JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Ellen Douglas, a Mississippi native whose novel “Apostles of Light” was a 1973 National Book Award nominee, died Wednesday in Jackson. She was 91.
Douglas, who cited fellow Mississippi native William Faulkner as a literary influence, was the pen name of Josephine Ayres Haxton; she said she took a pseudonym to guard the privacy of her family. Douglas’ Mississippi-set work dealt candidly with race relations, families and the role of women.
Douglas grew up in Hope, Ark., and Alexandria, La., and spent summers with her grandparents in Natchez, Miss., where the family’s roots reached back generations. She graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1942. She wrote 11 books, including six novels and several collections of short stories and essays.
“Apostles of Light” is a complex novel about the mistreatment of residents at a home for the elderly in fictional Homochitto, Miss., the town in many of her works.
“If you don’t have conflict, you don’t have fiction,” Douglas told The Associated Press in a 2005 interview about race relations and other forces that helped shape literature.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
