Clyde Edgerton

Clyde Edgerton
Born (1944-05-20) May 20, 1944 (age 81)
Durham, North Carolina, U.S.
OccupationAuthor and professor
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Notable awardsNorth Carolina Award (1997)
Website
clydeedgerton.com

Clyde Edgerton (born May 20, 1944) is an American author and academic from North Carolina. He has published a dozen books, most of them novels, three of which have been adapted for film. He was a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he taught creative writing for 26 years .

Early life

Edgerton was born in Durham, North Carolina on May 20, 1944.[1] His parents were Truma and Ernest Edgerton, who came from families of cotton and tobacco farmers, respectively.[1] He grew up in Bethesda, Durham County, North Carolina was a fundamentalist Baptist.[2][3][4] His distant cousin is author Sylvia Wilkerson.[3]

In 1962 Edgerton enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, eventually graduating in English in 1966.[2][1] During this time he was a student in the Air Force ROTC program where he learned to fly a small plane.[4][1] After graduating, he entered the United States Air Force and served five years, from 1966 to 1971, as a fighter pilot in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.[5][6][2][3]

After his time in service, Edgerton returned the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with Master's degree and Ph.D. in English education.[6][3] While in graduate school, he taught English at his former high school.[1]

Career

Academia

Edgerton became a teacher of English education at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina.[7][2] Because the college administration was offended by His fictional portrayal of Free Will Baptists in Raney, the novel led to a controversy that resulted in Edgerton's leaving the teaching staff at Campbell University.[7][6][3]

Edgerton then taught at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, North Carolina.[6] Later, he taught and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.[6] He became a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 1998, where he taught creative writing for 26 years before retiring as the Kenan Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing in 2024.[2][4][6]

Writing

Edgerton decided to become a fiction writer on May 14, 1978 after watching Eudora Welty read a short story on public television.[2] He started out writing short stories while teaching at Campbell University.[8][2]

Edgerton's first novel, Raney, the plot of which revolves around the marriage of a Free Will Baptist and an Episcopalian, was published in 1985.[7][6] His next novel, Walking Across Egypt, was published in 1987.[6] This was followed by The Floatplane Notebooks in 1988, Killer Diller in 1991, In Memory of Junior in 1992, and Redeye: A Western in 1995.[6] Night Train, was published in 2011 and follows two friends—one White and one Black—in the segregated South of the 1960s.[9]

His novels Raney, Walking Across Egypt, and The Floatplane Notebooks were banned in some schools.[3]

Awards and honors

Personal life

In the later 1970s and 1980s, Edgerton lived in Apex, North Carolina.[5] He purchased a 1946 Piper Super Cruiser that he named "Annabelle" in 1989.[5] He crashed the airplane in January 1991.[5]

Edgerton is married and lives with his wife and their children in Wilmington, North Carolina.[3] He served as the chair of the Arts Council in Wilmington, North Carolina.[8] He is also a singer and songwriter.[3][10] He plays the guitar, banjo, and piano.[3]

Selected works

Novels

  • Raney (Algonquin Books, 1985)
  • Walking Across Egypt (1987)
  • The Floatplane Notebooks (1988)
  • Killer Diller (1991)
  • In Memory of Junior (1992)
  • Redeye (1995)
  • Where Trouble Sleeps (1997)
  • Lunch at the Piccadilly (2003)
  • The Bible Salesman (2008)
  • The Night Train (2011)

Nonfiction and memoir

  • Solo: My Adventure in the Air (2005; non-fiction memoir of his fighter pilot career)[4][3]
  • Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers: Advice to Dads of All Ages (2013)[10]

Short stories

  • "Changing Names". New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 1990 (Algonquin Books)[6]

Adaptations

Three of Edgerton's novels have been adapted to film:[10]

One of Edgerton's novels was adapted into a play:

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hennis, R. Sterling (1993). Flora, Joseph; Bain, Robert Bain (eds.). "About Clyde (from Contemporary Fiction Writers of the South)". Clyde Edgerton. Greenwood Press. Archived from the original on 2006-07-18. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cash, Wiley (2025-05-13). "Our State Book Club Presents: Clyde Edgerton". Our State. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Dean, Darrin. "A Conversation with Clyde Edgerton". Image Journal no. 50. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Clyde Edgerton". North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  5. ^ a b c d Edgerton, Clyde (2017-10-01). "Born To Fly". Garden and Gun. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Clyde Edgerton Papers, 1918-2022". UNC Libraries. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  7. ^ a b c d Kelley, Pam (2016-06-02). "New Hanover County Schools tells noted novelist Clyde Edgerton to stay away". Charlotte Observer. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  8. ^ a b c d Natt, Amy (2016-07-08). "Carolina Conversations With N.C. Literary Hall of Fame Author Clyde Edgerton". Aging Outreach Services. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  9. ^ "Night Train Pulls Through Segregated South". NPR. July 30, 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g "2015 Thomas Wolfe Prize: Clyde Edgerton". UNC English & Comparative Literature. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  11. ^ Lacy, Justin (April 1, 2015). "5 things you didn't know about this year's Azalea Fest artist". Star-News. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  12. ^ "Shows - Barter Theatre - Where Trouble Sleeps". bartertheatre.com. 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Edgerton