Biographical/historical information

Martha Elizabeth Utterback was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on December 7, 1904, the daughter of John Douglas and Blanche Dowden (Syprett) Utterback. She attended Western Kentucky State College (A.B., 1927), George Peabody College (M.A., 1929), and Columbia University (Ed.D.,1950). An instructor of English, she taught at Alabama Women's College (1930-1944), Brooklyn College (1945-1946), Associate Colleges of Upper New York (1946-1948), and East Carolina University (1950-1966). She was a member of the American Association of University Women, Modern Language Association, National Council of Teachers of English, National Education Association, North Carolina Education Association, North Carolina English Teachers, and Kappa Delta Gamma. During her career she wrote numerous short stories, many of which were published in magazines and anthologies, poems, numerous articles, a novel, and a book. Dr. Utterback died August 12, 1966.

Scope and arrangement

This collection includes two programs from plays, Spare the Old Homestead or Life at the Red Gulch Saloon... A Mellerdrammer of the Old West and The Gay '90's Review, which Dr. Utterback wrote, directed, or acted in.

Literary manuscripts constitute a large segment of the collection. The short stories have settings in small Southern towns at the turn of the century and most of them tell about life as seen through the eyes of children. Included are one-act plays dealing with life in the South or in the hills of Tennessee and Kentucky. One three-act play, Alabama Homecoming, is the story of three generations of an Alabama family; and a novel, The End of Summer, deals with the life of a Northern woman who marries into a Southern family in the early 1900's.

One section of the collection contains reports written as college assignments and articles on the teaching of English. Most of these have been collected in a book entitled A Regional Approach to the Teaching of Literature: A Study of the Regional Elements in Eleven Plays of the South. Other reports include reviews of books and essays on drama and teaching methods.

Also included are almost one hundred poems written by Dr. Utterback. These consist of typescripts prepared for possible publication by Delta Kappa Gamma, and they have been divided into two sections, Christmas poetry and a miscellaneous group, each of which is indexed.

Administrative information

Custodial History

January 7, 1969, 63 items; Literary manuscripts, including plays, short stories, a novel, essays, book reviews, and reports. Gift of Mrs. Richard Henry, Maplewood, New Jersey.

January 23, 1969, 98 items; Typescripts of poems. Loaned for copying by Miss Elizabeth Walker, Greenville, N.C.

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mrs. Richard Henry

Loaned by Miss Elizabeth Walker

Processing information

Processed by L. Sterlock, November 1969

Encoded by Apex Data Services

Copyright notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Metadata Rights Declaration

Key terms

Personal Names

Utterback, Elizabeth, 1904-1966

Corporate Names

East Carolina College--Faculty

Topical

American literature--Southern States
Authors, American--20th century
English literature--Study and teaching (Secondary)

Places

Southern States--Social life and customs--Fiction

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