Charles Mills Papers Inventory (#4270)

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:

Jane H. Odom

Date Completed:

January 1985

Encoded by:

Jackie Dean

Descriptive Summary Including Abstract

Title

Charles Mills Papers (#4270) 1937-1981

Creator

Mills, Charles, 1914 Jan. 8- .

Extent

About 150 items (1.0 linear feet)

Repository

Southern Historical Collection

Abstract

Charles Mills (1914-1975) was born in 1914 in Griffin, Ga. He married his wife Marguerite around 1935. In 1936, the Millses traveled to Italy where Charles studied singing and began his first book The Choice, which he completed in 1943. Mills's next book, The Alexandrians (1952), was written while he and his family were living Chapel Hill, N.C., where Mills studied languages at the University of North Carolina. This book was a panorama of life in the small Georgia town of Alexandria from the time of its settlement in 1839 until its centennial. Both of Mills's books were bestsellers. The collection includes mainly letters to Charles and Marguerite Mills from literary and academic colleagues and from personal friends. Significant correspondents include Walter Baxter, Lewis White Beck, Warren Pendleton Carrier, Elizabeth Henderson Cotten, Robert Fitzgerald, Allan H. Gilbert, Katharine Everett Gilbert, Paul Elliot Green, Archibald Henderson, Helmut Kuhn, Clare Leighton, Milton Charles Nahm, Betty Smith, and Nathan Comfort Starr. Also included are typed copies of writings of a few correspondents, probably sent to the Millses for review and a war journal Warren Carrier kept while serving in the American Field Service in Burma in 1944 and 1945.

Administrative Information

Access

No restrictions.

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 Marguerite Mills of Penfield, N.Y., in May 1981. Addition of 6 items received March 1997 from William Z. Schenck of Washington, D.C. (Acc. 97026).

Online Catalog Terms

Authors, American-20th century-Correspondence.

Baxter, Walter, 1915- .

Beck, Lewis White.

Carrier, Warren Pendleton.

Chapel Hill (N.C.)-Social life and customs-20th century.

Cotten, Elizabeth Henderson.

Fitzgerald, Robert 1910- .

Gilbert, Allan H., 1888- .

Gilbert, Katharine Everett, 1886-1952.

Green, Paul, 1894-1981.

Henderson, Archibald, 1887-1963.

Italy-Social life and customs-20th century.

Kuhn, Helmut, 1899- .

Leighton, Clare, 1899-1989.

Mills, Charles, 1914 Jan. 8- .

Mills, Marguerite.

Nahm, Milton Charles, 1903- .

Novelists, American-20th century.

Smith, Betty, 1896-1972.

Starr, Nathan Comfort, 1896- .

World War, 1939-1945-Burma-Personal narratives.

Biographical Note

Charles Mills was born in 1914 in Griffin, Ga. He studied at the University of Virginia, the University of Florence (Italy), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He married his wife Marguerite around 1935. In 1936, the Millses traveled to Italy where Charles studied singing and began his first book, The Choice. The Millses left Italy in 1945 (just before the invasion of Munich, Germany) to return to the United States. In 1943 Charles Mills completed The Choice which was on the New York Times bestseller list for a time. Perhaps paralleling Mills's own life to an extent, the book depicts a young Southern man rebelling against the narrowness of his small-town Georgia life by traveling to Italy where he becomes more aware of his independence, passion, love of tradition and culture, and creative writing abilities.

Mills immediately began work on another novel, The Alexandrians. During this time he and his wife, young son, and two baby daughters lived in Chapel Hill, and he studied languages at the University of North Carolina. He served briefly in the military during World War II. By 1952 Mills had completed The Alexandrians, a novel on the South, also on bestseller lists. It is a panorama of life in the small Georgia town of Alexandria from the time of its settlement in 1839 until its centennial. Following the life of a central character, the book develops such themes as the struggle over slavery, religious intolerance, changing social customs, and the decline of the plantation economy. After Charles Mills's death in 1975, his wife lived in Penfield, N.Y.

Collection Overview

The collection includes mainly letters to Charles Mills and Marguerite Mills from literary and academic colleagues and from personal friends. Significant correspondents include Walter Baxter, Lewis White Beck, Warren Pendleton Carrier, Elizabeth Henderson Cotten, Robert Fitzgerald, Allan H. Gilbert, Katharine Everett Gilbert, Paul Elliot Green, Archibald Henderson, Helmut Kuhn, Clare Leighton, Milton Charles Nahm, Betty Smith, and Nathan Comfort Starr. Also included are typed copies of writings of a few correspondents, probably sent to the Millses for review and a war journal Warren Carrier kept while serving in the American Field Service in Burma in 1944 and 1945.

Organization of Collection

1. Correspondence
2. Writings
Addition of March 1997

Series Descriptions