Spencer, Elizabeth (1921–)
Spencer, Elizabeth (1921–)
American novelist and short-story writer. Born in Carrollton, Mississippi, July 19, 1921; dau. of James L. Spencer (farmer) and Mary J. (McCain) Spencer; Belhaven College, BA, 1942; Vanderbilt University, MA, 1943; m. John Rusher (educator), Sept 29, 1956.
Best known for her short stories and for her novel The Light in the Piazza, taught English and creative writing at several schools: Northwest Mississippi Junior College in Senatobia (1943–44), Ward-Belmont in Nashville (1944–45), and for several years at University of Mississippi; also served a stint as a reporter for Nashville Tennessean (1945–46); published Fire in the Morning (1948), followed by This Crooked Way (1952) and The Voice at the Back Door (1956), a cycle of novels that, taken together, portray the social and political circum-stances of the rural South during 1st half of 20th century; lived in Italy (1953–56) and wrote 4 novels about North Americans in Europe, including The Light in the Piazza (1960), Knights and Dragons (1965) and No Place for an Angel (1967); published The Snare (1972); moved to Montreal, Canada (1958), where she taught at Concordia University (1976–86); returned to the South (1986) and was a professor in creative writing at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (1986–92).
See also autobiography, Landscapes of the Heart (1998); and Women in World History.