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Elizabeth Spencer

エリザベス・スペンサー

Elizabeth Spencer

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1921-07-19 （Carrollton, Mississippi, U.S.）
Died
2019-12-22 （Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.） age 98
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Carrollton, Mississippi → Florence, Italy → Montreal, Quebec, Canada → Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.

Career

Occupations
novelist, short story writer, playwright, memoirist, university lecturer
Active Years
1948-2019
Affiliations
Northwest Mississippi Community College, The Nashville Tennessean, University of Mississippi (Oxford), Concordia University (Montreal), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Memberships
Fellowship of Southern Writers, American Academy of Arts and Letters
Influenced By
Donald Davidson, Southern literary tradition (local/community depiction)
Influenced
Nominations
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist (1957)

Education

Belhaven College / Belhaven University
Literature
Degree: BA
Country: United States
BA earned (exact graduation year varies by source)
Vanderbilt University
Literature
Degree: MA
Year of Graduation: 1943
Country: United States
Studied with Donald Davidson (poet)

Awards

Guggenheim Fellowship
1953
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: 受賞
O. Henry Award
Organization: O. Henry Prize Stories
Result: 受賞（短編部門、通算5回）
PEN/Malamud Award
2007
Organization: PEN/Malamud
Result: 受賞
The William Faulkner Medal for Literary Excellence
2002
Organization: The Faulkner House Society
Result: 受賞
North Carolina Governor's Award for Literature
1994
Organization: State of North Carolina
Result: 受賞
Governor's Award for Achievement in Literature from the Mississippi Arts Commission
2006
Organization: Mississippi Arts Commission
Result: 受賞
Mississippi Writers Trail historical marker
2019
Organization: Mississippi Writers Trail
Result: 受賞（記念標識）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Fire in the Morning

1948 Novel

Spencer's debut novel, exploring a young woman's growth and tensions with family and community.

tension between individual and communityfemale identity

The Light in the Piazza

1960 Novella

Set in Italy, a delicate human drama about a mother-daughter relationship and cultural difference.

parental bondscross-cultural experienceinner life
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Light in the Piazza (film) / Guy Green (1962)
  • [Stage (Broadway musical)] The Light in the Piazza (musical) / Bartlett Sher (2005)
Translations
  • The Light in the Piazza (translation)

The Voice at the Back Door

1956 Novel

Set in Mississippi, examining community norms vs. individual conflict. Pulitzer finalist in 1957.

communitymorality and the individual

Knights and Dragons

1965 Novel

A novel that allegorically explores human relationships and personal conflict.

human relationshipsinner conflict

Bibliography

  • Fire in the Morning (1948)
  • This Crooked Way (1952)
  • The Voice at the Back Door (1956)
  • The Light in the Piazza (1960)
  • Knights and Dragons (1965)
  • No Place for an Angel (1967)
  • The Snare (1972)
  • The Salt Line (1984)
  • The Night Travellers (1991)
  • Landscapes of the Heart: A Memoir (1997)

Adaptations

  • The Light in the Piazza — film adaptation (1962)
  • The Light in the Piazza — Broadway musical (2005)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
restrained, finely crafted prosepsychological realism rooted in Southern settings
Recurring Motifs
tension between individual and communityfamily and mother-daughter relationshipsself-revelation through travel / cross-cultural encounters

Legacy

Elizabeth Spencer was acclaimed for her delicate psychological portrayals set in the American South, highly regarded for her short fiction and novellas. Her notable work was adapted for film and musical theatre; she received numerous literary honors and her archives are held in institutional collections.

Academic Societies

  • Fellowship of Southern Writers
  • American Academy of Arts and Letters (elected)

Archives

  • Elizabeth Spencer fonds (Library and Archives Canada)

In Popular Culture

  • Raised public profile through the film and Broadway musical adaptations of The Light in the Piazza

Quotes

  • Her work examines the tension between the individual and the group, delving into the inner lives of her female characters.
    Source: The New York Times (obituary, 2019) (2019)

Trivia

  • She was a five-time recipient of the O. Henry Award for short fiction.
  • The Voice at the Back Door was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1957 (the prize was not awarded that year).
  • Through her mother's family she was a cousin of U.S. Senator John McCain.
  • A Mississippi Writers Trail historical marker was placed in her honor in 2019.