William Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury. New York: The Modern Library, 1946.
William Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury. New York: Signet Classics, 1959.
When the novel was reprinted in 1946 after having been out of print for several years, Faulkner wrote an "Appendix/Compson, 1699 - 1945." It was published that year in The Portable Faulkner edited by Malcolm Cowley. Faulkner wrote Cowley, "I should have done this when I wrote the book . . . Then the whole thing would have fallen into pattern like a jigsaw puzzle when the magician's wand touched it." Cowley placed the "Appendix" as the last item in the collection.
Later that year when Random House was preparing this reprint, Faulkner recommended that it be placed before the novel. He said in a letter, "When you read it, you will see how it is the key to the whole book, and after reading it the 4 sections as they stand now fall into clarity and place."
William Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury. New, corrected edition. New York: Random House, 1984.
William Faulkner.The Sound and the Fury. New York: Vintage Books,1987.
The text for The Sound and the Fury was not altered until this publication of 1984. At that time, scholar Noel Polk prepared a new edition based on a comparison of the 1929 Cape & Smith first edition with Faulkner's original holograph manuscript and a carbon typescript, both manuscripts part of the Faulkner Collection at the University of Virginia. Polk states that there are numerous differences between the three versions, but that neither the setting copy nor any set of galleys has been preserved. He, therefore, chose the carbon typescript for this basic text, referring to the others for clarification. These tables present a sampling of the more significant variations.