- Stark Young
Infobox Person
name = Stark Young
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1881|10|11|mf=y
birth_place = Como,Mississippi , U.S.
death_date = death date and age|1963|1|6|1881|10|11|mf=y
death_place = Austin,Texas , USAStark Young (
October 11 ,1881 -January 6 ,1963 ) was an Americanteacher ,playwright ,novelist , painter,literary critic andessayist .Biography
Stark Young was born in
Como, Mississippi to Mary Clark Starks and Alfred Alexander Young, a localphysician .He entered the
University of Mississippi at the age of 15 and graduated from that institution in 1901. He completed hisMaster's Degree atColumbia University in 1902.Young taught at the University of Mississippi in 1905-1907 and then moved to the
University of Texas at Austin where he established the "Texas Review " and became involved with theater.In 1915 he moved to
Amherst College where he taught English until he resigned to pursue other interests in 1921 and moved toNew York City, New York . In New York he was appointed as an editor atTheater Arts Magazine and as drama critic for "The New Republic ". Young remained at "The New Republic" until his retirement in 1947. During this period he was involved with the theater in New York and wrote several plays.In 1930 Young contributed to the Agrarian manifesto "I'll Take My Stand" and was one of 12 known as the
Southern Agrarians .Young drew on the traditions of his Southern upbringing for inspiration and generated essays, journalistic articles, and collections of stories, drawing on these sources. He also published four novels dealing with Southern themes.
"So Red the Rose," perhaps Young's finest novel, published in 1934, had a brief period of popularity as the archetype of the Southern Civil War
novel , until the phenomenal success of "Gone With the Wind," later in the decade pushed Young's book into the background. In 1935, the novel was made into a film of the same name directed byKing Vidor . Described by its author as a novel of the affections, the book is still in print.In the 1940s Young, a self-taught artist, began painting and was the subject of two one-man exhibitions in New York. His paintings were shown in four important galleries including the
Chicago Institute of Art which purchased one of his paintings for the permanent collection.In 1951 he published his
memoir , "The Pavilion", which was dedicated to his friendAllen Tate .Young received the
Order of the Crown of Italy for a series of lectures onAmerican theater given in Italian as aWestinghouse Lecturer inItaly .He served on the board of
New York University and is a member of that institution's Hall of Fame. He was a recipient ofBrandeis University 's Creative Arts Medallion and the South Eastern Theatre Conference's "Distinguished Career Award".Stark Young suffered a
stroke in May 1959. He is buried in Friendship Cemetery inComo, Mississippi .
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