Reflecting this close student-faculty interaction at UVA, it welcomed Nobel Laureate
William Faulkner to a position as "Writer-in-Residence" in 1957. He had no teaching responsibilities, and was paid merely to live among the students and write. He was badly injured in a horse riding accident in 1959, and did not return to the state before his death in 1962. Faulkner then bequeathed the majority of his papers to Shannon Library, giving UVA the largest Faulkner archives in the world.