Finding Aid for the Bernadette Hoyle Papers, <date calendar="gregorian" era="ce" normal="1945/1950">1945 - 1950</date>, <date calendar="gregorian" era="ce" normal="1952/1983">1952 - 1983</date>, PC.1773
Abstract
Bernadette Woodlief Hoyle (1912-1989) was a central figure in the literary life of North Carolina during her career as a journalist and professional photographer. This collection of her papers constitutes only a portion of Mrs. Hoyle's writings and correspondence, and date for the most part from the first five years of her career. They include Mrs. Hoyle's writings (1945-1950), correspondence and research files for her book published in 1956, Tar Heel Writers I Know, and a series of file's relating to the North Carolina Writers' Conference (1952-1983).
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Bernadette Hoyle Papers
- Call Number
- PC.1773
- Creator
- Hoyle, Bernadette Woodlief.
- Date
- 1945 - 1950; 1952 - 1983
- Extent
- 8.00 Archive Boxes, 2.50 linear feet
- Language
- English
- Repository
- State Archives of North Carolina
Series Quick Links
- Personal Papers
- Carolinas Press Photographers Association,1950 - 1954
- North Carolina Writers' Conference,1950 - 1983
- <title xlink:type="simple" render="italic">Tar Heel Writers I Know</title>
- <title xlink:type="simple" render="doublequote">According to Hoyle</title>
- Newspaper Feature Articles
- Miscellaneous
Restrictions on Access & Use
Access Restrictions
Available for research.
Use Restrictions
Copyright is retained by the authors of these materials, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law (Title 17 US Code). Individual researchers are responsible for using these materials in conformance with copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], PC.1773, Bernadette Hoyle Papers, 1945-1950, 1952-1983, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Collection Overview
This present collection of her papers constitutes only a portion of Mrs. Hoyle's writings and correspondence, and date for the most part from the first five years of her career. They fall into three categories: (1) Mrs. Hoyle's writings, 1945-1950 (approximately half the collection); (2) correspondence and research files for her book published in 1956, Tar Heel Writers I Know (approximately 3/8 of the collection) ; and (3) a series of file's relating to the North Carolina Writers' Conference, 1952-1983 (approximately 1/8 of the collection). Apart from the Writer's I Conference, the collection includes nothing from the last thirty years of Mrs. Hoyle's professional life and shed no light on her role in creative writing in North Carolina.
Arrangement Note
The materials in the eight boxes of Mrs. Hoyle's papers are arranged as follows:
The materials in the eight boxes of Mrs. Hoyle's papers are arranged as follows: Personal Papers; Carolinas Press Photographers' Association, 1950-1954; North Carolina Writers' Conference, 1950-1983; According to Hoyle, 1946-1950; Tar Heel Writers I Know; Newspaper Feature Articles, 1945-1950; Miscellaneous.
Biographical Note
Bernadette Woodlief Hoyle (1912-1989), journalist and professional photographer, was a central figure in the literary life of North Carolina during most of her career. Though these papers do not reflect it, Mrs. Hoyle was, on more than one occasion, winner of the literary award given by the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs, founder and director of the (1965-1984), historian of Campbell University and biographer of James Archibald Campbell, author of several small publications in addition to her chef oeuvre, , director of publicity for first the State Board of Public Welfare then the North Carolina Council on Mental Retardation, and served as writer to the North Carolina Democratic Party Executive Committee.
Contents of the Collection
1. Personal Papers
2. Carolinas Press Photographers Association,1950 - 1954
scopecontent:
Includes a copy of the Association' s constitution and several issues of its newsletter.
3. North Carolina Writers' Conference,1950 - 1983
scopecontent:
Includes retrospective list of the meeting places and organizers of the annual conferences from 1950 through 1967. The folder for each meeting may contain programs, form letters, press cuttings, and brochures. The folder for the 1957 conference includes planning correspondence from, among others, Mebane H. Burgwyn, Ina Forbus, Lodwick Hartley, Richard Walser, Manly Wade Wellman, and Tom Wicker. Files of material are lacking for the conferences held in 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1961, and 1967
4. <title xlink:type="simple" render="italic">Tar Heel Writers I Know</title>
scopecontent:
These three boxes contain correspondence and press cuttings used in, or relating to, preparation of the manuscript for the book. With the exceptions of Legette Blythe, Inglis Fletcher, and Kermit Hunter, there are files for the thirty-five North Carolina authors represented in : Zoe Kincaid Brockman; Marion Brown; Mebane Holoman Burgwyn; Sam Byrd; Ruth and Latrobe Carroll; Jonathan Daniels; Burke Davis; Lambert Davis; Wilma Dykeman; Charlotte Hilton Green; Paul Green; Frank Borden Hanes; John Harden; Bernice Kelly Harris; Lodwick Hartley; Noel Houston; Hugh T. Lefler; Dave Morrah; Frances Gray Patton; James Larkin Pearson; Ovid Williams Pierce; William T. Polk; Fred Ross; Phillips Russell; Dr. Frank G. Slaughter; Walter Spearman; Thad Stem, Jr.; David Stick; James Street; Richard Walser; Manly Wade Wellman; and Tom Wicker.
Most of the folders include an autobiographical sketch prepared by each writer, some of them commenting on their individual techniques or philosophy. The autobiographical sketch of Bernice Kelly Harris includes remarks on her writing practices and development of characters in her novels. The material on Richard Walser includes his Sept. 24, 1960, stinging rebuttal, , of Nell Battle Lewis' ill-natured attacks on the prepared by (Mrs. Joel Francis Paschal) and published under the auspices of the North Carolina English Teachers' Association. Although a special scrapbook relating to James Street kept by Mrs. Hoyle is not with the papers, a folder of duplicates of at least some of that material is in a folder in Box 8.
5. <title xlink:type="simple" render="doublequote">According to Hoyle</title>
6. Newspaper Feature Articles
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Ten scrapbooks filled with articles written by Mrs. Hoyle for the and mounted in rough chronological order. If the same article was published in other newspapers (usually the and ) the later printings are filed with the original publication. A number of Smithfield and Johnston County natives and topics of purely local interest, such as the 4-H club, the public library and the volunteer firefighters, are represented- in the articles, but the majority of the topics, while local, have a greater than local interest. Examples are: the Nov. 25, 1945, and April 9, 1946, articles on moonshining; and the Oct. 20, 1946, article on World Federalists of North Carolina. Some topics recur year by year: school transportation (Sept. 26, 1946; Aug. 13, 1949); Farmers' Day (Aug. 15, 1946; Sept. 1947; Aug. 12-27, 1949); Ava Gardner's visits to her family at Smithfield (June 3-6, 1947; Jan. 9-14, 1949; and a premiere showing of one of her movies, Aug. 1, 1949); tobacco cultivation (Feb. 20, 1948; Aug. 1948; Jan. 14, 1949; May 10, 1949; May 14, 1949); tobacco marketing at Smithfield (Aug. 26, 1947; Aug. 19, 1949; April 7, 1950); cotton cultivation (Aug. 1945; Aug.-Sept. 1947; Oct. 1, 1948); taxidermy (Feb. 13, 1949; July 1950).
In addition to the articles on Ava Gardner several articles were devoted to outstanding persons and their work: Paul Byrd, the country and western singer (Aug. 1945) ; Dot and Ernie Lind, "The Shooting Linds" ((April 11, 1947) ; Edith Warren Huggins (March 14, 1946); Dr. W. G. Wilson, Jr. (Oct. 21, 1947) ; the astrologer Mohammed Ibrahim (Jan. 2, 1949) Lunette Barber (Nov. 18, 1947; Aug. 13, 1949) ; The Rev. Hiram K. King (Dec. 21, 1947) ; Hunter Johnson (Mar. 19, 1948; Sept. 8, 1949) ; Don Wharton (May 21, 1948); Dr. Levin Eli Kirkman (July 2, 1948); Lodwick Hartley (Aug. 1, 1948); James Street (Nov. 14, 1948; June 26, 1949); the Loughlin family of Henderson, N.C. (the ) (Oct. 3, 1948) ; Mrs. Kerr Scott (Apr. 9, 1949; Judge Susie Sharp (June 26, 1949; July 10, 1949; July 22, 1950); Barbara Bernard McGee (Aug. 7, 1949); and Nan Ogburn (June 10, 1950). Although her article on the World Federalists of North Carolina (Oct. 20, 1946) was not biographical in nature, Mrs. Hoyle included in it much information on R. Mayne Albright and Robert Lee Humber.
Mrs. Hoyle's interest in local institutions and their history is reflected in her Sept. 9-14, 1947, articles on the Pythian Home for Children at Clayton, N.C., and the Confederate monument at Smithfield (May 15, 1948) and especially her articles on Johnston County churches: Oakland Presbyterian Church (June 4, 1948); Vance Baptist Church (Sept. 25, 1948); Progressive Presbyterian Church at Princeton (Nov. 5, 1948); Mill Creek Christian Church (Feb. 18 and July 17, 1949); Elizabeth Methodist Church (Apr. 14, 1949); Liberty Christian Church (Apr. 24, 1949); and Forestville Baptist Church, Wake County (July 31, 1949).
Articles on the town of Four Oaks (Sept. 7 and 23, 1948) , the water mill owned by the Barber f amily (May 25, 1948), fish ponds in the county (Aug. 28, 1948), the Johnston County hospital (Aug. 27-Sept. 17, 1948); Blacksmiths (Nov. 25, 1947), German war brides (Dec. 14, 1947), mules (Aug. 17, 1948; May 23, 1949), the North Carolina State Forest Nursery (Sept. 13, 1948), the cultivation of cabbage plants for sale to farmers (Jan. 31, 1950); home nursing courses taught by the Red Cross (Feb. 21, 1950), candy making (Feb 15, 1949), centenarians (Oct. 8, 1947), circuses (Sept. 30, 1947), rural mail carriers (Dec. 13, 1947), school for tobacco calculators (Apr. 7, 1950), the breeding and sale of Shetland ponies (Aug. 12, 1949), and dog breeding (May 9, 1950) all reflect the scope of her articles and the reading interests of Mrs. Hoyle's audience. The murder trial of the locally prominent James Rufus Creech gave Mrs. Hoyle the opportunity to demonstrate her ability as a crime reporter and electrified her readers; this series of articles, written during July and August 1948, are in a special file in Box 8.
Articles of statewide interest published by Mrs. Hoyle include articles on the deleterious effect of comic books on children (July 23, 1948), the presidential visit to North Carolina of Harry S. Truman (Oct. 19-22, 1948), N.C. Federation of Womens' Clubs (Apr. 24, 1949); White Lake-, Bladen County (May 29, 1949); tornado at Newton Grove (May 27, 1949), the of the North Carolina Symphony (Feb. 17, 1950), and the revived performance of the outdoor drama, (July 1-30, 1950).
7. Miscellaneous
Subject Headings
Acquisitions Information
Bequeathed to the State Archives of North Carolina by Mrs. Hoyle in her will dated June 6, 1988 (proved August 15, 1989).