The Golden Book of
Yoknapatawpha County

Only brother of Caroline Compson and last male descendent of the Bascomb family. A handsome flashing swaggering workless bachelor. Had a temper. May have had an affair with Mrs. Patterson. Lived with his sister, being financially dependent on her family. Borrowed money from almost anyone, even Dilsey Gibson although she was a Negro, explaining to her as he withdrew his hand from his pocket that she was not only in his eyes the same as a member of his sister’s family, she would be considered a born lady anywhere in any eyes. Later moved away but still regularly sent letters with requests for money in the form of ‘business propositions’, addressed to his cousin Jason Compson IV, which his sister usually granted.

Damuddy. Died 1898–1900. Mother of Caroline Compson.

Born c 1907. Son of Mr and Miss Beard. Unknowingly (under dictation, in return for candy and an air rifle), writer of Byron Snopes’s anonymous letters to Narcissa Benbow in 1919.

Father of Virgil Beard. Owner of a hotel and a mill in Jefferson in 1919.

Born 1890–91. Originally from Kentucky. Married Henry Mitchell c 1910, mother with him of Belle Mitchell (II). Separated from Henry Mitchell in 1919 to marry Horace Benbow, with whom she had already been in an affair since 1917, and with whom and with her daughter she moved to Kinston, a place she had chosen for its land (the black, rich, foul, unchaste soil which seemed to engender money out of the very embrace if the air which lay flat upon it). During her first marriage a frequent host of social gatherings, introducing tea as a meal between dinner and supper to Jefferson. Piano player. Preferred shrimp above all other food, which she had Horace pick up from Kinston’s railway station each Friday.

Drove the Benbow carriage until he fled Jefferson with Federate troops in 1863. Returned in 1865 and was appointed Acting Marshal of Jefferson. Was to be confirmed in his post through election that year, but a group of men led by John Sartoris (I) hijacked the process by shooting dead the Burden Brothers, who had brought black men to the voting booth and by relocating the booth to the Sartoris Place, thus ensuring that his election was rejected.

Father of Will Benbow? Came from Barbados to Jefferson in 1871.

Born 1885–6. Son of Will and Julia Benbow, brother of Narcissa Benbow, for whom his feelings were more like those of a lover. Lawyer. Avid reader. Educated at Sewanee (where he was an honour man in his class) and Oxford, England (as a Rhodes Scholar, where he became a good tennis player). In Europe between December 1917 and April 1919 as part of the YMCA. Learned the art of glass blowing in Venice which he continued to practice after returning home. Married Belle Mitchell in early 1920, with whom he had already maintained an affair since 1917, and with whom and whose daughter he moved to Kinston, first into a rented house, then 1922 into a bungalow he built for them. Also briefly in an affair with Belle’s sister Joan Heppleton in December 1919. Mortgaged his Kinston house so that he could keep the family home in Jefferson and his sister would not need to rent it out.

Temporarily left Belle sometime in 1924–25, then stayed with her until he again decided to quit her on 3 May 1929, because he felt the dripping of the package of shrimps (whose smell even after ten years he couldn’t stand) he collected from the station for Belle every Friday summed up his existence. On his way to his sister, forced to spend the evening of 7 May at the Old Frenchman Place, following a chance encounter with Popeye. After Popeye’s murder of Tommy and rape of Temple Drake, and against the express wish of his sister, provided a measure of accomodation for Ruby Goodwin and her infant son and unsuccessfully acted as defence attorney for her common law husband Lee Goodwin, who on 21 June was convicted for Popeye’s crimes and subsequently lynched. Thereafter returned to Kinston and his wife Belle.

Died c 1904. Father of Percy. Executor of Goodhue Coldfield’s estate. After he died in 1864 and left neither will nor estate except the house and the rifled shell of the store, appointed himself, elected himself probably out of some conclave of neighbors who came together to discuss his daughter Rosa Coldfield’s affairs and what to to with her, in particular after she broke off her engagement to Thomas Sutpen in June 1866 and returned to live in her family home, destitute. Since she would not accept the actual money from the sale of the store, provided her with baskets of food and unlimited credit, representing the money’s value (and after a few years, over-value) ,that she would draw upon in a dozen ways, including errants, store credit and a two hundred dollar headstone for Judith Sutpen.

In his office, he had a portfolio, a fat one, with Estate of Goodhue Coldfield. Private written accross it in indelible., which when his son Percy opened it after his death, was filled with racing forms and cancelled betting tickets on horses whose very bones were no man knew where now, which had won and lost races on the Memphis track forty years ago, and a ledger, a careful tabulation in his hand, each entry indicating the date and the horse’s name and his wager and whether he won or lost; and another one showing how for forty years he had put each winnning and an amount equal to each loss, to that mythical account.

In 1870, helped arrange John (I) Sartoris’s buyout of Ben J Redmond in the Jefferson railway under construction at the time.

Died 1899–1901. Wife of Will Benbow, mother of Horace and Narcissa Benbow. An invalid at least towards the end of her life.

Son of Judge Benbow.

Died 1908–11. Husband of Julia Benbow, father of Horace and Narcissa Benbow, son of Francis Benbow? Lawyer. Educated at Sewanee. Died two days after the return of Horace Benbow from Oxford (England).

One of Reba Rivers’s two dogs (the one with the blue ribbon), which she acquired the day after her husband Binford Rivers died in 1927.

Member of Simon Strother’s (baptist) congregation.

Born Kentucky. At Harvard with Quentin Compson (III) in 1910. Somewhat spoiled, liked to brag about and to girls. Present during the car trip near Cambridge on the day Quentin Compson (III) committed suicide.

Overbearing mother of Gerald Bland. From Kentucky. Present during the car trip near Cambridge on the day Quentin Compson (III) committed suicide.

Born November or December 1831, Haiti, died 3 May 1865, Sutpen’s Hundred. Only child of Thomas and Eulalia Sutpen, father of Charles (II) Bon. His father repudiated him and his mother upon finding out at his birth that they had negro blood. Nonetheless named by his father, including his last name, which was not that of his mother.

Moved to New Orleans with his mother. Spent large chunks of his mother’s fortune on his horses and clothes and the champagne and gambling and women. Had more watches and cuff buttons and finer linen and horses and yellow-wheeled buggies (not to mention the gals) than most others did. Married an octoroon woman with whom in 1859 he had a son, Charles (II).

In September of that year, started reading law at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where he met his half-brother Henry Sutpen, who, unaware of their being related, invited him to Sutpen’s Hundred over Christmas and introduced him to their sister Judith Sutpen. Over the course of the following year, 1860, entered into an undefined and never-spoken second engagement with Judith, engineered by her mother Ellen. Refused to explicitly make a proposal of marriage not because he suspected Judith was his half-sister, but because he was more interested in receiving a sign — any sign — by his father that he recognised him. He again visited Sutpen’s Hundred in June, at which time his father had traveled to New Orleans to confirm his identity. The following Christmas eve, his father revealed his identity to Henry, who at first refused to believe and repudiated his birth-right.

Thereupon he followed Henry to New Orleans, riding through the bright cold of that Christmas day to the River, from where they took the steamboat. There would be Christmas on the boat too: the same holly and mistletoe, the same eggnog and toddy; perhaps, doubtless, a Christmas supper and a ball, but not for them: the two of them in the dark and the cold standing at the guard rail above the dark water and still not talking since there was nothing to say. In New Orleans, explained to Henry that he would only break off the engagement if his father would confront himself.

Hoping that the war would resolve the matter by killing either of them, in the spring of 1861 they returned north, into Mississippi and secretely enrolled as privates in the University Grays Company of the 11th Mississippi Infantry, hiding until they could join the company after its departure in June. Received a lieutenancy before the company entered its first engagement even. In April 1862, either he or Henry was shot through the shoulder during the battle of Shiloh at Pittsburg Landing, carried to safety by the other on his shoulders, and recovered in a private house in Corinth.

During those four years, suspended his decision and did not contact Judith. Then finally, in March 1865, while retreating through Carolina, crossed paths with Thomas Sutpen and believed to see recognition in his gaze, and wrote a letter to Judith. Initially met acquiescence with Henry, then renewed refusal after Henry was told by his father that he was of mixed race descent. Henry still refused to stop him with force, until finally on 3 May 1865, Henry shot him dead at the gates of Sutpen’s Hundred upon their return from the war.

After his body was brought into the house, Judith took from his pocket the metal case she had given him with her picture in it, which he may have swapped for the picture of his octoroon wife to convey I was no good; do not grieve for me. Second person to be buried in the graveyard of Sutpen’s Hundred. Judith Sutpen bought a headstone for his grave in 1870 with the proceeds of the sale of their father’s store after his death.

Wanted his father to recognise him, for him to say You are my oldest son. Protect your sister; never see either of us again.

Born 1859, New Orleans, died 1884, Sutpen’s Hundred. Only child of Charles Bon and Mrs Bon.

In December 1871, upon the disappearance of his mother, was brought to Sutpen’s Hundred by his half-aunt Clytemnestra Sutpen. In 1879 was indicted by Jim Hamblett for badly injuring a man at a negro ball held in a cabin a few miles from Sutpen’s Hundred. The case was quashed by Jason Lycurgus Compson (II), who paid his fine and gave him money to move away to be whatever he wanted among strangers. Married a full-blood negress, name unknown, 1879. Spent the following year on his back recovering from the last mauling he had received, in frowsy stinking rooms broken by other periods, intervals, of furious and incomprehensible and apparently reasonless moving apparently hunting out situations in order to flaunt and fling the ape-like body of his charcoal companion in the faces of all and any who would retaliate giving the first blow, usually unarmed and heedless of the numbers opposed to him.

In 1880 returned to Sutpen’s Hundred, so severely beaten and mauled that he could not even hold himself on the spavined and saddleless mule on which he rode while his wife walked besides it to keep him from falling off. Rented a parcel of land off of Judith Sutpen and rebuilt a dilapidated slave cabin. Farmed on shares a portion of the Sutpen plantation, farmed it pretty well, with solitary and steady husbandry within his physical limitations, the body and limbs which still looked too light for the task which he had set himself, who lived like a hermit in the cabin, who consorted with neither white nor black and who was not seen in Jefferson but three times during the next four years and then to appear, be reported by the negroes as being either blind or violently drunk in the negro store district on Depot Street, where Jason (II) Lycurgus Compson would come and take him away (or if he were too drunk, had become violent, the town officers). In 1881, their son Jim Bond was born.

Contracted yellow fever around January 1884. Nursed by Judith Sutpen in the main building of Sutpen’s Hundred until she also fell ill. Survived her but died later that year. Fifth person to be buried in the graveyard of Sutpen’s Hundred. His headstone had already been arranged for by Judith when he was brought from New Orleans by Clytemnestra, and during the twelve years after his death, Clytemnestra scrimped and saved the money to pay off the remaining debt to Jason (II) Lycurgus Compson.

Born 1882, Sutpen’s Hundred. Son of Charles (II) Etienne de Saint Valery Bon. Mentally handicapped? Inherited what he was from his mother and only what he could never have been from his father. Disappeared from Sutpen’s Hundred, 1910. Whereabouts unknown.

Octoroon from New Orleans whose name is not recorded. Wife of Charles (I) Bon and mother of Charles (II) Etienne Saint-Valery Bon. Was left destitute after the Bon family lawyer fled with the remaining wealth in 1861 or early 1862. Disappeared in 1871 through death or elopement or marriage, leaving behind her son.

Vicious member of the band of bandits known as Grumby’s independents. When Grumby panicked and killed Rosa Millard in December 1864, he failed to convince him to also kill Bayard Sartoris (I) and Marengo Strother to cover the first mistake. Between mid December 1864 and late February 1865, the group was chased by Sartoris, Strother and Theophilus McCaslin. In late January or early February, Bowden approached them posing as a Tennessee slave owner, looking to reclaim his horses that Grumby’s independents hat supposedly stolen, found out that they were after Ab Snopes and Grumby in particular and shot McCaslin in his right, rheumatic, arm. The next day the group left behind Snopes to try to pacify them, but only McCaslin, suffering from his arm, abandoned the pursuit. Some days later, Grumby killed an old black man and strung him up with a ‘final’ warning note for Sartoris and Strother, with an addendum from Bowden that he had no compunctions in killing children. In late February, Bowden, Bridger and other members of the group betrayed Grumby, handing him over to Sartoris and Strother with a pistol to settle the matter, Bowden in particular blaming Grumby for ruining the ‘good thing’ they had going, by panicking and then succumbing to scruples. He announced that he and the group would go to Texas.

Captain in the Federate cavalry in 1863.

Well known authority on blood and glandular disease in Memphis that Bayard Sartoris (II) (accompanied by and on the insistence of Virginia du Pre and Dr Alford) consulted on 9 July 1919 about a growth on his cheek. Made it come off merely by touching it, without even realising that he and not Virginia du Pre was the patient, and for which he charged fifty dollar.

Died c 7 April 1862. Was to marry Drusilla Hawk, gifted her her horse Bobolink, but fell in the battle of Shiloh.

Born 1922–4. Raised on an Arkansas farm. Present at Red’s funeral, while staying a couple of days with Miss Myrtle.

Born c 1875, died July 1927. First wife of Anse Bundren, mother of Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell and Vardaman Bundren. Originally a teacher, married Anse Bundren c 1897. After giving birth to Cash and Darl, started an affair with Mr Whitfield c 1908, out of which Jewel was born. Said by Cora Tull to have been partial to him, whom she laboured so to bear, and whom she coddled and petted so despite him flinging into tantrums or sulking spells, inventing devilment to devil her.

Used to bake very good cakes.

Again according to Cora Tull, she lived, a lonely woman, lonely with her pride, trying to make folks believe different, hiding the fact that they just suffered her.

Upon her death, Anse Bundren delivered on his promise to bury her in Jefferson, according to her wish to lie among her own people, by undertaking a calamitous journey in which her coffin was twice nearly lost to flood and fire and which resulted in severe injuries to Cash and Jewel and the confinement of Darl in Jackson’s mental asylum, and which was used by Anse to procure a set of false teeth and arrange a second marriage to Mrs Bundren.

Born c 1875. Husband of Addie Bundren and Mrs Bundren, father of Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell and Vardaman Bundren. A luckless man. The chosen of the Lord, for who He loveth, so doeth He chastiseth. His feet were badly splayed, his toes cramped and bent and warped, with no toenail at all on his little toes, from working so hard in the wet in home-made shoes when he was a boy. He was sick once from working in the sun when he was twenty-two years old. Thereafter told people that if he ever sweat he would die. Married Addie Bundren c 1897. By 1912 had lost all his teeth. Did not visit Jefferson between 1915 and June 1927, when he vowed to deliver on his promise to his deceased wife to bury her with her relatives. The journey was complicated by flooding and resulted in the death of their mules, the sale of Jewel Bundren’s horse to buy replacements, the fracture of Cash Bundren’s leg, its subsequent near-destruction by a cement cast, the destruction by fire of Mr Gillespie’s barn, severe burns to Jewel’s back and the forced admission of Darl Bundren to the Jackson mental asylum to avoid a claim by Mr Gillespie. After burying Addie Bundren, Anse procured a set of false teeth, allowing him to once again eat God’s own victuals as a man should, and arranged a second marriage to Mrs Bundren.

Born c 1900. Eldest child of Anse and Addie Bundren, brother of Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell and Vardaman Bundren. A good carpenter. Liked sawing the long hot sad yellow days up into planks and nailing them to something. In the summer of 1926, broke his leg falling twenty-eight foot, four and a half inches, about, off of a church roof after slipping on wet planks. Was unable to work for six months and still limping in June 1927, when he worked for days on end to construct a coffin for his dying mother. Broke his leg a second time after his father resolved to bury his mother in Jefferson and their wagon was hit by a log in an attempt to ford the Yoknapatawpha near Tull’s Bridge, which had flooded. Was carried to Whitfield’s, where the horse physician Bill Varner set his leg. In Mottson, his father procured cement and cast his leg with it, nearly resulting in its complete destruction. The cast was removed by Dr Lucius (I) Peabody in Jefferson, taking with it sixty-odd square inches of skin.

Born c 1900. Second child of Anse and Addie Bundren, brother of Cash, Jewel, Dewey Dell and Vardaman Bundren. According to Cora Tull, the only one of his brothers that had his mother’s nature, had any natural affection. As a boy, first learned how much better water tastes when it has set a while in a cedar bucket. Used to lie on the pallet in the hall, waiting until he could hear the others all asleep, so he could get up and go back to the bucket, where before he stirred it awake with the dipper he could see maybe a star or two in the bucket, and maybe in the dipper a star or two before he drank.

Fought in France, from which he brought back a little spy-glass.

Said by folks to have been queer, lazy, pottering about the place.

In July 1927, set fire to the shed at Gillespie’s in a failed attempt to destroy the coffin holding the rotting corpse of his mother, stored there for the night en route to her burial in Jefferson. Sent to the mental asylum in Jackson by his father to avoid a claim by Mr Gillespie.

Born 1910. Second youngest child and only daughter of Anse and Addie Bundren, sister of Cash, Darl, Jewel and Vardaman Bundren. Tomboy. Seduced by Lafe while both were cotton-picking. Became pregnant in May 1927. Given 10 dollar by Lafe and instructed to procure an abortifacient in a drugstore, which she attempted in July 1927 during her family’s inauspicious trek to Jefferson to burry her mother, failing in Mottson where she was refused by Mr Moseley, and failing again in Jefferson where she was taken sexual advantage of by Skeet MacGowan.

Born c 1908. Illegitimate son of Addie Bundren and Mr Whitfield, raised as the third child of Addie and Anse Bundren. Half-brother of Cash, Darl, Dewey Dell and Vardaman Bundren. A head taller than any of the rest of his family. According to Cora Tull, his mother always whipped him and petted him more than his brothers, while he flung into tantrums or sulking spells, inventing devilment to devil his mother, and he grew up to be a Bundren through and through, loving nobody, caring for nothing except how to get something with the least amount of work, always doing something that made him some money or got him talked about.

When he was fifteen, spent all of June to November single-handedly cleaning up forty acres of land for Lon (I) Quick, working at night by lantern and suffering from narcolepsy by day, which led to a dereliction of his domestic duties and aroused suspicion of illness in his mother, lazyness in his father and an affair with a married woman in his elder brothers. Used his earnings to buy a spotted horse off of Lon (I) Quick descendant of Flem Snopes’s Texas ponies.

Inseparable from his horse.

Chose to personally deliver his horse to Mr Snopes, rather than elope with it to Texas, after his father had sold it in exchange for a new team of mules to transport Addie Bundren’s coffin to Jefferson in July 1927. Suffered severe burns to his back to save the coffin when his brother Darl set fire to Mr Gillespie’s barn in an attempt to destroy it.

Second wife of Anse Bundren. A kind of duck-shaped woman , with them kind of hard-looking pop eyes. Lived in a little new house in Jefferson until 1927, when Anse Bundren arrived in town to burry his first wife Addie Bundren, procure a set of false teeth and ask her to marry him instead.

Born c 1915. Youngest child of Anse and Addie Bundren, brother of Cash, Darl, Jewel and Dewey Dell Bundren. His mother was a fish.

Died 1865. From Missouri, tried to bring black people to the voting booth in Jefferson in 1865 to elect Cassius Q Benbow as Marshall, but shot dead by John Sartoris (I).

Knocked Maury Compson out with a fence picket after he had touched his daughter outside the Compson gate.