Ellen Douglas was the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

of Josephine Ayres Haxton (July 12, 1921 – November 7, 2012), an

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author. Her 1973 novel ''Apostles of Light'' was a

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

nominee.

Biography

Douglas was born in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was ...

, and grew up in

Hope, Arkansas Hope is a city in Hempstead County, Arkansas, Hempstead County in southwestern Arkansas, United States. Hope is the county seat of Hempstead County and the principal city of the Hope Hope micropolitan area, Micropolitan Statistical Area, which in ...

, and

Alexandria, Louisiana Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat and largest city of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River of the South, Red River ...

. She graduated from the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...

in 1942 and later settled in

Greenville, Mississippi Greenville is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, ninth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, and the largest city by population in the Mississippi Delta region. It is the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, Was ...

with her husband Kenneth Haxton.Associated Press (June 9, 2008)
"Author Ellen Douglas to be honored"
''

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'' She had three sons with Haxton: Richard, Ayres, and

Brooks Haxton Brooks Haxton (born December 1, 1950) is an American poet and translator. His publications include nine books of original poems and four books of translations from the German, the French, and ancient Greek. In 2014 he published ''Fading Hearts ...

, the latter a notable, award-winning poet and writer. Douglas taught writing at Ole' Miss, where she was writer-in-residence from 1979 to 1983. One of her creative writing students was Larry Brown, a local Oxford firefighter who went on to publish many acclaimed works of fiction. She adopted the pen name Ellen Douglas before the publication of ''A Family’s Affairs'' to protect the privacy of two aunts, on whose lives she had based much of the plot. Douglas died of heart failure at the age of 91 on November 7, 2012. Margalit Fox writes that Douglas's work "explored the epochal divide between the Old South and the New, examining vast, difficult subjects — race relations, tensions between the sexes, the conflict between the needs of the individual and those of the community — through the small, clear prism of domestic life."

Selected bibliography

Novels and stories

* '' A Family's Affairs'' (1961) * ''Black Cloud, White Cloud: Two Novellas and Two Stories'' (1963) * "On the Lake", in ''Prize Stories 1963'' (1963) * ''Where The Dreams Cross'' (1968) * ''Apostles of Light'' (Houghton Mifflin 1973) * ''The Rock Cried Out'' (1979) * ''A Lifetime Burning'' (Random House 1982) * ''A Long Night'' (1986) * ''The Magic Carpet and Other Tales'' (1987) * ''Can't Quit You, Baby'' (Scribners 1988)

Nonfiction

* ''Truth: Four Stories I Am Finally Old Enough to Tell'' (Algonquin Books 1998) * ''Witnessing'' (University Press of Mississippi 2004)

Awards and recognition

*"On the Lake", one of Douglas's short stories, was included in the O. Henry collection in 1961. *''A Family's Affairs'' was awarded the Houghton Mifflin fellowship in 1961 and was recognized as one of the five best novels of the year by ''The New York Times''. *''Black Cloud, White Cloud'' was named one of the five best works of fiction by ''The New York Times'' in 1963. *''Apostles of Light'' was nominated in 1973 for the

by the National Book Committee. *Awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in 1976 *Twice a recipient of a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for literature in 1979 and 1983. *Recognized as the first recipient of the Hillsdale Prize for Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers

References

External links

Mississippi writers page: Ellen Douglas (Josephine Ayres Haxton)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Ellen 1921 births 2012 deaths American women novelists University of Mississippi faculty People from Natchez, Mississippi University of Mississippi alumni Novelists from Mississippi American women short story writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers Writers of American Southern literature Pseudonymous women writers American women non-fiction writers American women academics 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers People from Hope, Arkansas People from Alexandria, Louisiana