Ovid W. Pierce
This article describes the life of Ovid Pierce. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: Rees, Franceine. "Ovid W. Pierce," ECU Magazine, Winter 1988, Volume 2, No. 1.
Ovid Williams Pierce, 77, author and 20-year member of the ECU faculty, died Dec. 9 at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville.
In failing health for more than a year, Pierce was hospitalized Oct. 26 for brain surgery which was complicated by a heart problem. Death was attributed to cardiac arrest.
Pierce's writings included five novels and a number of articles and short stories.
His first novel, The Plantation, published first by Southern Methodist University Press and later by Doubleday, also appeared in a French edition and was used as the basis of a drama, Run Slowly, O Slowly, by Texas playwright Dale Blair. Briarpatch Press of Chapel Hill reissued the novel in 1975 in a limited edition.
Doubleday also published Pierce's later novels: On A Lonesome Porch (1960), The Devil's Half (1968) and The Wedding Guest (1974).
On A Lonesome Porch appeared as a Book of the Week supplement edition in several U.S. and Canadian newspapers, and The Devil's Half was reissued in paperback by Curtis Books.
Pierce's most recent books included Old Man's Gold and Other Stories, a 1976 anthology of stories previously published in Southwest Review, and Judge Buell's Legacy.
"He was perhaps the finest prose craftsman in North Carolina's 403-year history, surpassing in his own way even the work of Thomas Wolfe or James Boyd," said Dr. Keats Sparrow, chairman of the ECU English department. Sparrow delivered the eulogy at Pierce's funeral.
A native of Weldon, Pierce attended Duke University, graduating in 1932 with a degree in English. He later received a master's degree from Harvard, where he studied writing and literature under Robert Hillyer and Ellen Glasgow. When World War II began, Pierce joined the Army and undertook counter-intelligence assignments in the Caribbean and Central America.
He taught creative writing at Southern Methodist University and Tulane University before joining the ECU faculty in 1956 as writer-in-residence and professor of English.
Pierce served as faculty advisor to the award-winning literary magazine, The Rebel, for many years.
"Generations of students were groomed for entry into the publication field in such faraway places as New York and Washington D.C.," Sparrow said. "This was no mean feat considering most of these fledgling writers and editors came from rural backgrounds where publishing was hardly mentioned or heard of."
Pierce also served as advisor to Kappa Alpha Order for 30 years, stepping down only last year."Many faculty had little relish for such a heavy extracurricular duty," Sparrow said. "But he took on the responsibility willingly, doggedly, enthusiastically, leading mainly by his gentle presence and fine example and garnering thereby innumerable spiritual sons."
During his 20 years on the ECU faculty, Pierce continued to write and lecture, dividing his time between a Greenville apartment and his family's 350-acre farm at Pierce's Crossroads near Enfield in Halifax County, which he dubbed The Plantation.
Pierce's native Roanoke River Valley region provided the inspiration and the setting for his novels, some set in the post-Civil War era. His prose style and skill in handling his characters' dialogue and dialects won acclaim from major literary critics, among them Orville Prescott of The New York Times and Harnett Kane of The Chicago Tribune.
In 1973 Pierce was awarded the University of North Carolina's most prestigious faculty honor, the O. Max Gardner Award, for having "produced, with artistry and integrity, an authoritative portrait of the South. "Earlier he was twice awarded the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction and the North Caroling Gold Medal Award for Literature.
Pierce was an eloquent defender of the Southern literary tradition, which he perceived as rich, complex and inextricably rooted to its land and landscape.
"Mr. Pierce will be remembered for his beautiful prose, his haunting descriptions of North Carolina landscapes and his wonderful characters," said Sparrow. "His other colleagues and I as well as countless numbers of students and fans will miss his presense, though we will continue to enjoy the timeless style and themes of his fiction."
