Intruder in the Dust, Faulkner's fourteenth novel, was published in September, 1948, twenty-two years after the publication of his first (Soldiers' Pay).  Six years fell between the publication of Intruder and the previous novel, Go Down, Moses—by far the longest interval between books in Faulkner's entire career—mainly because he was also hard at work on A Fable (published in 1954) and doing film work through economic necessity.  Though Intruder was well received when it appeared, it was not regarded as one of Faulkner's major works; but in recent years there has been a growing sense of its value and importance, both as a novel and as an indication of a new explicitness in the author's treatment of public questions.