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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 FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 10.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 6,000 items) |
| Abstract | Writer Elizabeth Spencer was born in 1921 in Carrollton, Miss. Spencer married John Rusher in 1956 and was sometimes known as Elizabeth Rusher among friends and family. Spencer taught writing at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, 1976-1986, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1986-1992. The collection includes correspondence, writings and related materials, and pictures. Business and personal correspondence, 1948-2003 (bulk 1999-2003), includes both letters and printed copies of incoming and outgoing emails. Correspondents include John Rusher and other family members; writers Doris Betts, Eve Caram, Marie Claire Blais, Walter Sullivan, Mavis Gallant, Allan Gurganus, Angela Montserrate, Shelby Foote, Lee Smith, Alice Denham, Philip S. May, Elmo Howell, Ann Charney, Joe Blotner, Michel Bandry, and Anne M. Wyatt-Brown; poets William Jay Smith, Frances Boeckman, and Fraser Sutherland; poet and professor Robert Phillips (also Spencer's literary executor); artist David Terry; professors Morton King and George Lensing; Patrick Samway of American Magazine; literary critic Warren French; composer T. J. Anderson; editors George Cole of the Sewanee Review, Samuel S. Vaughan and David Ebershoff of Random House, Hunter Cole and Seetha Srinivasan of the University Press of Mississippi, and Peggy Prenshaw; actress Tandy Cronyn; writer and professor Paolo Vivante and his wife, artist Vera Vivante; literary archivist Adam Muhlig; writer and professor William H. Slavick; Arnold Kramish; William Goodwin; and United States Senator John McCain. Subjects include Eudora Welty, Spencer's writings and professional activities, Spencer family history, McCain's presidential run, and other topics. Writings, 1950s, 1987-2002, are chiefly by or about Spencer. Pictures include photographs of Spencer; family and friends; travels; others, including Ralph Ellison, Robert Phillips, Walker Percy, Walter Sullivan, Eudora Welty, Jim Seay, Ellen Douglas, Peggy Prenshaw, Patrick Samway, Mavis Gallant, and Gloria Bragdon; and writing events. Also included is a series of pictures that Spencer selected for possible inclusion in her memoir Landscapes of the Heart. |
| Creator | Spencer, Elizabeth, 1921- . |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The 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.
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Biographical Information
Writer Elizabeth Spencer was born in 1921, in Carrollton, Miss., to James Luther Spencer and Mary James McCain Spencer. Spencer graduated from Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss., in 1942. She went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in English from Vanderbilt University. She taught English for several years in Mississippi and Tennessee and wrote two novels, Fire in the Morning (1948) and This Crooked Way (1952) before she won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1953, which allowed her to move to Italy to focus on her writing. While in Italy, she met John Rusher, an Englishman who taught English to Italians. They were married 29 September 1956, the same year Spencer's novel The Voice at the Back Door was published.
Spencer spent 1976 to 1986 at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, as a writer-in-residence and professor in the graduate writing program. In 1985, she was elected to the American Institute of Arts and Letters (now the American Academy of Arts and Letters). From 1986 to 1992, Spencer was visiting professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Spencer was a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers (1987) and served as vice-chancellor, 1993-1997. In 1998, she published Landscapes of the Heart, a memoir of the Spencer and McCain families and growing up in Mississippi. On 17 December 1998 of that same year, Spencer's husband died. In 2001, a collection of many of Spencer's previously published stories was published along with some new fiction under the title The Southern Woman. In 2003, Spencer's 1960 novel, The Light in the Piazza, was adapted into a musical (music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, book by Craig Lucas).
Spencer has received many awards for her writing, including the Thomas Wolfe Award for Literature (2002) and the William Faulkner Medal for Literary Excellence (2002). She received an honorary doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998.
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Scope and Content
The Elizabeth Spencer collection includes correspondence, writings and related materials, and pictures. Business and personal correspondence, 1948-2003 (bulk 1999-2003), includes both letters and printed copies of incoming and outgoing emails. Correspondents include John Rusher and other family members; writers Doris Betts, Eve Caram, Marie Claire Blais, Walter Sullivan, Mavis Gallant, Allan Gurganus, Angela Montserrate, Shelby Foote, Lee Smith, Alice Denham, Philip S. May, Elmo Howell, Ann Charney, Joe Blotner, Michel Bandry, and Anne M. Wyatt-Brown; poets William Jay Smith, Frances Boeckman, and Fraser Sutherland; poet and professor Robert Phillips (also Spencer's literary executor); artist David Terry; professors Morton King and George Lensing; Patrick Samway of American Magazine; literary critic Warren French; composer T. J. Anderson; editors George Cole of the Sewanee Review, Samuel S. Vaughan and David Ebershoff of Random House, Hunter Cole and Seetha Srinivasan of the University Press of Mississippi, and Peggy Prenshaw; actress Tandy Cronyn; writer and professor Paolo Vivante and his wife, artist Vera Vivante; literary archivist Adam Muhlig; writer and professor William H. Slavick; Arnold Kramish; William Goodwin; and United States Senator John McCain. Subjects include Eudora Welty, Spencer's writings and professional activities, Spencer family history, McCain's presidential run, and other topics. Writings, 1950s, 1987-2002, are chiefly by or about Spencer. Pictures include photographs of Spencer; family and friends; travels; others, including Ralph Ellison, Robert Phillips, Walker Percy, Walter Sullivan, Eudora Welty, Jim Seay, Ellen Douglas, Peggy Prenshaw, Patrick Samway, Mavis Gallant, and Gloria Bragdon; and writing events. Also included is a series of pictures that Spencer selected for possible inclusion in her memoir Landscapes of the Heart.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Correspondence, 1948-2003.
Arrangement: roughly chronological.
Processing Note: emails were copied onto floppy disks by Spencer and have been printed and included in this series
Correspondence consists of both business and personal correspondence, 1948-2003. Most of the correspondence is dated 1999-2003 and includes letters and incoming and outgoing emails. For the most part, original folder titles have been maintained. Many of the folders are divided into years, but years may overlap. There is little arrangement within years.
Correspondence includes letters and emails relating to the three repositories that hold Spencer's papers: Special Collections and Archives at the University of Kentucky Libraries, the National Library of Canada, and the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Also included is correspondence with John Mappin, editor and agent, about her collections.
Other correspondents include John Rusher and other family members; writers Eve Caram, Marie Claire Blais, Walter Sullivan, Mavis Gallant, Allan Gurganus, Angela Montserrate, Shelby Foote, Lee Smith, Alice Denham, Philip S. May, Elmo Howell, Ann Charney, and Anne M. Wyatt-Brown; poets William Jay Smith, Frances Boeckman, and Fraser Sutherland; poet and professor Robert Phillips (also Spencer's literary executor); artist David Terry; professors Morton King and George Lensing; Patrick Samway of American Magazine; literary critic Warren French; composer T. J. Anderson; editor George Cole of the Sewanee Review; actress Tandy Cronyn; writer and professor Paolo Vivante and his wife, artist Vera Vivante; literary archivist Adam Muhlig; writer and professor William H. Slavick; Arnold Kramish; and William Goodwin. Although a few of these correspondents also communicated via email, some correspondents chiefly used email, including writer Joe Blotner; editors Samuel S. Vaughan and David Ebershoff of Random House; Hunter Cole ("Mack") and Seetha Srinivasan of the University Press of Mississippi; editor Peggy Prenshaw; writer Doris Betts; and French author Michel Bandry, who wrote Elizabeth Spencer: Du Sud au monde.
Subjects of the letters include Hunter Cole's friendship with Eudora Welty, Welty's Country Churchyards book of photographs, Spencer's memoir Landscapes of the Heart, her short story "Owl," her collection of stories The Southern Woman, the musical version of Light in the Piazza, the Southern Festival of Books, and Spencer family genealogical information from Bertha Spencer Smoak. There are also letters containing Robert Phillips's poems; invitations to parties, literary events, and readings; requests for comments on other writers' works; inquiries about the inclusion of Spencer's works in anthologies; newsletters for conferences and meetings; newspaper clippings; some enclosed photographs; and fan letters. Letters from United States Senator John McCain of Arizona, a relative of Spencer's, relate to the 2000 presidential race.
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Series 2. Writings and Related Material, 1950s, 1987-2002.
Arrangement: roughly chronological.
Essays by Spencer or about Spencer's work; articles about Spencer and her writings; programs and other information about conferences and symposia; American Academy of Arts and Letters invitations, meetings, and awards information; items relating to Eudora Welty's Country Churchyards for which Spencer wrote the introduction; articles about Adam Guettel, composer of Light in the Piazza musical; Spencer's teleplay "First Dark," 2nd draft, June 1982; Alan Gurganus articles; a draft of Spencer's short story "Owl"; and other materials.
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Series 3. Pictures, 1911-2003, and undated.
Photographs are arranged in series as received. For the most part, Spencer provided dates and original folder titles have been maintained. Note that family photographs appear in both series 3.3 and 3.4. Pictures may include negatives, slides, and albums.
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Subseries 3.1. Elizabeth Spencer Pictures, 1920s-2000.
Pictures of Elizabeth Spencer include publicity photographs and posed photographs. These pictures were separated from the rest of the pictures in the collection by Spencer. Pictures are mostly undated but appear to be from Spencer's girlhood in the 1920s until the early 2000s. Also included are several slides from a 1992 photo shoot in Paris.
| Image Folder P-5145/1-6 |
Spencer #05145, Subseries: "3.1. Elizabeth Spencer Pictures, 1920s-2000." P-5145/1-6P-5145/1P-5145/2P-5145/3P-5145/4P-5145/5P-5145/6 |
| Image Folder P-5145/7 |
1992: Spencer portraits, Paris #05145, Subseries: "3.1. Elizabeth Spencer Pictures, 1920s-2000." P-5145/7 |
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Subseries 3.2. Landscapes of the Heart Pictures, 1911-1997.
Pictures Spencer selected for possible inclusion in her memoir Landscapes of the Heart. Pictures are mostly of Spencer and Rusher, family members, and the Spencer family home in Mississippi. Some of these pictures can be found in the final edition of Landscapes of the Heart. Several of the pictures may be repeated elsewhere in the collection. Many of the older family photographs are reprints of original photographs.
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Subseries 3.3. Family Pictures, 1911-1980s.
Arrangement: chronological.
Pictures of Spencer and Rusher family members. For the most part, original folder titles have been retained, and Spencer provided approximate dates.
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Subseries 3.4. Other Pictures, 1950s-2002.
Arrangement: chronological.
Photographs of Spencer and Rusher's travels, friends and other writers, family members, and writing conferences. Approximate dates were provided by Spencer, and original folder titles have been retained for the most part. Travel photographs are from Europe, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Subjects include Ralph Ellison (1956); Robert Phillips; Walker Percy, Walter Sullivan, and Eudora Welty (1985); Jim Seay, Ellen Douglas, and Peggy Prenshaw at a conference in Russia (1987); Patrick Samway and Mavis Gallant (1992); and Gloria Bragdon and Patrick Samway (2001). Pictures of events include pictures from a party following the opening of Spencer's play For Lease or Sale (1989), Spencer receiving an honorary degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (May 1998), and Spencer receiving the Thomas Wolfe Award (3 October 2002).
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Items Separated
Processed by: Nathalie Wheaton, March 2005
Encoded by: Nathalie Wheaton, March 2005
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