Guy Owen Papers Inventory (#4287)

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:

David Bost, Laura O'Keefe, and Tim West

Date Completed:

February 1985

Encoded by:

Jackie Dean

Descriptive Summary Including Abstract

Title

Guy Owen Papers (#4287)1951-1981

Creator

Owen, Guy, 1925- .

Extent

About 3400 items (15.0 linear feet)

Repository

Southern Historical Collection

Language

English.

Administrative Information

Access

No restrictions.

Usage Restrictions

Retained by Dorothy Owen for writings by Guy Owen, and by the writers or the descendants of the writers of other items in these papers, as stipulated by United States copyright law

Online Catalog Terms

American fiction--20th century.

American poetry--20th century.

Authors, American--North Carolina--20th century.

College teachers--North Carolina--History--20th century.

North Carolina State University--Faculty--History--20th century.

Owen, Guy, 1925- .

Biographical Note

Guy Owen, Jr., was born on February 24, 1925, in Clarkton, Bladen County, North Carolina. He graduated from Clarkton High School in 1942, and worked at assorted odd jobs before joining the Army in 1943, serving in France and Germany. He returned to the United States in 1945 to attend the University of North Carolina, where he majored in English. In 1952, Owen married Dorothy Meadows Jennings of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. He received his Ph.D. in 1955.

Owen's first teaching experience was as instructor of English at Davidson College from 1949 to 1951. He also taught part-time at UNC from 1951 to 1954, while completing his dissertation, and was associate professor of English at Elon College during the 1954-1955 school year.

In 1955, Owen accepted the position of associate professor of English at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida; he taught there until 1961. During this time, he wrote his first novel, Season of Fear, which was published in 1960.

Owen became a member of the faculty at North Carolina State College in Raleigh in 1961, remaining there until his death twenty years later. While teaching American literature and creative writing courses, he completed and published three novels, two volumes of poems, and a collection of short stories. He also helped edit two anthologies of verse: New Southern Poets: Selected Poems from Southern Poetry Review, and Contemporary Poets of North Carolina.

In 1958, Owen co-founded the poetry magazine Impetus, which in 1965 became Southern Poetry Review. He was also an editor of North Carolina Folklore.

Owen died of cancer in July 1981, at age 56.

Collection Overview

Well over half of this collection consists of material produced by Owen during his various writing projects. Many of these items are handwritten or typed drafts of novels, short stories, poems, articles, and the texts of speeches, and many of these drafts are unpublished.

Correspondence, chiefly professional in nature, subject files, news clippings about Owen and his work, photographs, and audio tapes, comprise the rest of the collection. Duplicate materials and widely available printed materials were separated and transferred or discarded during processing.

Organization of Collection

1. Novels
1.1. Season of Fear
1.2. Ballad of the Flim-Flam Man
1.3. Journey for Joedel
1.4. The Flim-Flam Man and the Apprentice Grifter
1.5. "Joel Jarman"
1.6. "KKK Novel"
2. Short Stories
2.1. The Flim-Flam Man and Other Stories
2.2. The Blue Darter and Other Selected Stories
2.3 Other Short Stories
3. Poems
3.1. Cape Fear Country
3.2. The White Stallion
3.3. Other Poems
4. Essays, Speeches, and Other Writings
4.1. Essays and Speeches
4.2. Other Writings
5. Correspondence
6. Subject Files
7. Miscellaneous Material
8. Audio-Visual Materials
8.1. Pictures
8.2. Audio Tapes

Related Collection

Southern Poetry Review Records (#4023). Owen was editor, 1962-1978.

Series Descriptions