County of Marker: Harnett County
Location of Marker: US-421 & Johnson Farm Rd., just W. of Cambell University, 4 miles E. of Lillington
Marker Text:
PAUL ELIOT GREEN
1894 ~ 1981
Birthplace of the dramatist, novelist, teacher and humanitarian is situated 2.1 miles north. Awarded Pulitzer Prize 1927. Originator, of the Symphonic Drama, of which he wrote 16, including "The Lost Colony". Lifetime champion of racial equality, and implacable for of militarism and capital punishment. Was North Carolina's Dramatist Laureate.
"Paul Eliot Green (1894-1981) of Chapel Hill, N.C., was an author, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, and humanitarian. This collection contains material documenting many facets of Green's life and work, material relating to the life and work of his wife, Elizabeth Lay Green, and numerous items relating to members of the Greens' immediate and extended family. Paul Green's work as a dramatist and writer is documented in his professional correspondence files (circa 34,400 items); by extensive files on his "symphonic dramas," including background material, drafts, musical scores, and business records; and by drafts of poems, essays, and novels by Green. Also included are yearly diaries (1917-1980), photographs, tape recordings, and appointment books. Correspondents include Sherwood Anderson, James Boyd, Erskine Caldwell, William T. Couch, Jonathan Daniels, Donald Davidson, John Ehle, Caroline Gordon, Frank Porter Graham, John Howard Griffin, Tyrone Guthrie, Dubose Heyward, Noel Houston, Langston Hughes, Gerald W. Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, Frederick Koch, Lotte Lenya, H. L. Mencken, Howard Odum, Clarence Poe, Carl Sandburg, Betty Smith, Lamar Stringfield, Allen Tate, Kurt Weil, Orson Welles, and Richard Wright, among many others. Green's associations with various theater, cultural, and humanitarian organizations in North Carolina and elsewhere are extensively documented. Correspondence and other materials show his opinions on such issues as lynching, capital punishment, nationalism, communism, race relations, religion, and the Vietnamese, Korean, and First and Second World Wars. Also included are a considerable number of photographs relating to Green's family and to his work, and financial records." ~ University of North Carolina