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Bernice Kelly Harris: A Good Life Was Writing (Southern Biography)

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A young teacher from Wake County graduates from Meredith College, moves to rural Northampton County to teach, and ends up marrying one of the area's richest farmers. The stuff dreams are made of? In Bernice Kelly's case, hardly.

Enter the world of a small town that could be most any small town, a world of have's and have not's, chauvinism and silent suffering, of greed and envy, a society where black and white are essentially and intricately interwoven into a tapestry artfully, intimately, and honestly rendered by Valerie R. Yow. Bernice Kelly Harris, A Good Life Was Writing, is so much more than the compelling biography of a gifted writer who integrates the inhabitants of the world around her into her art. Yow's work also stands as a classic social study of the not so distant South, warts and all.

It is in this South that Bernice Kelly Harris' first novel wins her North Carolina's coveted Mayflower Cup, the first work of fiction, with her being the first woman, to be awarded. Despite the fact Harris authors more novels, plays, and stories, appreciation for her work, this day, seems relegated to scholarly circles. Hopefully Ms. Yow's work will return Bernice Kelly Harris to the recognition she rightly deserves.

Bernice Kelly Harris might have been known as the Eudora Welty of North Carolina, but she hid her literary light under a bushel. Fortunately for us, Valerie Yow brings the life of Ms. Harris to light in this comprehensive and compassionate biography. Harris was a novelist, playwright, and teacher. Many of her students are still living, but her books are out of print. It's a literary tragedy that unfolds like a novel in Yow's able hands.