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Size | 11.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 8,000 items) |
Abstract | Bernice Kelly Harris (1891-1973) was an author and playwright, largely on southern topics, and leader in civic, cultural, and religious organizations of Seaboard, N.C. She participated in the W.P.A. Federal Writers' Project, collecting "life histories" of ordinary people in the South. The collection includes correspondence and writings of Bernice Kelly (Mrs. H. K.) Harris including letters from editors, publishers, other writers, and friends; fan mail; and writings. Correspondents include J. O. Bailey, W. T. Couch, Jonathan Daniels, Inglis Fletcher, L. H. Fountain, Harry Golden, Bernadette Hoyle, Sam Ragan, Thad Stem, Gilbert Thomas Stephenson, and Richard Gaither Walser. Also included are seventeen interviews conducted by Valerie Yow in 1996 and 1997 with relatives and friends of Bernice Kelly Harris. |
Creator | Harris, Bernice Kelly. |
Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
Language | English. |
This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Bernice Kelly Harris (8 Oct. 1891-13 Sept. 1973) was born in Wake County, N.C., daughter of William Haywood and Rosa Poole Kelly. She attended Mt. Moriah Academy and Cary High School. She graduated from Meredith College in 1913. Harris worked briefly as a principal for a school at Beulaville, Duplin County, N.C. She also taught for three years at the South Fork Institute, near Maiden in Catawba County, N.C., an academy for training rural Baptist preachers. In 1917, she went to Seaboard High School in Northampton County, N.C. She taught English there from 1917 to 1927 except for a year in Rich Square (1921-1922).
During this time, Harris continued to pursue her education by attending summer school at the University of North Carolina. She studied playwriting in 1919 and 1920 under Frederick H. Koch. Koch's love for the folk play inspired Harris. She returned to Seaboard determined to spread the "folk gospel," and to do some writing of her own. In May 1926, she married Herbert Kavanaugh Harris, a Seaboard farmer. Marriage did not dull Bernice Kelly Harris's enthusiasm for writing. She was instrumental in organizing the Northampton Players among the younger people, to write and produce plays at home before taking the best material to the state drama festival.
After 1930, began sending human interest stories and feature articles to Raleigh and Norfolk newspapers. Four of her character sketches appeared in These Are Our Lives (1939), a Federal Writers Project book. In 1939, she wrote Purslane, a novel which won the Mayflower Society Cup as the best North Carolina book of the year. Her other novels include Portulaca (1941), Sage Quarter (1945), Janey Jeems (1946), Hearthstones (1948), and Wild Cheery Tree Road (1951). She also wrote two Christmas booklets: The Very Real Truth about Christmas (1961) and The Santa on the Mantel (1964).
In 1961, Harris was president of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. She also served on the boards of trustees of the State Library Commission and the North Carolina Arts Council, was active in the North Carolina Writers Conference and the Reannex-Chowan Group, and taught creative writing classes at Chowan College. From her classes at Chowan came two collections, Southern Home Remedies (1968) and Strange Things Happen (1971), for which she received a Brown-Hudson Folklore Award posthumously from the North Carolina Folklore Society.
Herbert K. Harris died on 13 July 1950. Bernice Kelly Harris died 23 years later in 1973.
[Source: William S. Powell, ed. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Vol. 3 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988): 47-48.]
Back to TopCorrespondence and writings of Bernice Kelly (Mrs. H. K.) Harris including letters from editors, publishers, other writers, and friends; fan mail; and writings. Correspondents include J. O. Bailey, W. T. Couch, Jonathan Daniels, Inglis Fletcher, L. H. Fountain, Harry Golden, Bernadette Hoyle, Sam Ragan, Thad Stem, Gilbert Thomas Stephenson, and Richard Gaither Walser. Also included are seventeen interviews conducted by Valerie Yow in 1996 and 1997 with relatives and friends of Bernice Kelly Harris.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Letters from publishers, editors, other writers, and a large circle of friends and fans. Letters included invitations to speak, information on literary engagements and honors, and some of Harris's own mail to her family.
Folder 1 |
1913-May 1939 |
Folder 2 |
June 1939-December 1939 |
Folder 3 |
1940 |
Folder 4 |
1941-1942 |
Folder 5 |
1943-1944 |
Folder 6 |
1945-1946 |
Folder 7 |
1947-1948 |
Folder 8 |
1949-1951 |
Folder 9 |
1952-1954 |
Folder 10 |
1955-1956 |
Folder 11 |
January-July 1957 |
Folder 12 |
August-December 1957 |
Folder 13 |
1958 |
Folder 14 |
1959 |
Folder 15 |
1960 |
Folder 16 |
1961 |
Folder 17 |
1962 |
Folder 18 |
1963 |
Folder 19 |
1964 |
Folder 20 |
1965 |
Folder 21 |
January-August 1966 |
Folder 22 |
September-December 1966 |
Folder 23 |
January-July 1967 |
Folder 24 |
August-December 1967 |
Folder 25 |
1968 |
Folder 26 |
1969 |
Folder 27 |
1970 |
Folder 28 |
1971 |
Folder 29 |
1972-1973 |
Folder 30-31
Folder 30Folder 31 |
Undated fan mail |
Folder 32 |
Undated from J. O. Bailey |
Folder 33 |
Undated from Vaughn Holomon |
Folder 34-38
Folder 34Folder 35Folder 36Folder 37Folder 38 |
Undated miscellaneous |
Folder 39 |
Fragments |
Arrangement: roughly by topic.
Newspaper articles and clippings, awards, photographs, publishers' catalogues, and related material by or about Bernice Kelly Harris. The reviews of Harris's are from newspapers in North Carolina, as well as The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, and The New York Herald. Included are reviews by Eudora Welty and Doris Betts.
Folder 40-46
Folder 40Folder 41Folder 42Folder 43Folder 44Folder 45Folder 46 |
Clippings about BKH |
Folder 47-48
Folder 47Folder 48 |
Clippings by BKH |
Folder 49 |
Clippings |
Folder 50 |
Reviews |
Folder 51 |
Plays, writers conferences programs |
Folder 52 |
Certificates |
Folder 53 |
Photographs |
Folder 54 |
Ephemera/miscellaneous |
Image Folder PF-3804/1-2
PF-3804/1PF-3804/2 |
Photographs |
Arrangement: by title.
Typescripts, galley proofs, draft copies, and revised editions of novels, short stories, and plays by Bernice Kelly Harris.
Folder 55-57
Folder 55Folder 56Folder 57 |
Purslane |
Folder 58-60
Folder 58Folder 59Folder 60 |
These Are Our Lives |
Folder 61-63
Folder 61Folder 62Folder 63 |
Folk Plays of Eastern Carolina |
Folder 64-65
Folder 64Folder 65 |
Bantie Woman |
Folder 66 |
Portulaca |
Folder 67-68
Folder 67Folder 68 |
Sweet Beulah Land |
Folder 69-72
Folder 69Folder 70Folder 71Folder 72 |
Yellow Color Suit |
Folder 73 |
Sage Quarter |
Folder 74-76
Folder 74Folder 75Folder 76 |
Jamey Jeems |
Folder 77-81
Folder 77Folder 78Folder 79Folder 80Folder 81 |
Wild Cherry Tree Road |
Folder 82 |
A Land More Large Than Earth |
Folder 83-85
Folder 83Folder 84Folder 85 |
The Santa on the Mantel |
Folder 86-88
Folder 86Folder 87Folder 88 |
Southern Savory |
Folder 89 |
Southern Home Remedies |
Folder 90-96
Folder 90Folder 91Folder 92Folder 93Folder 94Folder 95Folder 96 |
Unfinished Work, 1973 |
Folder 97 |
ALH |
Folder 98 |
Amanda Pollock |
Folder 99 |
American Way of Life |
Folder 100 |
At the Washington Daffodil Show |
Folder 101 |
The Brown Lady |
Folder 102 |
Christmas Chimney |
Folder 103 |
Christmas Eve |
Folder 104 |
Davey and Judith |
Folder 105 |
Don't Ask Miss Ann About the Old Days |
Folder 106 |
Don't Break the Rhythm |
Folder 107 |
Facts and Fiction |
Folder 108 |
The Federation Wins |
Folder 109 |
The Fifth Day of Christmas |
Folder 110 |
Flash |
Folder 111 |
The Fourth Stranger |
Folder 112 |
Goodnight, Ladies |
Folder 113 |
The Goose-Man |
Folder 114 |
The Image |
Folder 115 |
In Red Shirt Day |
Folder 116 |
Incredible Idyll |
Folder 117 |
It is Christmas Eve... |
Folder 118 |
Jeptha's Daughter |
Folder 119 |
Kathy Leen Baker |
Folder 120 |
Lindo |
Folder 121 |
The Little Address Book |
Folder 122 |
Live Embers |
Folder 123 |
Mr. Springtime |
Folder 124 |
Mother of the Year |
Folder 125 |
Music Hath Charms |
Folder 126 |
Napoleon |
Folder 127 |
News and Observer |
Folder 128 |
The North Carolina Writers' Conference (speech) |
Folder 129 |
One Village Sunday |
Folder 130 |
Pink Honeymoon |
Folder 131 |
The Prodigal Son |
Folder 132 |
Red Berries at Christmas |
Folder 133 |
Ruima... |
Folder 134 |
Santa Claus Wore Blue |
Folder 135 |
A Sheaf of Red Roses |
Folder 136 |
State Literary Association (speech) |
Folder 137 |
The Spire |
Folder 138 |
Stet |
Folder 139 |
The Veil |
Folder 140 |
Women After Their Kind |
Folder 141 |
Woodsman Extraordinary |
Folder 142 |
Writing Class at Chown, 1963 |
Galley proofs, rough drafts, and typescripts of unknown works by Bernice Kelly Harris. Included are plays, short stories, and novels.
Folder 143-190
Folder 143Folder 144Folder 145Folder 146Folder 147Folder 148Folder 149Folder 150Folder 151Folder 152Folder 153Folder 154Folder 155Folder 156Folder 157Folder 158Folder 159Folder 160Folder 161Folder 162Folder 163Folder 164Folder 165Folder 166Folder 167Folder 168Folder 169Folder 170Folder 171Folder 172Folder 173Folder 174Folder 175Folder 176Folder 177Folder 178Folder 179Folder 180Folder 181Folder 182Folder 183Folder 184Folder 185Folder 186Folder 187Folder 188Folder 189Folder 190 |
Unidentified Writings |
Tapes, tape indexes, and field notes for seventeen oral histories by Valerie Yow about Bernice Kelly Harris. Dates represent the date of the interview.