Elizabeth Spencer  1921
Major Works
Novels
- The Night Travelers
- The Salt Line
- The Snare
- No Place for an Angel
- Knights and Dragons
- The Light in the Piazza
- The Voice at the Back Door
- The Crooked Way
- Fire in the Morning
Photo
right courtesy of Elizabeth Spencer
Short Story Collections
- The Southern Woman
- The Light in the Piazza and other Italian Tales
- On the Gulf
- Marilee
- Jack of Diamonds and other stories
- The Stories of Elizabeth Spencer
- Ship Island and other stories
Non-fiction
Drama
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Biography of Elizabeth
Spencer
By Natasha Hunter (SHS)
( Photos of Elizabeth Spencer by
Nancy Jacobs)
 Elizabeth
Spencer was born in Carrollton, Mississippi, on July
19, 1921. Her parents were Mary James McCain Spencer
and James Luther Spencer. When she graduated from
J. Z. George High School in North Carrollton, Mississippi, she
had high grades and was valedictorian of her class.
In 1938 Spencer attended Belhaven College, in Jackson,
Mississippi.. Then in 1943 she attended Vanderbilt University
in Nashville, Tennessee, and earned her M.A. degree.
She taught English at Northwest Mississippi Junior College in
Senatobia during the 1943-1944 school year and at Ward-Belmont
in Nashville during the 1944-1945 school year, before she took
a job as a reporter with the Nashville Tennessean
(1945-1946). After leaving her newspaper job,
she worked for the next few years as an instructor at
the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi,
teaching traditional English courses and creative writing. In
1953 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and left
Mississippi to live in Italy and pursue writing full time.
While these she met and married John Rusher of Cornwall, England,
in 1956. For a time Spencer and her husband lived in Canada
after having lived in Italy for five years. Then in
1986, they moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she still
resides. Her husband died in 1998. In Chapel Hill, Spencer
began teaching writing at UNC-Chapel Hill, and she taught there
for many years. She is now retired.
Spencer's first novel was published in 1948. All together she has
written nine novels, seven collections of short stories, one
non-fiction, and a play. 
Elizabeth Spencer started writing down stories as soon as she
learned to write and loved reading and being read to. She has
read a great many authors, especially the ones she admires.
She admires many Mississippi and English authors. Some of them
are Henry Green, Thomas Hardy, and Joseph Conrad. She also likes
French writers such as Stendhal, Colette, Proust, and Camus.
Spencer's most recent book is The Southern Woman:
New and Selected Fiction. She is very pleased with the
selection even though some stories and novellas had to be omitted.
Many reviewers also have taken a liking to this book. Since
her husband's death in 1998, it has been hard to find
a steady focus for her to write about. She is hoping
to begin writing again. Spencer has a saying, "A
writer who is not writing is like a useless piece of furniture,
ready for the attic." (Photo above: Researcher
Natasha Hunter)
 Elizabeth
Spencer has won many awards in her lifetime. She
is a five-time recipient of the O. Henry prize for short fiction.
While considered a Southern writer, Spencer lived in Italy and
Canada for many years and many of her stories take place in
those countries, including her best-known work, Light in the
Piazza. In 1952 she got a recognition award from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1953 she received the
Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship Award. In 1956-1957 she
received the Kenyon Review Fiction Fellowship and the First
Rosenthal Award. In 1960 she received the McGraw-Hill
Fiction Fellowship  Award.
In 1962 she received the Donnelly Fellowship, Bryn Mawr College.
In 1968 she received the Bellamann Award. In 1983 she
received the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and
the Award of Merit Medal for the Short Story. In 1985
she was elected to the American Institute of Arts and Letters.
In 1988 she received the National Endowment for the Arts Senior
Fellowship in Literature Grant. Then in 1992 she received
the Salem Award for Distinction in Letters from Salem College
and the John Dos Passos Award for Literature. In 1994 she received
the North Carolina Governor's Award for Literature. She was
the Vice-Chancellor for the Charter Member Fellowship of Southern
Writers from 1993 to 1997.
In 1997 Spencer received the J. William Corrington Award for
fiction and the Richard Wright Literary Excellence Award for
fiction. In 1998 she received the Fortner Award for Literature.
In 1999 she received the Mississippi State Library Award for
non-fiction. In 2001 she received the Cleanth Brooks Medal for
achievement awarded by the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
In 2002 she received the Thomas Wolfe Award for Literature given
by UNC-Chapel Hill and the Morgan Foundation and was also inducted
into the N.C. Hall of Fame.
 UPDATE
2009 The book Light in the Piazza
was published in 1960 and made into a Hollywood movie
in 1962. The movie starred Olivia de Havilland, Yvette Mimieux,
George Hamilton, Rossano Brazzi and Barry Sullivan. Adam Guettel
has written the music and lyrics for a musical version of The
Light in the Piazza. It was first produced in
Seattle in 2003 and opened in New York in 2005 at the Lincoln
Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre to great reviews. The musical
won six Tony Awards in 2006, including the award to Adam Guettel
for his music and to Victoria Clark for her performance in the
leading role. In 2007 the musical went on a national tour.
Katie Clark, star of Light
in the Piazza at Mississippi University for Wormen
and Elizabeth Spencer
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A Review
of The Light in the Piazza
by Natasha Hunter (SHS)
2002
The Light in the Piazza is a romantic novella by Elizabeth Spencer. This book holds your attention with its multi-cultural love between two young adults. You won't want to put it down. An American woman and her daughter travel to Italy for a long vacation to get away from complications at home. The girl has some mental problems, but she falls in love with a young Italian boy. The book leads to a perfect ending with some difficulty in-between.
I liked the book because I enjoy reading about romantic happenings in young people's lives. The book is full of detail and conflict between American and Italian lifestyles. Despite some confusion, everything comes out perfectly in the end.
Spencer writes descriptively so that when reading the book, the reader can easily picture the lovely sites of Rome and Italy. The detail in the description of places makes you wish you were there.
I think this is a great book for any age to read since there are no references to sex or profanity anywhere in the book. The plot is full of interesting historical facts throughout the novel. The girl's mother isn't sure that the girl should let herself fall in love with the Italian boy and doesn't know what to do. She can either keep her daughter in Italy where she has found love or take her back to America and the torment she has to put up with. If you would like to know how it ends, then pick up a copy from your local library or bookstore.
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Interview with
Elizabeth Spencer (2002)
by Natasha Hunter (SHS)
Where were you born?
I was born in Carrollton, Mississippi.
What are your parents' names?
My parents were Mary James McCain Spencer and James Luther Spencer.
What high school did you attend?
 I
went to J. Z. George High School in North Carrollton, Mississippi.
What kind of student were you in high school?
I had high grades and was class valedictorian.
What college did you attend?
I attended Belhaven College in Jackson and graduated cum laude, then went to Vanderbilt University in Nashville where I received a Master's Degree in Literature in 1943.
Is the book, even though fiction, based on your life or someone you know or knew?
The story, The Light In the Piazza, did not relate to my life in any way.
Who is your favorite author or authors?
I read and have read a great many authors, especially those I admire--the Mississippi writers, and the English too--such as Henry Green, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, Elizabeth Bowen. I love French writers like Stendhal, Colette and Prost, also Camus.
When did you become interested in writing?
I began to write down stories as soon as I learned to write and loved reading and being read to.
Are you working on a new book right now?
My husband died in 1998, and I have not been writing much since, so though I work on different manuscripts I have no special project at the moment.
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Related Websites
This
excellent site is by Elizabeth Spencer and includes her resume,
photos, and more.
The Corrington Award Page has a little bit about Spencer's Awards.
American
Radio Works has some information about Spencer's Awards.
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Bibliography
"Elizabeth Spencer." Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002.
Spencer, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Spencer-Writer. Interview by Natasha Hunter on 13 December, 2002.
Spencer, Elizabeth. The Light in the Piazza. New York, London, Toronto. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
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