“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.”

~William Faulkner

If you have a minute, take the time to watch this short video of the iconic writer William Faulkner’s 1950 Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Not only does he wield the words of the English language with astounding mastery, but he also has one of the most beautiful accents that I have ever heard-an audible embodiment of the Old South, dripping with eloquence and intellect.

William Faulker, one of my favorite writers, was prominent during the 1920s and 30s. Some of his most notable masterpieces include As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, and Light in August. His works are characterized by his intimate exploration of the human spirit, and how all people, even the poor, live rich and introspective inner lives. His sometimes controversial literary work changed American literature, and the way Americans viewed their own minds.

When he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950, Faulkner delivered one of the most famous Nobel lectures of all time. Although he only spoke for about three minutes, he addressed the issues of humanity, fear in the Atomic Age, and the nature of the human spirit. He explicitly addresses his speech to the next generation of men and women who will be entering the world. Not only does he try to convey the inherent truth of the human existence to these young men and women, but he also urges them to seek out their own truths. Thought-provoking, verbose, yet intrinsically truthful, William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech employs rhetorical tools like parallelism, repetition, imagery, and more to impart a meaningful and lasting message.