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Local figure

Lee Smith

By 2020 the novelist Lee Smith had lived in Hillsborough for more than twenty years, and she traces her novel On Agate Hill to an old man who knocked at the door of her new house there before the boxes were unpacked. She has published fifteen novels and four story collections.

Source: WRAL: Authors in our backyard: Hillsborough home to several notable writers

1944– as the Library of Congress records it · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

6 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes 3 works by Lee Smith. 1 held at OCPL →

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

By Lee Smith

Dimestore: A Writer's Life

Smith, Lee · 2016 · Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Lee Smith, the novelist who lives in Hillsborough, recalls a mountain childhood in Grundy, Virginia, and the writing life that followed. The essays also take in her mother's mental illness, and later her son's own illness and his death at a young age, alongside pieces on the recipe box, marble cake and moonshine, lady lessons and a life in books. Published 2016, 202 pages.

Reviewed in Appalachian heritage (2016).

On Agate Hill

Smith, Lee · 2006 · Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Lee Smith's historical novel, told in diary form by an orphan girl on a plantation in Reconstruction North Carolina and following her into marriage and widowhood. Published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 2006 as a Shannon Ravenel book, 367 pages. Topics include diary fiction, orphans, plantations, teenage girls and Reconstruction. Smith lives in Hillsborough.

Reviewed in Appalachian heritage (2007).

Family linen

Smith, Lee, 1944- · 1986

Lee Smith's novel Family linen in the Ballantine printing of 1986, this copy an uncorrected proof issued for limited distribution, 291 pages in paperback format. This psychological novel concerns hypnotism, the death of a father and the lives of women in the Southern states, with Chapel Hill among the settings recorded for the book.

About Lee Smith

A Day With Lee Smith

Silas House · 2003

Silas House's profile of the novelist Lee Smith, written from a day with her at home in Hillsborough.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the OpenAlex record: Smith, Lee, 1944-.

Sounds of the South Radio collection, 1991-1994

1991

Twenty four items from the Sounds of the South radio program, 1991 to 1994, part of the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC, collection 20052-z. Subjects include bluegrass, blues, country and folk music, southern folklore and oral tradition, music festivals and women blues musicians, with WUNC in Chapel Hill, Wayne Martin, Thomas W. Hanchett and Lee Smith.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Smith, Lee, 1944-.

UNC

Louis D. Rubin Jr. papers, 1929-1996.

Rubin, Louis D., Jr. (Louis Decimus), 1923-2013 · 1929

Papers of the critic and teacher Louis D. Rubin, Jr. (1923-2013), 1929 to 1996, about 44,600 items in 65 linear feet, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3899. Topics include the faculty at Chapel Hill, the study of southern literature, authors and publishers, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, baseball in fiction, and writers such as Lee Smith, Clyde Edgerton and Allen Tate.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Smith, Lee, 1944-.

UNC

Clyde Edgerton papers, 1918-2022

Edgerton, Clyde, 1944- · 1918

Running from 1918 to 2022, the papers of the novelist Clyde Edgerton, born 1944, form part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Subjects include the writers Lee Smith and Michael McFee and the editor Louis D. Rubin, Jr., along with Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Baptists in North Carolina, the United States Army in the First World War, and the Vietnam War.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Smith, Lee, 1944-.

UNC

Elizabeth Spencer papers, 1911-2018 (bulk 1999-2003)

Spencer, Elizabeth, 1921-2019 · 1911

The novelist Elizabeth Spencer, 1921 to 2019, left papers spanning 1911 to 2018 with the bulk from 1999 to 2003. Subjects include many American writers, among them Eudora Welty, Walker Percy, Ellen Douglas, Lee Smith and Allan Gurganus, and they cover her Mississippi upbringing at Carrollton and her years on the faculty at Chapel Hill. Part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5145.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Smith, Lee, 1944-.

UNC

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Lee Smith teaches creative writing at UNC-Chapel Hill Novelist Lee Smith taught creative writing at UNC-Chapel Hill as a lecturer from 1978 to 1981, before joining NC State.In the index: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · NC State University Libraries: Lee Marshall Smith Papers, 1956-2019
  2. Six writers read at the Hardback Cafe to raise money against the Shearon Harris nuclear plant Joe Ashby Porter, Jill McCorkle, Clyde Edgerton, Lee Smith, Garrett Epps and Elizabeth Spencer read from their work at a $50-a-plate benefit dinner at the Hardback Cafe, raising over $2,000 for the Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon Harris. Organizers turned away 30 ticket requests because of the room's fire-code limit. People: Lee Smith, Clyde Edgerton, Jill McCorkleSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, July 24, 1986, page 1
  3. Annie Dillard joins the Rubin writers panel at the North Carolina Literary Festival At the North Carolina Literary Festival at UNC, Dillard sat on a panel of writers who had studied under Louis Rubin, with Lee Smith, Katie Letcher Lyle, Margaret Gibson, Sylvia Wilkinson and Elizabeth Seydel Morgan, in Hamilton Hall. People: Lee Smith, Louis D. Rubin Jr., Sylvia WilkinsonSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, March 31, 1998, page 15
  4. Lee Smith, Randall Kenan and Allan Gurganus gather with other authors at Brick Alley Books Kenan, Lee Smith and Allan Gurganus shared stories at a gathering of authors at Brick Alley Books in Hillsborough. The Daily Tar Heel used the evening to report on the town as a home for writers, quoting Smith, Gurganus, Kenan, poet laureate Mike Troy and photographer Elizabeth Matheson. People: Lee Smith, Allan GurganusSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, December 3, 2007, page 1
  5. Lee Smith launches her novel Silver Alert at the Main Library in Hillsborough The Orange County Public Library held a reading and signing at its Main Library on West Margaret Lane to launch Lee Smith's novel Silver Alert.Search the index · Orange County Public Library: Lee Smith Book Reading & Signing

Places in this person’s story

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Lee Smith, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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Books about Lee Smith

Books by Lee Smith

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