Dorothy Scarborough

Dorothy Scarborough
Dorothy Scarborough, from a 1918 publication.
Born(1878-01-27)January 27, 1878
Mount Carmel, Texas
DiedNovember 7, 1935(1935-11-07) (aged 57)
New York City
Occupation
  • Writer
  • professor
  • literary critic
Literary movementAmerican folklore
Notable worksThe Wind

Emily Dorothy Scarborough (January 27, 1878 – November 7, 1935) was born to Judge John B. Scarborough and his wife (name unknown). She was a famous American writer who wrote about Texas, folk culture, cotton farming, ghost stories and women's life in the Southwest. In addition to writing, she taught lectures as an assistant professor at Columbia University in creative writing, and numerous students of hers went on to become well-published and respected authors. She is considered a Baylor University alumni celebrity by the Baylor Lariat. Her students and colleagues described her as being energetic, engaging and a keen-observer, in regards to her occupation as an assistant professor as well as her temperament as a person. Scarborough also displayed interest in art and agriculture as she frequently attended an art retreat called YADDO in Saratoga Springs, New York, and she owned a farm of 125 acres in Connecticut.

Early life

Scarborough was born in [[Smith County, Texas|Mount Carmel, Texas]. At the age of four she moved to Sweetwater, Texas for her mother's health, as her mother needed the drier climate. The family soon left Sweetwater in 1887, so that the Scarborough children could get a good education at Baylor College.

Academics and writing

Even though Scarborough's writings are identified with Texas, she studied at University of Chicago and Oxford University and, beginning in 1916, taught literature at Columbia University.

While receiving her PhD from Columbia, she wrote a dissertation, "The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction". Sylvia Ann Grider writes in a critical introduction that the dissertation "was so widely acclaimed by her professors and colleagues that it was published and it has become a basic reference work".[1]

Dorothy Scarborough came in contact with many writers in New York, including Edna Ferber and Vachel Lindsay. She taught creative writing classes at Columbia. Among her creative writing students were Eric Walrond and Carson McCullers, who took her first college writing class from Scarborough.[1]

Her most critically acclaimed book, The Wind (first published anonymously in 1925), was later made into a film of the same name starring Lillian Gish.

Bibliography

Original works

Folklore

Biographical and critical essays

Biographical Essay on the Handbook of Texas Online Foreword to The Wind by Sylvia Ann Grider, Barker Texas History Center series, University of Texas Press, 1979.

References

  1. ^ a b Foreword to The Wind by Sylvia Ann Grider, Barker Texas History Center series, University of Texas Press, 1979.

Sources

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