Mary Lee reads from her work at WVU Tech.



Mary Lee takes questions at WVU Tech.



Mary Lee signs a copy of one her books.



Mary Lee interviewed by Kate Long at MacFarland-Hubbard House for public television.



Mary Lee reading from the Beulah Quintet at Fairmont State College.

 

HUMANITIES COUNCIL BRINGING
NOVELIST MARY LEE SETTLE
TO WEST VIRGINIA COLLEGES

The West Virginia Humanities Council brought award-winning novelist Mary Lee Settle, a Charleston native, to six West Virginia colleges in 2003. She presented public readings of her work, including her five-volume "Beulah Quintet," engaged in question and answer sessions with audience members, and signed copies of her books. All appearances were free and open to the public.

Her series of readings consisted of two separate visits to the state. The week of April 7 Ms. Settle spoke at Fairmont State College, WVU Institute of Technology, and Shepherd College.

Settle was born in Charleston in 1918. She has lived in many locations in the United States and Europe. She has been a model, an actress, assistant editor of Harper's Bazaar, lecturer, playwright, and professor in addition to her prolific work as an award-winning novelist. During World War II she joined the Women's Auxiliary of the Royal Air Force working in rural England and later worked for the Office of War Information in London.

She is perhaps best known in West Virginia for her five novels known collectively as "The Beulah Quintet". These historical novels trace several families from Cromwell's England to the Kanawha Valley. O Beulah Land (1956), Know Nothing (1960), Prisons (1973), The Scapegoat (1980), and The Killing Ground (1982) comprise the Quintet. In 1998 her book Addie: A Memoir, about her West Virginia grandmother, was published. Her latest novel, I, Roger Williams was published in 2001. Her awards include Guggenheim Fellowships in 1958 and 1960, and the 1984 Academy Award in Literature (American Academy of Arts and Literature). She is West Virginia's only winner of the prestigious National Book Award, which she won for Blood Ties (1978).

This program was sponsored by the West Virginia Humanities Council and made possible, in part, through the generous financial support of Gaston Caperton.

For more information on this and other programs of the West Virginia Humanities Council call 304-346-8500 or email us.

Mary Lee Settle receives the 2003 Charles H. Daugherty Award. Read more about it here.

A full house was in attendance at Fairmont State College.



The West Virginia Folklife Center of Fairmont State College presented Settle with an Achievement Award for the Literary Arts.