Clyde Edgerton

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Clyde Edgerton
Born (1944-05-20) May 20, 1944 (age 79)
Durham, North Carolina, U.S.
OccupationAuthor
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Notable awardsNorth Carolina Award (1997)
ParentsErnest Edgerton
Truma Edgerton

Clyde Edgerton (born May 20, 1944) is an American author. He has published a dozen books, most of them novels, two of which have been adapted for film. He is also a professor, teaching creative writing.

Biography[edit]

Edgerton was born in Durham, North Carolina and grew up in the small town of Bethesda, North Carolina. He was the only child of Truma and Ernest Edgerton, who came from families of cotton and tobacco farmers, respectively. In 1962 Edgerton enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, eventually majoring in English. During this time he was a student in the Air Force ROTC program where he learned to fly a small plane. After graduating in 1966, he entered the Air Force and served five years as a fighter pilot in the United States, Korea, Japan, and Thailand.[1]

After his time in service, Edgerton got his Master's degree in English and began a job as an English teacher at his old high school. Soon after, he also earned a doctorate.[citation needed]

He decided to become a writer in 1978 after watching Eudora Welty read a short story on public television.

Publication of Edgerton's first novel, Raney, the plot of which revolves around the marriage of a Free Will Baptist and an Episcopalian, ultimately led to Edgerton's leaving the teaching staff at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina (a Baptist institution).[2][3] His later work, Killer Diller, is a thinly veiled satire of that university and its administration, with whom Edgerton clashed over Raney.[citation needed]

His novel Redeye was inspired by a visit to the Mesa Verde and Anasazi cliff dwellings; the book is a historical novel set in 1890s Colorado.[citation needed] His tenth novel, Night Train, follows two friends—one White and one Black—in the segregated South of the 1960s.[4]

As of 2011 he was a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.[4] He has a street named after him in Kernersville, North Carolina.[5]

Works[edit]

  • Raney (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)
  • Solo: My Adventure in the Air (2005; non-fiction memoir of his fighter pilot career)
  • The Bible Salesman (2008)
  • The Night Train (2011)
  • Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers: Advice to Dads of All Ages (2013)

Films[edit]

Two of Clyde Edgerton's novels have been adapted to film:

Awards[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Edgerton, Clyde (2017-10-01). "Born To Fly". Garden and Gun. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  2. ^ Kelley, Pam (2016-06-02). "New Hanover County Schools tells noted novelist Clyde Edgerton to stay away". Charlotte Observer. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  3. ^ Staff, Ben Steelman StarNews. "Bookmarks: Two Clyde Edgerton novels back in print". Wilmington Star News. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  4. ^ a b "Night Train Pulls Through Segregated South". NPR. July 30, 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  5. ^ Lacy, Justin (April 1, 2015). "5 things you didn't know about this year's Azalea Fest artist". Star-News. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  6. ^ "Shows - Barter Theatre - Where Trouble Sleeps". bartertheatre.com. 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2011.

External links[edit]