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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Size | 6.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 400 items) |
Abstract | Ellyn Bache, writer of Wilmington, N.C., grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the mid-1960s. She has published non-fiction under the pen name Ellen Matthews, and, with her husband, young adult fiction under the pen name E. M. J. Benjamin. Much of Bache's writing is set in southern locales and deals with race relations and southern culture in general. Papers consist chiefly of writings, including drafts of novels, short stories, and screenplays; journal and newspaper articles; and a musical play. Clippings are of fiction and non-fiction works, mid 1970s-late 1980s. There are also subject files concerning character development and historical research conducted while writing and revising The Activist's Daughter (Spinster's Ink, 1997), a novel about student activists and racial unrest at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1963. |
Creator | Bache, Ellyn. |
Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
Language | English. |
Full processing of this collection has been deferred pending expected additions.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Author Ellyn Bache grew up in Washington, D.C., attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the mid-1960s, and made her home in Maryland until moving back to North Carolina in 1985.
Initially a freelance journalist, Bache published at least 40 short stories in magazines such as McCall's, Woman's World, Virginia Country, The Antietam Review, and Woman (England). She also published numerous articles in newspapers such as the Washington Post, the Sun-Times, the Washington Star, the Sun Magazine, and the Morning Herald . Her novel, The Activist's Daughter (Spinster's Ink, 1997), is set amid the racial unrest of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during 1963. Another novel, Safe Passage (Crown, 1988) was developed for the screen and released to theaters in 1995. Her novel, Festival in Fire Season (August House, 1992), is set in a fictionalized Wilmington/Wrightville Beach, N.C., and deals with, among other things, the Azalea Festival and the fires that ravaged southeast North Carolina in 1986. Sixteen of her short stories were collected in The Value of Kindness (Helicon Nine Editions, 1993), which won the 1992 Willa Cather Fiction Prize. She also published non-fiction under the pen name Ellen Matthews. Under the pen name E. M. J. Benjamin, she published, with the help of her husband, Takedown (Banks Channel Books, 1999), a young adult novel. Bache's plays include Writer's Bloc, a musical comedy in two acts, which she co-authored with Joyce Cooper and Patricia Ruark.
Bache won several awards in addition to the Willa Cather Prize. She was honored in 1987 by Writers and Readers and, in 1989, by the North Carolina Fiction Syndicate. She also won first place in the Charlotte Writer's Club short story contest in 1987 and was a winner in the 1989 O. Henry Festival Competition.
Back to TopPapers consist chiefly of author Ellyn Bache's writings, including drafts of novels, short stories, and screenplays; journal and newspaper articles; and a musical play. Clippings are of fiction and non-fiction works, mid 1970s-late 1980s. Much of Bache's writing is set in southern locales and deals with race relations and southern culture in general. Correspondence regarding revision or publication of particular works is filed with those works; there is also some correspondence in the subject files concerning character development and historical research conducted while writing and revising The Activist's Daughter, a novel about student activists and racial unrest at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1963.
Back to TopArrangement: alphabetical and chronological runs.
Writings include drafts of short stories, novels, screenplays, a musical play, and non-fiction articles. Most works exist in several versions, often with title variations, accompanied by correspondence with editors about revisions or publication of the works. There are also some research materials. Many of the short stories were published later in The Value of Kindness (Helicon Nine Editions, 1993). Annotations made by Ellyn Bache on the original file folders have been retained as enclosures, and her original folder titles have, for the most part, been retained.
Clippings are of Bache's fiction and non-fiction published in newspapers, journals, and magazines, mid-1970s-late 1980s. One article, "Adjusting To America," published in The Bridge , appeared under the pen name Ellen Matthews. Included are short stories published in McCall's, Woman (England), Virginia Country, Antietam Review, and Woman's World, the Washington Post, the Sun-Times, the Washington Star, Sun Magazine, and the Morning Herald.
RESTRICTED items relate to two unpublished novels, Water Witch and Something Solid, and to the musical play, "Writer's Bloc," co-authored with Joyce Cooper and Patricia Ruark. These items are closed until publication of the works or Ellyn Bache opens the files.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Research materials and notes for The Activist's Daughter, a novel about student activists and racial unrest in 1963 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Included are music lists for the 1960s; timelines for the late 1950s and early 1960s at UNC; photocopies of articles from the student newspaper, Daily Tar Heel, from the 1960s; historical maps of the campus; a photocopy of the journal kept by student activist Karen Parker in 1963; and notes on the development of specific characters in the novel.
Note that original folder titles have, for the most part, been retained.
Box 4 |
The Activist's Daughter |
The Activist's Daughter: For revision |
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Chapel Hill geography |
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Dave |
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Ethnic research |
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Gloria |
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Grandma |
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Mother, Chapter 6 |
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Music |
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Karen Parker journal |
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Susan and Betsy |
Letter, 15 January 1987, from Helen Del Monte, fiction editor at McCall's magazine, recommending Ellyn Bache for a North Carolina State Arts Council fellowship.
Box 4 |
Letter |