Homer Bookwright (spelled without the "w" in "By the People") is a farmer and church member in Frenchman's Bend and a minor figure in four Yoknapatawpha texts. He does, however, have a memorable line in The Mansion, when he explains the jailor's wife's interest in Montgomery Ward Snopes' career as a pornographer by asking, rhetorically, "aint she human too, even if she is a woman?" (70).
There are both Bookwrights and Bookrights in Frenchman's Bend in various texts. Herman Bookwright appears in The Hamlet as one of Eula's fervent suitors, and one of the two young men from the Bend who leave the area "suddenly overnight" once it is discovered that she is pregnant - though Ratliff believes that both these young men were "just wishing they had" (140).
In "Raid" and again in The Unvanquished, Captain Bowen is in charge of the Union cavalry troop which Rosa, Bayard, and Ringo encounter on their way back home. Although he himself doesn't appear, one of his lieutenants says that the Captain mounted them with captured stock.
Like her husband, Mrs. Houston is mentioned in all three novels in the Snopes trilogy. Her story is essentially the same: within a year of their marriage, she is killed by his horse, a dangerous stallion. But her maiden name changes, from Lucy Pate (in The Hamlet) to Letty Bookright (in The Town), as does the brief biography provided in those first two volumes, and as do the details of her death. She comes into focus most vividly in The Hamlet. Her essential role in the trilogy is to be the reason why Houston is a widower.
We can say for sure that this character lives in or near the Frenchman's Bend part of Yoknapatawpha, but otherwise our composite Bookwright|Bookright is based on interpretation. In The Town Cal Bookright is the father of the woman Zack Houston marries. In The Mansion Calvin Bookwright is a moonshiner: according to Hoke McCarron, the "stuff [he] used to make" tasted "jest like" Bushmill's, a well-known brand of Irish whiskey (190). In The Reivers "Uncle Cal Bookwright" makes moonshine whiskey that can be bought at Mack Winbush's for two dollars a gallon (12).
In The Hamlet Mrs. Freeman watches as Eck and Wall Street try to catch their horse. Eck and the boy try to stop the horse by tripping it. "She said that when it hit that rope, it looked just like one of these here great big Christmas pinwheels" (365).
Freeman appears in both "Spotted Horses" and The Hamlet in connection with the auction of the ponies in Frenchman's Bend - though no first name is given in either text, and while he has a wife in The Hamlet, no other details about him are provided. In the novel Freeman ends up buying and losing one of the horses; in "Spotted Horses" he only appears driving his wagon past Varner's store several days after the auction, as Mrs Armstid is trying to get the money her husband spent back from Flem.
In Light in August it is this cousin of Nathaniel Burden who finds a bride in New Hampshire for him. Since the other New England relatives of the Burdens are named Burrington, we presume that's also this cousin's last name.
In Light in August Joanna Burden's mother is Nathaniel Burden's second wife, but compared to all Joanna tells Joe Christmas about Juana, Burden's first wife after after whom she is named, Joanna says very little about her own mother, not even her name. All we know about her is that she moves to Jefferson from New Hampshire after Nathaniel writes his cousin there that he is seeking a wife who is "a good housekeeper and . . . at least thirtyfive years old" (250).
Juana is the Hispanic wife of Nathaniel Burden and the mother of Calvin Burden II in Light in August. Born in Mexico, she waits a dozen years to get married and legitimize her child. In 1866 she comes to Jefferson with her husband and father-in-law. She dies not long after her son is killed by Colonel Sartoris, though in the account of her family that Joanna - who is named after her - gives Joe Christmas, she does not mention the cause of Juana's death.
