Rowan Oak

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Rowan Oak is William Faulkner's former home in Oxford, Mississippi. It is a primitive Greek Revival house built in the 1840s by Jacob Thompson. Faulkner purchased the house when it was in disrepair in the 1930s and did much of the renovations himself. Other renovations were done in the 1950s. The house sits on almost 30 acres of largely wooded property known as Bailey's Woods. One of its more famous features is the outline of Faulkner's

Pulitzer-prize winning novel A Fable, pencilled in graphite and red on the plaster wall of his study. Though the "rowan oak" is a mythical tree, the grounds and surrounding woods of Rowan Oak contain hundreds of species of native Mississippi plants, most of which date back to antebellum times. The allee of cedars that lines the driveway was common in the 1800s. The studs of the house are 4"x4" square cypress; they were hand-hewn, probably by slaves. Faulkner drew much inspiration for his treatment of multi-layered Time from Rowan Oak, where past and future seemed to inhabit the present.

In 1972, his daughter, Jill Faulkner Summers, sold the house to the University of Mississippi. The University maintains the home in order to promote Faulkner's literary heritage. Tours are available. The home has been visited by such writers as John Updike, Czeslaw Milosz, Charles Simic, Richard Ford, James Lee Burke, Bei Dao, Charles Wright, Charles Frazier, Alice Walker, the Coen Brothers, Bobbie Ann Mason, and many others. Writer Mark Richard once repaired a faulty doorknob on the French door to Faulkner's study.

Rowan Oak is a National Historic Landmark and subject to the laws that govern them. After its most recent renovations, some of which were funded by John Grisham, Rowan Oak was rededicated on May 1, 2005. Speakers included author John Grisham, Chancellor of the University of Mississippi Dr. Robert Khayat, current Governor of Mississippi Haley Barbour, US Representative Roger Wicker, and actor John Maxwell.