Lot 251: ODIORNE, WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM

A group of 3 gelatin silver photographic portraits of William Faulkner, each signed and inscribed on the mount ("Odiorne — Paris"), (two of the prints 6 3/4 x 4 3/4 in.; 172 x 121 mm; the third print 4 7/8 x 5 1/2 in.; 125 x 140 mm), Paris, [November 1925], one on a double mount, two on a single mount, in the photographer's original studio folders; photographs appropriately silvered in dark areas, mounts and portions of the photographs with scattered light foxing, but with photographs, mounts and studio folders crisp and well-preserved.

Blotner, Faulkner: A Biography (revised), pp. 170–171; Williamson, William Faulkner and Southern History, p. 205

Portraits of the artist as a young man. William Faulkner's own copies of William C. Odiorne's Parisian studies of him, among the finest photgraphs ever made of the author. William C. Odiorne (1881–1978) was a talented photographer, who frequented artistic and literary circles in both New Orleans and Paris in the 1920's. According to Joel Williamson, "Bill Spratling introduced Faulkner to William Odiorne, a highly talented photographer and mysterious person from New Orleans who did indeed catch some marvelous images of the budding writer. Everyone called Odiorne 'Cicero,' and he and Faulkner became good friends. Odiorne was homosexual, and, sadly, limped because of a club foot" (William Faulkner and Southern History). He and Faulkner browsed the bookstalls along the Seine together, drank at a sidewalk table outside the Deux Magots, and often stopped near the Place de l'Odéon to catch a glimpse of James Joyce, whom they never dared approach. In a letter home to his mother in Mississippi (3 October 1925, in previous lot), Faulkner writes of Odiorne, "So I am going to England to walk a bit before the bad weather sets in, in November. But when you write, address your letters to Paris, as usual. There is a man here who admires me very much, who kind of looks after me. He will forward them wherever I am." Odiorne did several formal studio portraits of Faulkner and some outdoor portraits. The present photographs are the one which Faulkner kept for himself all his life. One Faulkner scholar has even suggested that the careful ink inscription under each photo ("Odiorne—Paris") is in Faulkner's hand rather than in Cicero's. Blotner describes the studio portrait: "…the portrait was done in deep shadow. Faulkner held a pipe, the strong shapely hand highlighted more than the thin, bearded face. It was a meditative picture, with an aura of dreamy silence in the dusk." The full-length three-quarter profile portrait appears to have been shot near Notre Dame. The image of Faulkner smoking a pipe in his beloved Luxembourg Gardens must surely have been his favorite. Comparing this image to the character of Elmer in Faulkner's abandoned novel of the same name, Blotner remarks, "In another, in the same pepper-and-salt suit and vest, he sat on a bench. It was as if Elmer Hodge had been transfigured into his own idealized image of the man he might become. Light fell on the thin face and ample Vandyck beard, the eyes narrowed, the expression speculative." Shortly after these photographs were taken, Faulkner would return via New York to Oxford, Mississippi. Three key images of the American vie de bohème in 1920's Paris, carefully preserved by William Faulkner.