Memphis, Tennessee in Absalom, Absalom! (Location)

Founded in 1819, Memphis, Tennessee, is the closest big city to Yoknapatawpha County, and appears more frequently in Faulkner's novels and stories than any other out of Yoknapatawpha location. In Absalom! its first mention is as the "Memphis market" where one could go to "buy livestock or slaves" (31), a locution that recurs in its last mention ("trips to Memphis . . . to buy live stock or slaves," 268). It is also where Ellen takes Judith to buy her bridal trousseau (55), and where Judge Benbow goes to bet on horse races (172). We also use it, generically, to locate the "city honky-tonks" that are mentioned as part of the account of Charles Etienne Saint-Valery Bon and his wife (167). And Rosa Coldfield tells Quentin she "heard" that Wash Jones' daughter "died in a Memphis brothel" (139).