James H. Street
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James Howell Street (October 15, 1903 – September 28, 1954) was a U.S. journalist, minister, and writer of Southern historical novels.
Street was born in Lumberton, Mississippi, in 1903. As a teenager, he began working as a journalist for newspapers in Laurel and Hattiesburg, Mississippi. At the age of 20, Street decided to become a Baptist minister, attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Howard College. Unsatisfied with his pastoral work after ministering stints in Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama, Street returned to journalism in 1926.
After briefly holding a position with the Pensacola, Florida Journal, Street joined the staff of the Associated Press. The AP position took him to New York, where he began freelance writing fiction. Hired away from the AP by the New York World-Telegram in 1937, Street sold a short story ("A Letter to the Editor") to Cosmopolitan magazine, which caught the eye of film producer David Selznick, who turned it into a hit film, Nothing Sacred.
His success allowed him to write full-time, and throughout the 1940s he worked on a five-novel series of historical fiction about the progress of the Dabney family through the 19th century. The Dabney pentology--Oh, Promised Land, Tap Roots, By Valor and Arms, Tomorrow We Reap, and Mingo Dabney--explored classic Southern issues of race and honor, and strongly characterized Street's struggle to reconcile his Southern heritage with his feelings about racial injustice. The series was a critial and popular success, with several of the books being made into feature films.
Street also published two popular novels about boys and dogs, The Biscuit Eater and Good-bye, My Lady, both of which were turned into movies, and a set of semi-autobiographical novels about a Baptist minister, The Gauntlet and The High Calling.
Street died of a heart attack on September 28, 1954.
[edit] Major works
- The Biscuit Eater (1939)
- Oh, Promised Land (1940)
- In My Father's House (1941)
- Tap Roots (1942)
- By Valour and Arms (1944)
- The Gauntlet (1945)
- Tomorrow We Reap (1949)
- Mingo Dabney (1950)
- The High Calling (1951)
- Good-Bye, My Lady (1954)
[edit] References
- MacIntyre, Fergus Gwynplaine (2005). Doomed Girl Brings Glow to City. New York Daily News, April 11, 2005.
- Roberts, Lindsay (1999). James Street: A Biography. The Mississippi Writers and Musicians Project of Starkville High School. Archived June 22, 2004.
