TIMELINE

A Mississippi Writer Timeline

A Compendium of Births, Deaths, Publications, Awards, and Other Events in Mississippi’s Literary History

Note: In most cases, timeline entries are added as articles on individual authors are added to this web site. The hyperlinks listed below connect to biographical and critical articles about that author. Articles on individual writers will continue to be added in the coming months. If an author’s name does not appear on this timeline or if it appears but is not a hyperlink, the article for that author has not yet been added to the database. Please try again later.

1950	Publications: Chooky, by John Faulkner (Norton). Collected Stories of William Faulkner (Random House). Follow Me, Down, a novel by Shelby Foote (Dial Press). Short Stories, by Eudora Welty (Harcourt, Brace). The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, fiction by Tennessee Williams (J. Lechmann). March 31: Mystery writer Louisa Dixon was born in Stamford, Connecticutt. December 29: The Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams premieres at the Erlanger Theatre in Chicago. Premiere of the film The Glass Menagerie, based on the play by Tennessee Williams. December 10: William Faulkner receives the Nobel Prize for Literature for the year 1949 and the Howells Medal for Fiction.
1951	Publications: Cabin Road, by John Faulkner (Fawcett). Notes on a Horsethief, by William Faulkner (Levee Press). Love in a Dry Season, a novel by Shelby Foote (Dial Press). I Rise a Flame, Cried the Phoenix, a play by Tennessee Williams (J. Laughlin). Requiem for a Nun, a novel by William Faulkner (Random House). The Rose Tattoo, a play by Tennessee Williams (New Directions). The Pavilion: Of People and Tiems Remembered, of Stories and Places, by Stark Young (C. Scribner's Sons) July 9: Larry Brown born in Oxford, Mississippi. October 3: Neil McGaughey born in Natchez, Mississippi. November 25: Charlaine Harris born in Tunica, Mississippi. February 3: Tennessee Williams’s play The Rose Tattoo produced on Broadway. Premiere of the film A Streetcar Named Desire, based on the play by Tennessee Williams. Premiere of the film Native Son, screenplay by Richard Wright and based on his novel. William Faulkner receives a National Book Award for Collected Stories and the Legion of Honor award in New Orleans.
1952	March 1: Nevada Barr born in Yerington, Nevada. May 8: Beth Henley born in Jackson, Mississippi.
1953	Publications: The Faulkner Reader, by William Faulkner (Random House). The River Is Home, by Patrick D. Smith (Little, Brown). Camino Real, a play by Tennessee Williams (New Directions). Selected Stories by Eudora Welty (Modern Library). The Outsider, a novel by Richard Wright (Harper). May 12: Carolyn Haines was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. July 23: Margaree King Mitchell born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Tennessee Williams's play Camino Real produced on Broadway.
1954	Publications: Memoirs of Henry Tillinghast Ireys. Papers of the Washington County Historical Society, 1910-1915, edited by William D. McCain and Charlotte Capers (Mississippi Department of Archives and History). A Fable, a novel by William Faulkner (Random House). Jordan County: A Landscape in Narrative, a novel by Shelby Foote (Random House). Misrepresentation in Mississippi, by George Thatcher (Dixie Press). Prayers in Sickness, by George Thatcher (Dixie Press). The Ponder Heart, a novel by Eudora Welty (Harcourt). Savage Holiday, a novel by Richard Wright (Avon). Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos, nonfiction by Richard Wright (Harper). October 27: Jim Fraiser born in New Orleans. February 7: Author and poet Maxwell Bodenheim was fatally shot by Harold Weinberg while on a drinking spree. Weinberg then stabed Bodenheim’s wife Ruth to death, as well.
1955	Publications: The Sin Shouter of Cabin Road, by John Faulkner (Fawcett). Big Woods, short stories by William Faulkner (Random House). The Bride of Innisfallen, and Other Stories, by Eudora Welty (Harcourt). Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a play by Tennessee Williams (New American Library). Lord Byron's Love Letter, by Tennessee Williams (Ricodi). Danny Von Kanel was born in Macon, Mississippi. February 8: John Grisham born in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Tennessee Williams's play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof produced on Broadway. It wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Premiere of the film Land of the Pharaohs, screenplay by William Faulkner, Harry Kurnitz, and Harold Jack Bloom. Premiere of the film The Rose Tattoo, based on the play by Tennessee Williams. William Faulkner receives a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for A Fable. Eudora Welty receives a William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for The Ponder Heart.
1956	Publications: Walk through the Valley, by Borden Deal (Scribner) Faulkner at Nagano, speeches and interviews by William Faulkner, edited by Robert A. Jelliffe (Kenkyusha Ltd.). Baby Doll: The Script of the Film, by Tennessee Williams (New American Library). The Color Curtain, nonfiction by Richard Wright (World). In the Winter of Cities, poetry by Tennessee Williams (New Directions). The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference, by Richard Wright (World). Best Plays by Chekhov: The Sea Gull, Uncle Vanya, the Three Sisters, the Cherry Orchard, translation by Stark Young (Random House) December 16: James Meredith married Mary June Wiggins. Eudora Welty's The Ponder Heart is adapted for the stage and produced on Broadway. Premiere of the film Baby Doll, based on the play by Tennessee Williams. Willie Morris receives a Rhodes Scholarship.
1957	Publications: Dunbar's Cove, by Borden Deal (Scribner) Search for Surrender, by Borden Deal (Fawcett/Gold Medal) Killer in the House, by Borden Deal (New American Library) The Town, a novel by William Faulkner (Random House). The Night Before Chancellorsville and Other Civil War Stories, edited by Shelby Foote (Signet). Place in Fiction, lectures by Eudora Welty (House of Books). Pagan Spain, nonfiction by Richard Wright (Harper). White Man, Listen!, nonfiction by Richard Wright (Doubleday). Tennessee Williams's play Orpheus Descending produced on Broadway. Premiere of the film The Tarnished Angels, based on the novel Pylon by William Faulkner.
1958	Publications: The Secret of Sylvia, by Borden Deal (under pseudonym "Lee Borden") (Fawcett/Gold Medal) Three Famous Short Novels, by William Faulkner (Random House). The Civil War: A Narrative. Vol. 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville, history by Shelby Foote (Random House). Suddenly, Last Summer, a play by Tennessee Williams (New Directions). The Long Dream, a novel by Richard Wright (Doubleday). March 7: Rick Bass born in Fort Worth, Texas. September 30: Country music singer-songwriter Marty Stuart was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi. January 7: Two plays by Tennessee Williams, Suddenly Last Summer and Something Unspoken, open under the collective title Garden District (after their shared New Orleans locale) Off-Broadway at the York Theatre in New York. December 29: Period of Adjustment High Point over a Cavern by Tennessee Williams opens at Coconut Grove Playhouse, Miami. Premiere of the film The Long Hot Summer, based on the novel The Hamlet and several short stories by William Faulkner. Premiere of the film Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, based on the play by Tennessee Williams.
1959	Publications: The Insolent Breed, by Borden Deal (Scribner) Ain't Gonna Rain No More, by John Faulkner (Fawcett). Faulkner in the University, interviews by William Faulkner, edited by Frederick L. Gwynn and Joseph L. Blotner (University of Virginia Press). Garden District, a play by Tennessee Williams (Secker & Warburg). Hard Candy, fiction by Tennessee Williams (New Directions). The Mansion, a novel by William Faulkner (Random House). Sweet Bird of Youth, a play by Tennessee Williams (New Directions). March 27: David Galef born in New York. William Faulkner's Requiem for a Nun produced on Broadway. Tennessee Williams's play Sweet Bird of Youth produced on Broadway. Premiere of the film The Sound and the Fury, based on the novel by William Faulkner. December 22: Premiere of the film Suddenly, Last Summer, based on the play by Tennessee Williams.