Clyde Edgerton (born May 20, 1944) is an American author. He has published a dozen books, most of them novels, two of which have been adapted for film. He is also a professor, teaching creative writing.

Biography

Edgerton was born in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

and grew up in the small town of Bethesda, North Carolina. He was the only child of Truma and Ernest Edgerton, who came from families of cotton and tobacco farmers, respectively. In 1962 Edgerton enrolled at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

, eventually majoring in English. During this time he was a student in the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

ROTC The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

program where he learned to fly a small plane. After graduating in 1966, he entered the Air Force and served five years as a fighter pilot in the United States, Korea, Japan, and Thailand. After his time in service, Edgerton got his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in English and began a job as an English teacher at his old high school. Soon after, he also earned a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

. He decided to become a writer in 1978 after watching

Eudora Welty Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel ''The Optimist's Daughter'' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numero ...

read a short story on public television. Publication of Edgerton's first novel, ''Raney'', the plot of which revolves around the marriage of a

Free Will Baptist Free Will Baptists are a group of General Baptist denominations of Christianity that teach free grace, free salvation and free will. The movement can be traced back to the 1600s with the development of General Baptism in England. Its formal est ...

and an

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

, ultimately led to Edgerton's leaving the teaching staff at

Campbell University Campbell University is a private Baptist university in Buies Creek, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (Southern Baptist Convention). Southern Baptist ConventionColleges and Universities sbc.net ...

Buies Creek Buies Creek is a long 3rd order tributary to the Cape Fear River in Harnett County, North Carolina, United States. Course Buies Creek rises about 1.5 miles southeast of Angier and then flows south to join the Cape Fear River about 1 mile south ...

, North Carolina (a Baptist institution). His later work, ''Killer Diller'', is a thinly veiled satire of that university and its administration, with whom Edgerton clashed over ''Raney''. His novel ''Redeye'' was inspired by a visit to the Mesa Verde and Anasazi cliff dwellings; the book is a historical novel set in 1890s Colorado. His tenth novel, ''Night Train'', follows two friends—one White and one Black—in the segregated South of the 1960s. he was a professor at the

University of North Carolina Wilmington The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW or UNC Wilmington) is a public research university in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina System and enrolls 17,499 undergraduate and graduate students eac ...

. He has a street named after him in Kernersville, North Carolina.

Works

*''Raney'' (1985) *''Walking Across Egypt'' (1987) *''The Floatplane Notebooks'' (1988) *''Killer Diller'' (1991) *''In Memory of Junior'' (1992) *''Redeye'' (1995) *''Where Trouble Sleeps'' (1997) *''Lunch at the Piccadilly'' (2003) *''Solo: My Adventure in the Air'' (2005; non-fiction memoir of his fighter pilot career) *''The Bible Salesman'' (2008) *''The Night Train'' (2011) *''Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers: Advice to Dads of All Ages'' (2013)

Films

Two of Clyde Edgerton's novels have been adapted to film: *''

Walking Across Egypt ''Walking Across Egypt'' is a 1999 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman and written by Paul Tamasy, based on Clyde Edgerton's novel of the same name. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Mark ...

'', a 1999 film starring

Jonathan Taylor Thomas Jonathan Taylor Thomas (born Jonathan Taylor Weiss; September 8, 1981) is an American actor and director. He is known for portraying Randy Taylor on ''Home Improvement'' and voicing young Simba in Disney's 1994 film ''The Lion King'' and Pinocch ...

*'' Killer Diller'', a 2004 limited release film starring

Lucas Black Lucas York Black (born November 29, 1982) is an American film and television actor. He is best known as the main character Sean Boswell in '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' (2006), of which he would later reprise the character in ''Furi ...

, in which Edgerton had a cameo as a faculty member.

Awards

*Five 'notable books of the year' awards from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' *

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

*Lyndhurst Fellowship * North Carolina Award for Literature *membership into the

Fellowship of Southern Writers The Fellowship of Southern Writers is an American literary organization that celebrates the creative vitality of Southern writing as the mirror of a distinctive and cherished regional culture. Its fellowships and awards draw attention to outstandi ...

References

External links

Biography
at the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill {{DEFAULTSORT:Edgerton, Clyde 1944 births Living people 20th-century American novelists Writers from Durham, North Carolina United States Air Force airmen University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni American academics of English literature 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Writers of American Southern literature 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from North Carolina 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers