Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: James Howell Street Papers (Z/0018).
Creator/Collector: James Howell Street.
Date(s): 1939-1945.
Size: 1.00 cubic foot
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH Staff, xxxx; Biography by Will Pickering, 2022; Updated by Laura Heller, 2023.
Provenance: Gift of James H. Street of Chapel Hill, NC, on several dates: July 1940; May 1941; October 1942; August 1943; November 1943; January 1944; June 1944; September 1944; October 1944; May 1945; March 1947.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright Notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: James Howell Street Papers (Z/0018), Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Biography:

James Howell Street

James “Jimmy” Howell Street was born in Lumberton, a town that overlapped in the counties of Lamar and Pearl River, Mississippi, on October 15, 1903 the son of his mother William “Willie” Thompson Scott Street (1879-1957) and his father Jonathan Camillus Street (1880-1937), a lawyer and a judge in Laurel and Hattiesburg.  Street had an eclectic career as an American journalist, minister, and writer of Southern historical novels.

A Catholic by upbringing, he converted to the Baptist faith with his marriage in 1923 to Lucy Nash O’Briant (December 2, 1904 - November 27, 1976), the daughter of Lucy E. Jennings (1875-1973) and Alanson Lee O'Briant (1870-1957), a Baptist minister. Together, James and Lucy had three children: James Howell Street, Jr. (June 5, 1924 - January 20, 2000), John Lee Street (March 31, 1926 - April 11, 1993), and Lucy Ann Street (circa 1933-).

Street even followed in his father-in-law’s footsteps as he enrolled in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He went on to pastor in several Baptist churches, one being in Lucedale, George County, Mississippi. The last church he pastored at was in Bayles, Alabama, before he left the ministry in 1926 to return to journalism.

While a high school student, Street worked as a newspaperman for the Laurel Daily Leader, going on to become a reporter for the Hattiesburg American at age 17. After leaving the ministry and returning to journalism, he became a reporter at the Pensacola Journal in Florida, then an editor for the Arkansas Gazette in 1926. He began working for the Associate Press Bureau in 1928, and then moved to New York in 1933. He also did free-lance work and, in 1937, worked as an editor for the New York World-Telegram. During the 1930s, Street traveled through Europe to write feature articles for leading periodicals such as the Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, and more; his articles covered the conflicts of his day: Fascist Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, the Spanish Civil War, and the Russian-Finnish conflict.

He also published short stories, one being “The Biscuit Eater” published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1939, which was adapted into a movie in 1940, and remade by Disney in 1972. One of his novels, Oh, Promised Land, published in 1940, became a bestseller in America, and is the first of a series of five novels that chronicled the Dabney family in Lebanon, Mississippi, from 1794 to 1896.  These novels grappled with Street’s struggle to reconcile his Southern heritage with his feelings about racial injustice.

His other major works included In My Father’s House (1941), The Gauntlet (1945), Tap Roots (published in 1942 and made into a film), Good-Bye, My Lady (first published in 1941 as a short-story in the Saturday Evening Post, then in 1954 as a novel, then adapted to film in 1956), By Valor and Arms (1944), the story “Letter to the Editor” (published in 1937 and made into a movie called Nothing Sacred the same year), Look Away! A Dixie Notebook (1936), and Mingo Dabney (1950).

Street moved to Chapel Hill, Orange County, North Carolina, in 1945.  He died at age 50 on September 28, 1954, of a heart attack. He was interred in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery in Chapel Hill. His wife would be buried beside him over two decades later.
 

Scope and Content Note:

Manuscripts of 19 short stories, five novels, and one volume of short stories of James Howell Street, a Mississippian who lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

 

Series Description:

Series description to be completed at a later date.

 

Box List:

Box list to be completed at a later date.

 

Appendix 1: Typewritten copies of the short stories are as follows:
1. "All out with Sherman," pp. 21, published in Collier's, CX (Dec. 19, 1942), 72–, and in James Street, Short Stories (New York: Dial Press, 1945), pp. 195–211.
2. "Buck and Fo'-Bits," pp. 26, published in Saturday Evening Post, CCXII (Jan. 6, 1940), 14–15-, and in Short Stories, pp. 103–123.
3. "Hold to the Channel," pp. 117.
4. "In Full Glory Reflected," pp. 24, published in Good Housekeeping, CXIII (Aug., 1941), 18–19-, and in Short Stories, pp. 22–40.
5. "Lay Your Bibles Down," pp. 20, published in Collier's, CXII (Oct. 9, 1943), 28–.
6. "Mr. Poovey Takes Over," pp. 19.
7. "Please Come Home, My Lady," pp. 20, published in Saturday Evening Post, CCXIV (Apr. 11, 1942),12–13, 49, 52–53, and in Short Stories, pp. 87–102.
8. "Proud Possessor," pp. 27, published in American Magazine, CXXIX (May, 1940), 50–52, 62, 64, 66, 68.
9. "Pud'n and Tayme," pp. 25, published in Saturday Evening Post, CCXII (Feb. 3, 1940),14–15, 52–53, 55–57, and in Short Stories, pp. 144–164.
10. "The Crusaders," pp. 26, published in Saturday Evening Post, CCXII (Nov. 11, 1939), 12–13-, and in Short Stories, pp. 124–143.
11. "The Golden Key," pp. 22, published in Good Housekeeping, CXIX (Nov., 1944), 34–35-, and in Short Stories, pp. 1–21.
12. "The House," pp. 48, published in Good Housekeeping, CXVIII (Apr., 1944), 32–33-, and in Short Stories, pp. 271–314.
13. "The Lady Wore Linen," pp. 36.
14. "The Old Gordon Place," two copies, pp. 26 and 30, published in Saturday Evening Post, CCXVI (Oct. 16, 1943), 9–11, and in Short Stories, pp. 41–65.
15. "The Road to Gettysburg," pp. 18, published in Collier's, CIX (Feb. 21, 1942), 28–, and in Short Stories, pp. 180–194.
16. "They Know How," pp. 18, published in Collier's, CVII (Mar. 1, 1941), 15-, and in Short Stories, pp. 165–179.
17. "Three Hundred Miles of Christmas," pp. 19, published in Saturday Evening Post, CCXVI (Dec. 25, 1943), 15-.
18. "Set the Wild Echoes Flying," pp. 22, published in Saturday Evening Post, CCXVI (Nov. 13, 1943), 14–15-, in Short Stories, pp. 212–231, and in Post Yarns, Vol. II, No. 4 (1944), pp. 1–24.
19. "Weep No More, My Lady," pp. 25, published in Saturday Evening Post, CCXIV (Dec. 6, 1941), 12–13, 110, 112, 114–115, in Short Stories, pp. 66–86, and in Whit Burnett (ed.), Time to Be Young (New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1945), pp. 231–244.

Appendix 2: Volumes are as follows:
1. Manuscript (typewritten, printer's copy) of Oh, Promised Land (New York: The Dial Press, 1940, pp. 816), pp. 1000.
2. Manuscript (typewritten, agent's copy) of In My Father's House (New York: The Dial Press, 1941, pp. 348), pp. 255.
3. Manuscript (typewritten, printer's copy) of In My Father's House, pp. 248.
4. Manuscript (typewritten, agent's copy) of Tap Roots (New York: The Dial Press, 1942, pp. 593), pp. 793.
5. Manuscript (typewritten, printer's copy) of Tap Roots, pp. 793.
6. Manuscript (typewritten, agent's copy) of By Valour and Arms (New York: Dial Press, Inc., 1944, pp. 538), pp. 744.
7. Manuscript (typewritten, printer's copy) of By Valour and Arms, pp. 765.
8. Manuscript (typewritten, agent's copy) of The Gauntlet (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1945, pp. 311), pp. 460.
9. Manuscript (typewritten, printer's copy) of The Gauntlet, pp. 357.
10. Galley Proof of The Gauntlet, pp. 319.
11. Manuscript (typewritten, printer's copy) of Short Stories (New York: Dial Press, 1945, pp. xi, 314), pp. 432.