The quote chosen by Prince Harry for the start of his new memoir was originally written by an American author who seemingly defended Jim Crow laws.
Wayward royal Prince Harry’s memoir Spare raised eyebrows upon its publication on Tuesday, with it soon being discovered that the book opens with a quote that can be originally written by a man who allegedly rejected the legal repeal of Jim Crow laws and the forced end of segregation in the American South.
The quote “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” originated in Requiem for a Nun, penned by Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner, a 20th-century Mississippian who frequently wrote about the everyday struggles of Southern Americans.
Although a highly celebrated artist for his variety of novels and short stories, Faulkner also seemingly expressed support for the enslavement of blacks during his life, once saying that “Negroes would be better off [enslaved] because they’d have some one to look after them (sic)”.
According to the New Yorker, the prize-winning writer also was at times a defender of segregation, with the publication even reporting him as having allegedly vowed to defend the institution even if it meant “going out into the street and shooting Negroes”.
Faulkner is later said to have distanced himself from the statement. In an apparent reference to his heavy drinking habit, he said that it was something that “no sober man” would say, expressing merely a desire for desegregation to “go slow“, and not be imposed on the American South by force of law.
Many have also defended Faulkner as an artist willing to examine the humanity of both blacks and whites within his work, despite whatever politics he may have held during his lifetime.
American writer William Faulkner (William Falkner) smoking the pipe beside an archaeological site. Rome, September 1955. (Photo by Mondadori via Getty Images)
However, it does not seem clear whether or not Prince Harry — a highly progressive individual who has frequently levelled accusations of racism at critics of his mixed-race wife, Meghan — knew about Faulkner’s politics or his works when picking out the line to start his own memoir with.
In fact, according to the UK royal’s own writing in the newly published book, he did not have any idea who the man was he first read the line on an online website specialising in pithy phrases.
“When I discovered the quotation not long ago on BrainyQuote.com, I was thunderstruck,” he wrote in the opening pages of the memoir. “I thought ‘Who the fook is Faulkner? And how’s he related to us Windsors?'”
Whether or not Harry was aware of Faulkner’s politics before deciding to open his book with a quote from him, it seems clear that many in Britain and beyond will soon be a little bit more acquainted with the Southern writer thanks to the memoir.
However, the exact number of people who will actually read the book remains to be seen, with The Telegraph reporting that hype around the release of the memoir appears so far to be muted.
Although currently sitting at number one on Amazon’s bestsellers list, turnout for the midnight release of the book in London was rather muted, with the crowds of people expected to gather for the release of the memoir failing to ever appear.
Instead, only a small number of people showed up outside WH Smith in Victoria station when it opened to allow people to buy the new release.
The Telegraph speculated that the lacklustre interest from the general public so far could be due to the fact that many of the memoir’s revelations have already seemingly been leaked to the general public over the last number of weeks.