Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories

For the unrelated 2012 film, see Beasts of the Southern Wild.
First edition (publ. Harper & Row)

Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories is a 1973 collection of short stories by Doris Betts.[1] The collection was nominated for a 1974 National Book Award.[2]

The story "The Ugliest Pilgrim" was adapted into the short film “Violet,” which won Best Live Action Short at the 54th Academy Awards.[3] It was later adapted into the musical Violet.

The title story "Beasts of the Southern Wild" was originally published in The Carolina Quarterly in 1973.[4] The title derives from the William Blake poem "The Little Black Boy." It is about an unhappily married woman named Carol who fantasizes she has been chosen as a concubine by Sam Porter, the provost of New African University.[5]

  1. ^ Betts, Doris (1973). Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories. Harper & Row Publishers ISBN 9780060103217
  2. ^ Hovis, George (2007). Vale of Humility: Plain Folk in Contemporary North Carolina Fiction. University of South Carolina Press, ISBN 9781570036965
  3. ^ Vitello, Paul (April 24, 2012). Doris Betts, Novelist in Southern Tradition, Dies at 79. The New York Times
  4. ^ Staff report (May 2, 2012). Remembering Doris Betts (1932-2012). The Carolina Quarterly
  5. ^ Magee, Rosemary M. (1992). Friendship and Sympathy: Communities of Southern Women Writers. University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 9780878055456