‘Mississippi Pilgrims’ Back at Home After Finding Compson’s Plaque

By Alyssa Schnugg
News Editor
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

The “Mississippi Pilgrims,” a group traveling to Boston to seek out the plaque memorializing Quentin Compson, a character in several of William Faulkner’s works are now back at home.

Quentin Compson III is a character featured in two of the Pulitzer-winning author’s novels – “The Sound and the Fury” and “Absalom, Absalom!”

Set in the early 1900s, Compson was sent to Harvard to help restore his family’s reputation, where he finds himself alienated as one of the only Southerner’s at the school. Living with the sins of the South and his family members, he is driven to end his life by tying flat irons around his ankles and jumping off the Anderson Memorial Bridge (known then as the Great Bridge) into the Charles River.

The 20 or so Faulkner enthusiasts met in Boston over the weekend. After some sight-seeing, the group met for dinner and read personal essays about their views on Quentin and Faulkner.

On Sunday, the group found the plaque on the Anderson Memorial Bridge.

Three “pilgrims,” Sen. Hob Byran, Judge Mike Mills and Professor Charles Wilson rode the train from Alabama to Atlanta through Virginia to NYC and then to Boston, following the path Compson took to Harvard from Mississippi. Others joined along the trip while the remaining joined them in Boston.

The following photographs were sent to Hottytoddy.com throughout the trip and posted on Facebook to allow others to join in on their journey.