Newspapers / Chowan University Student Newspaper / Jan. 1, 1965, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of Chowan University Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
y // // DR. BRUCE E. WHITAKER Dr. Bruce E. Whitaker Says: It is gratifying to me that the January issue of The Chow- anian is giving due recognition to Dr. Bernice Kelly Harris and her Creative Writing Class. I am glad that we have made pro vision for "The Literary Chow- anian”. Students in this class include members from surrounding towns in North Carolina and Virginia, as well as members of creative venture at Chowan Col lege, under the able and incom parable leadership of Dr. Harris, which is a source of great satis faction to me. It is my hope and prediction that through this venture in Creative Writing there shall evolve experiences and produc tions which will enliven and en rich communities and indivi duals and that there will evolve quite a number of publishable articles, plays and books. I trust there will be a steady kindling of sparks of creativity experienced on the part of all participants. Chowan College commends and encourages both teacher and stu dents in this creative venture. THAD STEM, JR. // She Was Our Voice // By THAD STEM, JR. Lawyer, Essayist, Author Oxford, N. C. Bernice Kelly Harris is the Tom Wolfe of Eastern Carolina fiction. Indeed, I consider Mrs. Harris and Tom Wolfe as the living pine tree and the ever- blooming laurel of our state’s fictional life. For years Mrs. Harris was our lone voice in the wilderness. Her At Home She's Miss Kelly By J. L. WALTER MOOSE Tar Heel writers call her North Carolina’s First Lady of Letters. Wake Forest College and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro have taken note of her literary a- chievements and honored her with the degree. Doctor of Lit erature. On the title pages of her novels and other published works the name is Bernice Kelly Harris. But in Seaboard she is Miss Kelly. And this is no mean title, nor is it bold familiarity on the part of her home town. Rather, it carries a warmth of genuine re spect and the friendly neighbor liness of the townspeople. Seaboard has been Bernice Kelly Harris’ home for almost half a century. She came to Seaboard to teach English in the local high school and be came Mrs. Herbert K. Harris, but everybody went right on calling her Miss Kelly, and Miss Kelly she has remained. The town knows about PUR SLANE and the Mayflower Cup and numerous other literary awards, but it has never made a show over the author. This is exactly the way she prefers it, for she does not want her neighbors making a fuss over her. Miss Kelly Missed Seaboard misses Miss Kelly when she is out of town because she is so much a part of the village. Through the years she has maintained a lively inter est in community affairs and has manifested a genuine wil lingness to be helpful wherever her talents are needed. There fore her neighbors have always felt free to call on her for all kinds of favors. Children go to her with their interest, too. The little twins on Washington Street stop by Miss Kelly’s to hunt bird nests with her-and to share her cook ies. Another youngster, who has become interested in the world of color, goes by to show Miss Kelly the different colors he has discovered crushing flower petals, blades of grass, and an assortment of weeds on a sheet of paper. He knows she will be interested, for it was she who told him all about it in the first place, about how as a child growing up on a farm in Wake County she had cre ated a riot of color in exactly the same way. This little boy (Continued on Page 16) n 9 SAM RAGAN ''She Has Influenced Many" By SAM RAGAN Executive Editor News and Observer The contribution of Bernice Kelly Harris to North Carolina and American literature is well known. Less well known is her immeasurable contribution to people—other writers, her neigh bors, her friends—and to living itself. The influence of this gentle, gracious woman on the lives of so many people is less easy to measure than the impact of her writing on the literary world. Her encouraging notes and com ments to other writers in North Carolina has often meant the difference between success and failure for those writers in what they sought to accomplish. Mem bers of her writing class at Chowan College will bear wit ness to her devotion to writing and to people. Still the gentleness of her manner does not mar but rather enhances the incisiveness of her (Continued on Page 16) Literary Editors Report Bernice Kelly Harris is the au thor of ten bMks. PURSLANE, PORTULAGA, SWEET BEULAH LAND, SAGE QUARTER, JAN- EY JEEMS, HEARTHSTONES and WILD CHERRY TREE ROAD are the novels. THE VERY TRUTH ABOUT CHRIST MAS and SANTA ON THE MANTEL are children’s books. SOUTHERN SAVORY, only re cently published, is according to a reviewer for a Charlotte paper, “one - tenth autobiography and nine-tenths a survey of the hu man heart.” The publishers are the University of North Caro lina Press at Chapel Hill, Doubleday and Company of New York, Art and Educational Pub lishers of London and Putnam of Glasgow and London. Mrs. Harris’ short stories have appeared in The Saturday Even ing Post, Colliers Magazine and Pageant. There have been fea ture stories in The Raleigh News (Continued on Page 16) : * vr —rr magnificient novels such as “Pur slane”, "P o r t u 1 a c a”, “Sage Quarter”, “Wild Cherry Tree Road”, “Sweet Beulah Land”, and “Janey Jeems” are redolent with charm, truth, dramatic in tensity. and humanity. These cries from the heart of a people had to be written, just as a baby has to be born. But our section was a floor of danuiing question (Continued on Page 16) THE REVEREND J. L. WALTER MOOSE WITH DR. BERNICE KELLY HARRIS PAGE TWO THE CHOWAN IAN
Chowan University Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 1, 1965, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75