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Ellen Douglas was the
pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, 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 na ...
of Josephine Ayres Haxton (July 12, 1921 – November 7, 2012), an
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
author. Her 1973 novel ''Apostles of Light'' was a National Book Award nominee.


Biography

Douglas was born in
Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...
, and grew up in Hope, Arkansas, and Alexandria, Louisiana. She graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1942 and later settled in Greenville, Mississippi with her husband Kenneth Haxton.Associated Press (June 9, 2008)
"Author Ellen Douglas to be honored"
'' USA Today''
She had three sons with Haxton: Richard, Brooks and Ayres. She later taught writing at Ole' Miss. 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. Her son
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 ...
has become a notable, award-winning poet and writer. 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'' (Scribner 1988)


Nonfiction

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


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