(FAULKNER, William)
[Broadside]: "To the Voters of Oxford" [The Beer Broadside]
Broadside. One leaf. 8" x 11". Faint creases from once being folded, else fine. In 1944, Faulkner's hometown of Oxford outlawed beer. A few years later a letter from most of the town's clergymen appeared in the Oxford Eagle recommending an additional five-year ban. Faulkner wrote a letter in response, laconically enumerating errors of fact and chastising the clergymen for their position. As recounted in Blotner, when the editor of the Eagle refused to publish it, Faulkner had them print this broadside and he hand-distributed it with the help of his brothers and their children. The local Baptist minister was outraged by the employment of youth for this purpose (though they had observed proprieties by handing it out at the back door of the Baptist Church), while his Methodist counterpart received it in better humor, allowing that "Bill Faulkner would know more about both beer and whiskey than we do." The ban was renewed by a vote of 480-313, and two months later the text of the broadside appeared in The New Yorker. This has long been considered one of the rarest (and shortest) of Faulkner's "A" items.
[BTC #83785]
