Ellen Douglas

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Josephine Chamberlain Ayres Haxton (born June 12, 1921 in Natchez , Mississippi , † November 7, 2012 in Jackson , Mississippi) was an American writer who wrote her novels under the pseudonym Ellen Douglas .

Life

She grew up in Hope , Arkansas and Alexandria , Louisiana . In 1942 she graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in English . For several years she wrote without having published a story. It was the poet Charles Bell who submitted one of her manuscripts to the Houghton Mifflin publishing house . With A Family's Affairs in 1961 her first novel. The novel was published in 1964 under the title Zu Haus in Louisiana: Novel of a Family in German. Since the story was loosely based on two of her aunts and she wanted to protect her private life, Haxton used a pseudonym Ellen Douglas .

In total, Haxton published 11 novels, six of which were novels. With her novel Apostles of Light , published in 1973 , she received a 1974 nomination for the National Book Award , whereby she could not prevail against Thomas Pynchon with his novel Gravity's Rainbow . Her later novels became shallower in her own opinion and dealt more with postmodern narrative . In the 1970s and 1980s she was artist in residence at Northeast Louisiana University and the University of Mississippi.

After a long illness, Haxton died on November 7, 2012 at the age of 91 at her home in Jackson, Mississippi. She was married to the composer Kenneth Haxton . The marriage ended in divorce. The couple had three sons together, one of whom is the poet Brooks Haxton . When Haxton died, she left a brother, sister, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Works

  • A Family's Affairs (1961)
    • At home in Louisiana: A family's novel , Universitäts-Verlag, Berlin 1964
  • Black Cloud, White Cloud: Two Novellas and Two Stories (1963)
  • On the Lake (1963)
  • Where The Dreams Cross (1968)
  • Apostles of Light (1973)
  • The Rock Cried Out (1979)
  • A Lifetime Burning (1982)
  • A Long Night (1986)
  • The Magic Carpet and Other Tales (1987)
  • Can't Quit You, Baby (1988)
  • Truth: Four Stories I Am Finally Old Enough to Tell (1998)
  • Witnessing (2004)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ellen Douglas, Novelist of Southern Life, Dies at 91 , nytimes.com
  2. ↑ a b Ellen Douglas, Mississippi novelist, dies at 91 , washingtonpost.com
  3. ↑ a b c Ellen Douglas dies at 91; writer depicted racially conflicted South , latimes.com
personal data
SURNAME Douglas, Ellen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haxton, Josephine Chamberlain Ayres (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Natchez , Mississippi , United States
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 2012
Place of death Jackson , Mississippi, United States