The Ghost of Rowan Oak

This unassuming magnolia tree and balcony at Rowan Oak, William Faulkner's Oxford home, are the site of the house's only ghost story, "because the house needed a ghost." According to William "Bill" Griffith, curator of Rowan Oak, the story was made up to deter his stepchildren from asking him to restore the antebellum gardens on the property. "There were only two things Faulkner couldn't say no to, bourbon and children," said Griffith.