Ellyn Bache Papers Initial Inventory (#4980)

Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:

Manuscripts Department

CB#3926, Wilson Library

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890

Phone: 919/962-1345

Fax: 919/962-3594

Email: mss@email.unc.edu

URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/

Processed by

Aletha Andrew

Date Completed

December 1999

Encoded by

Aletha Andrew

Descriptive Summary Including Abstract

Title

Ellyn Bache Papers (#4980) 1974-1998

Creator

Bache, Ellyn.

Extent

About 400 items (6.5 linear feet)

Repository

Southern Historical Collection

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.

Administrative Information

Access

RESTRICTED: Items in Box 5 relating to two unpublished novels, "Water Witch "and "Something Solid," and to the musical play, "Writer's Bloc," are closed until the works are published or Ellyn Bache elects to open the files.

Usage Restrictions

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Provenance

Received from Ellyn Bache of Wilmington, N.C., in May 1999 (Acc. 98373) and January 2002 (Acc. 99159).

Processing Note

Full processing of this collection has been deferred pending expected additions.

Online Catalog Terms

American fiction--North Carolina--Women authors.

Bache, Ellyn.

Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Fiction.

College students--North Carolina--Chapel Hill--Fiction.

Southern States--Fiction.

Southern States--Race relations--Fiction.

Southern States--Social life and customs--Fiction.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Students--Political activity.

Women authors, American--North Carolina--20th century.

Biographical Note

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.

Collection Overview

Papers 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.

Organization of Collection

1. Writings
2. The Activist's Daughter Subject Files and Related Correspondence
3. Other Materials

Series Descriptions