Emily Dorothy Scarborough (January 27, 1878 – November 7, 1935) was an American writer who wrote about

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, folk culture, cotton farming,

ghost stories A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...

and women's life in the Southwest.

Early life

Scarborough was born in Mount Carmel, Texas. At the age of four she moved to

Sweetwater, Texas Sweetwater is a municipality in and the seat of Nolan County, Texas, United States. It is 123 miles southeast of Lubbock and 40 miles west of Abilene, Texas. Its population was 10,906 at the 2010 census. History The town's name "Sweetwater" is t ...

for her mother's health, as her mother needed the drier climate. The family soon left Sweetwater in 1887, so that the Scarborough children could get a good education at Baylor College.

Academics and writing

Even though Scarborough's writings are identified with Texas, she studied at

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and, beginning in 1916, taught literature at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. While receiving her PhD from Columbia, she wrote a dissertation, "The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction". Sylvia Ann Grider writes in a critical introduction that the dissertation "was so widely acclaimed by her professors and colleagues that it was published and it has become a basic reference work".Foreword to The Wind by Sylvia Ann Grider, Barker Texas History Center series, University of Texas Press, 1979. Dorothy Scarborough came in contact with many writers in New York, including

Edna Ferber Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), ''Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cim ...

and

Vachel Lindsay Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (; November 10, 1879 – December 5, 1931) was an American poet. He is considered a founder of modern ''singing poetry,'' as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted. Early years Lindsay was born ...

. She taught

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

classes at Columbia. Among her creative writing students were Eric Walrond and

Carson McCullers Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, ''The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'' (1940), explores the spiritual isolation of misfits ...

, who took her first college writing class from Scarborough. Her most critically acclaimed book, '' The Wind'' (first published anonymously in 1925), was later made into a film of the same name starring

Lillian Gish Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...

Bibliography

Original works

* '' Fugitive Verses'' (1912), original verses * ''

The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' (1917)
available in its entirety at Google Book Search
* ''

From a Southern Porch From may refer to: * From, a preposition * From (SQL), computing language keyword * From: (email message header), field showing the sender of an email * FromSoftware, a Japanese video game company * Full range of motion, the travel in a rang ...

'' (1919)
viewable in full at Google Book Search
o
viewable at the Portal to Texas History
* ''

Humorous Ghost Stories Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in ...

'' (1921)
Free download from Project Gutenberg
* ''

In the Land of Cotton IN, In or in may refer to: Places * India (country code IN) * Indiana, United States (postal code IN) * Ingolstadt, Germany (license plate code IN) * In, Russia, a town in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast Businesses and organizations * Independ ...

'' (1923) * '' The Wind'' (1925), considered her most acclaimed work. * ''

The Unfair Sex ''The Unfair Sex'' is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Henri Diamant-Berger and starring Hope Hampton, Holbrook Blinn and Nita Naldi.Munden p.846 Cast * Hope Hampton as Shirley Chamberlain * Holbrook Blinn as Don Calvert * Nita ...

'' (serialized, 1925–26) * ''

Impatient Griselda Impatient may refer to: * "Impatient" (Anna Abreu song) * "Impatient" (Jeremih song) * "Impatient", a song by Blu Cantrell from the album '' Bittersweet'' See also * '' Impatiens'', a genus of flowers {{disambiguation ...

'' (1927) * ''

Can't Get a Redbird The English modal verbs are a subset of the English auxiliary verbs used mostly to express modality (properties such as possibility, obligation, etc.). They can be distinguished from other verbs by their defectiveness (they do not have participle ...

'' (1929) * '' Stretch-Berry Smile'' (1932) * ''

The Story of Cotton ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' (1933) juvenile reader * ''

Selected Short Stories of Today Selection may refer to: Science * Selection (biology), also called natural selection, selection in evolution ** Sex selection, in genetics ** Mate selection, in mating ** Sexual selection in humans, in human sexuality ** Human mating strategie ...

'' (1935)

Folklore

* '' Song Catcher in Southern Mountains; American Folk Songs of British Ancestry'' (1937, posthumous) * '' On the Trail of Negro Folksongs'' (1925)
available at archive.org

Biographical and critical essays

Biographical Essay on the Handbook of Texas Online
Foreword to ''The Wind'' by Sylvia Ann Grider, Barker Texas History Center series, University of Texas Press, 1979.

References

Sources

External links

* * *
Dorothy Scarborough at the University of Houston site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarborough, Dorothy 1878 births 1935 deaths 20th-century American novelists American women novelists Novelists from Texas People from Smith County, Texas People from Sweetwater, Texas University of Chicago alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty 20th-century American women writers Novelists from New York (state) American women academics