Ellen Douglas

Josephine Ayres Haxton Chamberlain ( born June 12, 1921 in Natchez, Mississippi, † November 7, 2012 in Jackson, Mississippi) was an American writer who wrote her novels under the pseudonym Ellen Douglas.

Life

She grew up in Hope, Arkansas and Alexandria, Louisiana. In 1942, she completed her English studies at the University of Mississippi. For several years she wrote, without even having published a story. It was the poet Charles Bell, the publisher Houghton Mifflin presented one of her manuscripts. With A Family's Affairs was published in 1961 her first novel. The novel was in 1964 under the title to the house in Louisiana: published novel of a family in German language. As the story loosely based on two of her aunts and she wanted to protect her private life, Haxton put to a pseudonym with Ellen Douglas.

Overall Haxton published 11 novels, six of which were novels. With her 1973 novel, Apostles of Light which she was nominated for the National Book Award, which she could not prevail against Thomas Pynchon in his novel Gravity's Rainbow in 1974. Her later novels were shallower according to his own view, and dealt more with postmodern narrative. In the 1970s and 1980s, she was Artist in Residence at the Northeast Louisiana University and University of Mississippi.

Haxton died after a long illness on November 7, 2012 at the age of 91 years at her home in Jackson, Mississippi. She was married to the composer Kenneth Haxton. The marriage ended in divorce. The couple had three sons together, one of which is the poet Brooks Haxton. As Haxton died, she left behind a brother, a sister, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Works

• A Family's Affairs (1961 ) At home in Louisiana: A Novel of a family, university -Verlag, Berlin 1964