on the wall, still there from the 1940s and early 1950s. Scratched with bold lettering from thick graphite pencils, it outlines the weeklong plot for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Fable . The wall script highlights soldiers refusing to fight on a World War I battlefield, one of them a corporal who, as implied by Faulkner, is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Back in Memphis, I spend my last night walking the three blocks of pedestrian Beale Street with its world- famous music scene. Neon signs flash above bars and restaurants hosting live bands and blues artists every night. “It’s where country, gospel, blues, jazz, and soul all blend together,” I recall Cole Early telling me, “to make Memphis what they call the ‘birthplace of rock and roll.’” ◾
A fun way to visit streets in Memphis is to take one of the city buses.
one in town offering a traditional English Tea. The menu includes, for example, tea sandwiches such as crab salad with radish, smoked salmon mousse, and curry chicken salad and, for dessert, scones, hazelnut layered opera cake, and a lemon zest macaron. Directly across the street from the hotel in an alleyway is a favorite local restaurant, Charlie Vergos Rendezvous BBQ, with its signature Memphis-style, dry rub ribs. Other things to see in Memphis include the Edge Motor Museum with its displays of shiny sports cars of yesteryear on loan from local owners. During my visit, a ’69 Corvette sits alongside a ’63 Stingray and ivory white ’56 Thunderbird convertible from the period when Memphis’ music scene was erupting with new talent. “The tag line is ‘Post War to 74.’ That was the era when these cars exploded and really took off in popularity,” says museum director and founder Richard Vining. The museum is only a block away from Sun Studio, making a visit convenient to both. Exploring the outdoors and newly renovated Tom Lee Park skirting the Mississippi River, I walk across Big River Crossing, the country’s longest pedestrian and bike path on a train rail bridge. Half way across, I could step over the state line into Arkansas. A popular day trip from Memphis takes just over an hour to Oxford, Mississippi, and what was the home of famed writer and native son William Faulkner. Alongside the “Ole Miss” campus, the Greek Revival- style home amid shady trees is now a museum with more than 90 percent of the original furnishings Faulkner had when he died in 1962. “It’s all weirdly intertwined with Faulkner’s own personal self and his writing,” says Assistant Curator Rachel Hudson. “This
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Beale Street at night.
MUSIC MECCA: MEMPHIS
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