Ellen Douglas, the pen name of Josphine Haxton, has died at age 91. The Washington Post writes:
JACKSON, Miss. — Ellen Douglas, a Mississippi native whose novel “Apostles of Light” was a 1973 National Book Award nominee, died Wednesday in Jackson. She was 91.
Douglas, who cited fellow Mississippi native William Faulkner as a literary influence, was the pen name of Josephine Ayres Haxton; she said she took a pseudonym to guard the privacy of her family. Douglas’ Mississippi-set work dealt candidly with race relations, families and the role of women.
She taught Larry Brown when she was a visiting professor at Ole Miss, and was a major encouragement to his writing. I believe the first author event at Square Books, back when it was upstairs over what is now Square Books Jr., was for Ellen Douglas’s book The Rock Cried Out. She was one of the first “real” writers I met, back in undergraduate school, at a time when it was not a routine event for writers to pass through town.
Mrs. Haxton lived down the street from me in Greenville. About thirty years ago, her schnauzer bit me when I was riding my bike by her house. She was quite apologetic. Of course, at the time, I didn’t have any idea who she was. On a side note, her husband Kenneth was also quite talented. He sold suits during the day for some time, and composed crossword puzzles for the new york times when he was not doing his day job.
I knew Mrs. Haxton, liked her, and I like this quote:
“I saw her sitting by herself at a writer’s conference one time after I’d published my first novel, and I took my little glass of white wine over to sit with her,” Cynthia Shearer told AP. “She held up her glass of bourbon instructionally, and then eyed my white wine sardonically, and said, ‘You got to do better than that.’”