W.C. Handy
Character Key Number:
3254
Display Name:
W.C. Handy
Sort Name:
Handy, W.C.
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?:
Yes
Biography:
In The Town W.C. Handy, the famous Negro band leader and composer "from Beale Street in Memphis," provides the music for the Cotillion Ball (76). In the larger canon, Handy also provided Faulkner with the title of the short story "That Evening Sun" (1931) - one of Handy's most famous songs is "St. Louis Blues" (1914), which begins "I hate to see that evening sun go down." The novel calls him "Professor Handy" (76); Handy called himself, and has often been called by others, 'the Father of the Blues.'