July 6, 1962 - President Kennedy praised William Faulkner today as one of the “great creators of this age.” Mr. Kennedy’s statement, issued within hours of the novelist’s death, was one of many tributes by authors and public figures the world over. Their general tenor was that America’s lone remaining literary giant was gone. “Since Henry James,” President Kennedy said, “no writer has left behind such a vast and enduring monument to the strength of American literature.” The President described the Mississippi author as “a guiding citizen of our civilization by virtue of his art,” and he predicted that Mr. Faulkner’s works would live long after him.
