As I Lay Dying was published by Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, New York, on 6 October 1930, in a first printing of approximately 2,522 copies priced at $2.50. Faulkner famously claimed to have written the novel in six weeks while working the night shift at the University of Mississippi power plant, from midnight to four a.m., using a wheelbarrow turned upside down as a desk. Whether this is precisely true (Faulkner mythologised his own composition processes), the manuscript evidence does suggest extraordinarily rapid composition — from late October to mid-December 1929. The typescript shows remarkably few revisions.
The Novel
As I Lay Dying is narrated in fifty-nine interior monologues by fifteen characters — the largest being Darl Bundren with nineteen sections, and the shortest being several characters with only one. The Bundren family is transporting the body of Addie Bundren to Jefferson, Mississippi, where she wished to be buried. The journey — which should take a day — takes nine, during which the body decomposes, the family crosses a flooded river (losing their mules and nearly their lives), the barn where the coffin is stored is set on fire, and various family members pursue their own concealed purposes: Dewey Dell seeks an abortion, Anse wants new teeth, and Vardaman — the youngest, whose famous one-sentence chapter reads “My mother is a fish” — struggles to comprehend death.
The novel is simultaneously a black comedy, a Greek tragedy, an experiment in polyphonic narration, and one of the most precise portraits of rural poverty in American literature. Each narrator’s voice is distinct — from Darl’s lyrical, philosophically dense consciousness to Vardaman’s fractured child-logic to Cash’s methodical, carpenter’s practicality. The formal achievement is staggering: Faulkner manages fifteen distinct voices, each with its own syntax, vocabulary, and mode of perception, without ever losing narrative momentum.
The central consciousness is Darl — the most articulate, most perceptive, and ultimately most damaged of the Bundren children. Darl can see what others cannot: he knows about Dewey Dell’s pregnancy, he intuits Jewel’s illegitimacy, and his awareness of the absurdity of the journey eventually drives him to set fire to the barn. His reward is commitment to the Jackson asylum — a betrayal engineered by his own family.
Critical Reception and Legacy
The novel received respectful but somewhat bewildered reviews in 1930. Critics recognised the power of the writing but struggled with the multiple-narrator structure. It sold modestly in its original printing. By the time Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in 1950, As I Lay Dying was recognised as one of his supreme achievements — more accessible than The Sound and the Fury, more controlled than Absalom, Absalom!, and more darkly funny than either.
The novel’s influence on subsequent fiction has been enormous. Its polyphonic structure influenced Louise Erdrich, Barbara Kingsolver, and Jennifer Egan; its portrayal of rural poverty influenced Larry Brown, Harry Crews, and Daniel Woodrell; its black comedy influenced Flannery O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy.
Collecting As I Lay Dying
First edition (1930, Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith): Approximately 2,522 copies, priced at $2.50. The small print run makes this one of the scarcer major Faulkner titles.
Identification points:
- “First Published, 1930” on the copyright page (no “Second Printing” statement)
- Published by “Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith” (the imprint’s brief existence helps date copies)
- Beige cloth boards
- Top edge stained brown
- Price of $2.50 on the front dust-jacket flap
First edition, first printing:
- Fine/Fine in dust jacket: $40,000–$100,000
- Near Fine in jacket: $20,000–$40,000
- Without jacket: $2,000–$5,000
Dust jacket: The first-edition jacket is cream/tan with brown lettering. It is exceptionally rare in any condition — the combination of the small print run, the Depression-era publication, and the fragile paper stock means that jacketed copies are genuinely scarce. Only a handful of Fine copies are known.
Signed copies: Faulkner rarely signed books during this period (he was unknown and had no reason to). Signed copies from 1930 are essentially non-existent. Later signatures on first editions are possible but uncommon.
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 2× for jacketed copies. The extremely small supply of fine copies limits turnover — when one appears at auction, it makes news. The market is essentially supply-constrained rather than demand-driven.
Is As I Lay Dying a Good Investment?
The first edition is one of the great American literary rarities. The small first printing, the fragile jacket, and Faulkner’s titanic canonical status create conditions where supply will only decrease while demand (institutional and private) remains steady. Fine jacketed copies are effectively irreplaceable and will continue to appreciate.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long did it take Faulkner to write this novel? Faulkner claimed six weeks. Manuscript evidence suggests roughly seven weeks (late October to mid-December 1929), with minimal revision.
What does the title mean? From Book XI of Homer’s Odyssey: “As I lay dying, the woman with the dog’s eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades.” The line is spoken by Agamemnon, murdered by his wife Clytemnestra.
Is Darl insane? The novel resists this conclusion. Darl is the most perceptive and articulate narrator — his “insanity” is diagnosed by his family because his awareness threatens their self-deceptions. The novel suggests that clear sight is incompatible with survival in the Bundren world.