Marilyn Harris (June 4, 1931 – January 18, 2002) was an American author best known for her seven-novel "Eden" series, an historical saga about the Eden family of England. The series contains ''This Other Eden'' (1977); ''The Prince of Eden'' (1978); ''The Eden Passion'' (1979); ''The Women of Eden'' (1980); ''Eden Rising'' (1982); ''American Eden'' (1987); and ''Eden and Honor'' (1989). She is also the author of the best selling novel, ''Hatter Fox'' (1973), adapted into a 1977 CBS movie, ''The Girl Called Hatter Fox''.

Early years

Harris was born on June 4, 1931, in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, an ...

, Oklahoma, the daughter of John P., an oil executive, and Dora ( nee Veal) Harris. Harris was educated in her home state, attending

Cottey College Cottey College is a private women's college in Nevada, Missouri. It was founded by Virginia Alice (Cottey) Stockard in 1884. Since 1927 it has been owned and supported by the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic women's organization based in Des ...

from 1945 to 1951, then transferring to the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

, from which she received a bachelor of arts degree in 1953 and a master of arts degree in 1955.

Writing career

Harris's first collection of short stories, ''King's Ex'', was published by Doubleday in 1967. After that Harris proved a prolific author, publishing twenty books, including novels, short stories, romance/historical fiction and children's fiction in a twenty-year period from 1970 to 1989. These works, in addition to those listed above, include ''In the Midst of Earth'' (1969), ''The Peppersalt Land'' (1970), ''The Runaway's Diary'' (1971), ''The Conjurers'' (1974), ''Bledding Sorrow'' (1976), ''The Portent'' (1980), ''The Last Great Love'' (1981), ''The Diviner'' (1983), ''Warrick'' (1985), ''Night Games'' (1987), and ''Lost and Found'' (1991). The novel ''Hatter Fox'' was successfully filmed as a TV movie under the title '' The Girl Called Hatter Fox'' starring

Ronny Cox Daniel Ronald Cox (born July 23, 1938) is an American actor, singer and songwriter. His best-known roles include Drew Ballinger in ''Deliverance'' (1972), George Apple in '' Apple's Way'' (1974–75), Ozark Bule in '' Bound for Glory'' (1976), C ...

(Dr. Teague Summer) and

Joanelle Romero Joanelle Romero is an American filmmaker and actress. Romero, who says she has a Native American identity, is the founder and president of Red Nation Television Network and Red Nation International Film Festival. Romero's film ''American Holocau ...

(the title character). The film marked the first time a Native American actress played a leading role. Harris's work has received a wide readership; in 1983, nine million of her books were in print, and her work has been translated into many languages, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Japanese. She was also an author in residence at Oklahoma's Central State University.

Awards

Among the awards Harris received are the following:

O. Henry Award The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...

, 1968, for her début short story ''Icarus Again'', published in April 1967 issue of

The Malahat Review ''The Malahat Review'' is a Canadian quarterly literary magazine established in 1967. It features contemporary Canadian and international works of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction as well as reviews of recently published Canadian litera ...

;The O.Henry Prize Stories
Past Winners List University of Oklahoma Literary Award, in 1970;

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was an American literary award conferred on several books annually by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education annually from 1958 to 1979. Award-winning books were deemed to "belong on the same shelf" ...

, 1973, for ''The Runaway's Diary''; Oklahoma Federation of Writers Teepee Award, 1974;

Women in Communications The Association for Women in Communications (AWC) is an American professional organization for women in the communications industry. History Theta Sigma Phi The Association for Women in Communications began in 1909 as Theta Sigma Phi (), an ho ...

By-Liner Award, 1974; Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame Award, 1980; and Cottey College Distinguished Alumna Award, 1981.

Family

Harris married Edgar V. Springer, Jr., a professor, in 1953; the couple had two children: John P. and Karen Louise. She died in

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, Oklahoma, on January 18, 2002.

References

External links

Books by Marilyn Harris on Internet Archive.

About books by Marilyn Harris on Goodreads.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Marilyn 1931 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American novelists American women novelists University of Oklahoma alumni Cottey College alumni 20th-century American women writers