Oxford, MS Summary

Situated in the northwest of the state, among the gentle rolling foothills of the Holly Springs National Forest, is the graceful town of Oxford. The life of the town is focused around its town square, the location of the handsome Lafayette County Courthouse.

Although the scene of much devastation during the Civil War, Oxford’s tree-lined streets, white clapboard homes with wraparound porches, and grand antebellum estates today present a picture of tranquility. With a population of 9,984, Oxford is also home to “Ole Miss” (the University of Mississippi) and author John Grisham, who currently lives in a colorful farmhouse west of town. For some 32 years it was the base of writer and Pulitzer and Nobel prizewinner William Faulkner.

Oxford shaped the imagination of Faulkner, providing the basis for his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, and its idiosyncrasies and decadence were captured in works such as \”Sanctuary,\” \”Light in August,\” and \”A Green Bough.\” Faulkner purchased Rowan Oak, his rambling 1840 estate, in 1930. Surrounded by lofty trees at the end of a long pathway off Old Taylor Road, it has changed little since Faulkner’s death in 1962. Visitors can see the writer’s unassuming office with his typewriter in it, and, on the wall, the outline of his prize-winning novel, A Fable.

Faulkner’s grave is in the local cemetery, not far away on Jefferson Avenue. Regular book readings at the revered Square Books, a mecca for literary disciples, together with the celebrated Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, and the Oxford Conference for the Book, draw many visitors.

The University of Mississippi is an attraction in itself. The 1848 Lyceum, built four years after the founding of the university, is one campus building that remained after the Union invasion. Other surviving antebellum structures include the Barnard Observatory, housing the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, and the 1853 Old Chapel. “Ole Miss” also oversees the most extensive collection of blues heritage artifacts, records, and photographs in the Mississippi Blues Archive. The personal papers of William Faulkner and James Meredith, both former alumni, are on exhibition at the John D. Williams Library. James Meredith’s enrollment in 1962 ignited local hostility over black integration, resulting in a riot in which two people died.

Oxford is serviced by bus along Hwy 9 and chartered flights to University-Oxford Airport.