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Josephine Carson

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Josephine Carson
Born(1919-06-21)June 21, 1919
Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
DiedNovember 2, 2002(2002-11-02) (aged 83)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Novelist
  • playwright
  • short story writer
Spouse
Mark Rider
(divorced)
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (1958)

Josephine Carson (June 21, 1919 – November 2, 2002) was an American writer. A resident of San Francisco, she published three novels – Drives My Green Age (1957), First Man, Last Man (1967), and Where You Goin', Girlie? (1975) – as well as short stories and non-fiction. She also taught subjects such as creative writing at Bennington College, the University of California, Berkeley, and Mills College at Northeastern University.

Biography

[edit]

Josephine Carson was born on June 21, 1919 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[1] She was the daughter of Helen (nee Neves) and Simpson Mason Carson, a Canadian-born oil operator based in western Kentucky.[2][3][4] After she spent some time in New York, she began creative writing while living in San Miguel de Allende.[1] She was educated at the University of Tulsa and, after a years-long break, the University of California at Los Angeles.[5]

She was a Huntington Hartford Foundation Fellow in 1957.[5] She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction in 1958.[6] She was awarded a MacDowell Colony fellowship three times, two in 1970 and one in 1971.[7] She was also a Yaddo fellow.[8]

She published her first novel, Drives My Green Age in 1957.[9][10] She won the Stanford University Dramatists' Alliance's 1960 Miles Anderson Award for her then-unpublished play Open Season.[9][10] A second novel, First Man, Last Man, was published in 1967,[9] and her third novel, Where You Goin', Girlie?, in 1975.[10]

In addition to novels and plays, she also wrote short stories for magazines.[9] She also wrote on African-American women in the civil rights movement with her non-fiction book Silent Voices.[1][10] By the time of her death, she had also reportedly finished an unpublished book named The Flesh, as well as another one.[1]

After spending time working as a teacher in San Francisco State College (1967-1968) and the Happy Valley School (1969-1970), she later moved to Bennington College in 1971.[9] She also worked at University of California, Berkeley and Mills College at Northeastern University as a writing teacher, and she was a visiting writer at the latter.[1][11]

She married Mark Rider until their divorce; they had no children.[1] A resident of the North Beach neighborhood in San Francisco, she later moved westward to Richmond District.[1]

Carson died on November 2, 2002, in San Francisco, aged 83; she had spent her last few months battling throat and mouth cancer.[1] Her archives are located in the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Guthrie, Julian (November 12, 2002). "Josephine Carson -- author, instructor". sfgate.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  2. ^ Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
  3. ^ "Society". The Tulsa Tribune. January 7, 1916. pp. F1 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "S. M. CARSON, OIL OPERATOR FOUND DEAD IN HENDERSON". Messenger-Inquirer. Associated Press. September 2, 1951. pp. 10-B – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b Reports of the Secretary and Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 1957. p. 203.
  6. ^ "Josephine Carson Rider". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  7. ^ "Josephine Rider - Artist". MacDowell. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  8. ^ "Writer". Yaddo. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  9. ^ a b c d e Bennington College: 1972-1974 (PDF). Bennington College. p. 110.
  10. ^ a b c d "Novelist on college faculty to read from new book Sunday". Bennington Banner. November 19, 1974. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Contributers". a/b: Auto/Biography Studies. 5 (1): 85–85. 1990. doi:10.1080/08989575.1990.10846715. ISSN 0898-9575 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
  12. ^ "The Inventory of the Josephine Carson Collection #707" (PDF). Boston University. Retrieved September 10, 2024.