Mary Ward Brown

Mary Ward Brown (June 18, 1917 – May 14, 2013) was an American short story writer and memoirist. Her works largely feature Alabama as a setting and have received several awards.

Mary Ward Brown
Mary Ward Brown signing one of her books
Born	Mary Ward (1917-06-18)June 18, 1917 Hamburg, Alabama
Died	May 14, 2013(2013-05-14) (aged 95)
Occupation	Short story writer, memoirist

Early life

Brown was born on June 18, 1917, in Hamburg, Alabama. She graduated from Judson College.^[1] She had two half-brothers; one was Sheldon Fitts, who played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs football team.^[2]

Career

Her first collection of short stories, Tongues of Flame, published in 1986, won the PEN/Hemingway (1987), the Alabama Author Award (1987), the Lillian Smith Book Award (1991), and the Hillsdale Fiction Prize (2003).^[3] Following her second collection of short stories, It Wasn't All Dancing, published in 2002, Brown was awarded the Alabama Library Author Award (2003), the Hillsdale Award for Fiction (2003), and the Harper Lee Award (2002).^[4]

Author Paul Theroux has said of her writing that it was "...direct, unaffected, unsentimental, and powerful for its simplicity and for its revealing the inner life of rural Alabama...".^[5] Her story "Cure" was included in The Best American Short Stories 1984 (edited by John Updike & Shannon Ravenel).^[6] Southern journalist John S. Sledge called Brown "our genius, our Chekov".^[7]

Books

• Tongues of Flame (1986) New York: E.P. Dutton. ISBN 9780525244318.
• It wasn't all dancing, and other stories (2002) Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 9780817350079.
• Fanning the spark: a memoir (2009) Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 9780817381547.

Death

Brown died of pancreatic cancer in Marion, Alabama, on May 14, 2013.^[8]

References

1. Dickson, Foster (May 20, 2013). "Mary Ward Brown". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation. Archived from the original on May 25, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
2. Brown, Mary Ward (2009). Fanning the Spark: A Memoir. University of Alabama Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780817316457. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
3. "In Memoriam: Mary Ward Brown June 18, 1917-May 14, 2013". Alabama Writers' Forum.
4. "It Wasn't All Dancing and Other Stories". University of Alabama Press.
5. Paul Theroux (2015). Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-544-32353-7. Page 277.
6. "The Best American Short Stories 1984 (Table of Contents)".
7. John S. Sledge (15 March 2013). Southern Bound: A Gulf Coast Journalist on Books, Writers, and Literary Pilgrimages of the Heart. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-61117-236-2.
8. Weber, Bruce (22 May 2013). "Mary Ward Brown, Award-Winning Short Story Writer, Dies at 95". The New York Times.