In 1951 Faulkner completed the three act play, Requiem for a Nun, continuing the saga of Temple Drake. The tale begins with the socially redeemed Temple being blackmailed by the brother of her former gangster lover. A torrid love affair begins between the two and she makes preparations to take her newborn son and abandon her husband. Nancy Manningoe, Temple's black housekeeper, kills the baby to save him from a life of sin. She is tried and sentenced to death. Temple tries unsuccessfully to save Nancy and in the process her secret is revealed to her husband.

Faulkner wrote Requiem in the hope that his good friend, actress Ruth Ford, would play the lead. The author permitted Ford to re-work several scenes to make publication feasible as a stage production. The published acting version appeared in 1959, but the first stage production of the work occurred in London in 1957. The European reviews were much kinder than those in New York, but the play did well nevertheless. Featured in the exhibition is a signed photograph of Ford as Temple Drake.

Fox purchased the rights to Sanctuary from Paramount and Faulkner with the idea of combining Sanctuary and Requiem for a Nun. Work began on the screenplay in 1961, but attempts to gain assistance from Faulkner failed, as he wanted nothing more to do with the film industry by that point. In the end, the screenwriters completely transformed several key scenes, and the film received only halfhearted reviews from critics.   [go to page 3 >>]