Publication of Faulkner Poems Planned

A collection of previously unpublished poems by the late novelist William Faulkner will be published in a limited edition designed for scholars and private collectors, officials said Saturday.

Faulkner wrote about 200 poems before declaring himself a failure in poetry at age 27 and turning to novels.

“Had he not gone on to write his fiction, no one would be interested in Faulkner’s poetry today,” said Gordon B. Neavill, assistant professor at the University of Alabama, where the poems will be published.

The university’s Institute for the Book Arts is preparing a limited edition of the poems recently donated to the University of Mississippi by Leila and Douglas Wynn of Oxford, Miss.

Wynn purchased the manuscripts from a friend of Faulkner’s in 1967 and kept them in an office safe as a gift for his wife on her 50th birthday last year. The copies will be sold for about $300 each.