Thomas Noble Walters Papers 1973-1979

Thomas Noble Walters (1933-1983) was an award-winning poet and author as well as a faculty member of the English Department at North Carolina State University from 1964 until his death in 1983.

Born in Tarboro, North Carolina, on November 17, 1933, Walters was awarded a Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1958. From 1958 until 1960 he served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. Returning to his education after service, Walters received a Masters in English Education from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in 1962 and in 1963 won a Ford Foundation grant to continue his studies. He received a Ph.D. in English Education from Duke in 1968. Walters began teaching at North Carolina State University in 1964 and was promoted to assistant professor of English Education in 1968.

Thomas Noble Walters wrote poetry, literary criticism, and juvenile fiction. He also wrote articles and book reviews for the News and Observer, the daily newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina. Along with fellow North Carolina State University English Professor, Allen Stein, Walters wrote a book of literary criticism entitled Southern Experience in Short Fiction. His other publications include Seeing in the Dark, a collection of poetry inspired by the American Cinema published in 1973, The Loblolly Excalibur and a Crown of Shag Bark with other poems in 1976 and Randolph Silliman Bourne: An American Radical in 1982. His juvenile novel, Always Next August, was published in 1977. In 1972 Thomas Noble Walters won the Charles A. Shul Poetry Contest. In 1973 he was awarded a $5000 creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, which he used to write Always Next August. He was a member of the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the National Council of Teachers of English.

This collection contains original and photocopied manuscripts, typescripts, and illustrations for three different edited draft versions of Thomas Noble Walter's juvenile novel, Always Next August, which he composed and illustrated over the course of 1973, and the Moore Publishing Company of Durham, North Carolina, published in 1977. Also included is one original letter from Paul Green, a native of Harnett County, North Carolina, World War I veteran, professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill as well as author of the symphonic drama, The Lost Colony. The letter dated April 18, 1979, concerns favourable remarks Walters made about Green's play, In Abraham's Bossom.

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[Identification of item], Thomas Noble Walters Papers, MC 00120, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

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Processed by Dani Nation, 2006 August; Encoded by Dani Nation, 2006 August