William Faulkner (1897–1962), one of the most prominent American prose writers of the 20th century, was born in New Albany (Mississippi) into a family of descendants of planters ruined after the victory of the North in the Civil War. Subsequently, the writer spent most of his life in the city of Oxford (in the same state). In his numerous novels and books of short stories, he develops a distinctive theme of the American South, from the slave and post-reform years to modern times. Faulkner's penchant for formal experimentation has long limited his popularity. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1950. The story “The Old Man” (in English “Old Man” - “Old Man”; this is the name of the Mississippi River in American folklore) was published in 1939 in the book “Wild Palms”. Being a completely independent work, it was published “cross” with “Wild Palms,” a story of approximately the same length (a chapter from one story is followed by a chapter from another, and so on until the end). The degree of connection between the two stories is a subject of debate among American experts on Faulkner’s work. According to the author’s original plan, the title of the book is “If I do not forget you, O Jerusalem!” (verse from the biblical Psalter, 136, 5). Published in Russian for the first time.