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

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

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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 Hope is a city in Hempstead County in southwestern Arkansas, United States. Hope is the county seat of Hempstead County and the principal city of the Hope Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Hempstead and Nevada counties. As of ...

, and

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

. She graduated from the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

in 1942 and later settled in

Greenville, Mississippi Greenville is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 34,400 at the 2010 census. It is located in the area of historic cotton plantations and culture known as the Mississippi Delta. Hi ...

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,

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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 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