William Blackburn

William Blackburn was born in Persia in 1899 to parents who were missionaries. His childhood, however, was spent in the small hamlet of Seneca, SC. Blackburn went on to do his undergraduate work at Furman University; he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1943. Newspaper articles quote Blackburn as saying that he "drifted" into teaching, his "real field" being literature.

William Blackburn himself was a scholar of Elizabethan poetry, a subject which he taught for many years. He also harbored a special interest in Joseph Conrad; at one point he edited Conrad's letters. Blackburn's legacy, however, arises from his instruction in the art of creative writing. In 1959, William Blackburn began a series of student-run literary gatherings which would become the Blackburn Literary Festival.

His booming laugh. His brooding temperament. According to students, these were two of Blackburn's most salient traits. But most oft mentioned in the same sentence as the name Blackburn are not characteristics of the man himself, but the things he did to bring together and direct his students. In his undergraduate classes and in his office or home, he often served tea to break through the tension and promote informality and honesty. Regular meetings at his house allowed interested students to share their writing with each other-- and their professor--and to exchange criticism and ideas. Blackburn is usually credited with the genesis of a dynamic creative writing program at Duke University which has produced some of the most talented writers working today.

William Styron. Mac Hyman. Reynolds Price. James Applewhite. Fred Chappell. Anne Tyler. Their names read like an honor roll of contemporary literature, from poetry to fiction. Among them can be scattered other names like Pulitzer, Bollingen, Prix de Rome. But the name that unites them all is Blackburn. "They're charming grace notes in the music," William Blackburn once said of his talented students, many of whom have gone on to achieve national and international renown. If you ask, they will all pay tribute to the man Fred Chappell said "taught pride and humility all at once."

[edit] Thoughts on Blackburn

He possessed that subtle, magnetically appealing quality--a kind of invisible rapture-- which caused students to respond with like rapture to the fresh and wondrous new world he was trying to reveal to them.... He was unquestionably a glorious teacher. --William Styron

His students would lay down their lives for him because he is teacher of such overpowering sincerity. --Student, 1956