Christine Noble Govan
Govan, 1937
Born
Mary Christine Noble

(1897-12-12)December 12, 1897
Manhattan, New York
DiedFebruary 28, 1985(1985-02-28) (aged 87)
Lookout Mountain, Tennessee
OccupationAuthor
SpouseDr. Gilbert Govan
ChildrenMary Q. Steele, Emmy Payne

Christine Noble Govan (pen names Mary Allerton and J. N. Darby; December 12, 1897 – February 28, 1985) was an American writer. She was born in New York City and lived most of her life in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Early life

Mary Christine Noble was born on December 12, 1897, in Manhattan, New York to Mary Helen (née Quintard) and Stephen E. Noble.[1][2][3] Her father died when she was four years old and the family moved to Sewanee, Tennessee, because her maternal great-uncle Charles Todd Quintard lived there.[4] They moved again, to Franklin, where in 1904, her mother remarried to Charles W. Elmore,[5] and then once more to Nashville, where she lived with her brother, Samuel, and half-brother, Francis.[6] The family then moved to Chattanooga, where Noble completed her high school education.[4]

Career

Noble enrolled as a scholarship student at the University of Chattanooga, but left school because her family needed her financial support. She was certified to teach first grade and briefly taught at a rural one-room school.[4] On 10 June 1918, she married Gilbert E. Govan,[7] a bookstore owner, originally from Atlanta, Georgia.[4][8] with whom she had three children: Emily "Emmy", Mary, and James.[9] Between raising her children and taking care of her home and garden, Govan worked briefly as a librarian and then began to write.[8][10] Many of her books were autobiographical. Early in her career, she set a goal to publish two books per year.[11]

Govan's body of work included juvenile fiction, biography and history and throughout her career, she published more than 50 books. An early member of the NAACP, she supported the civil rights movement and her trilogy The Plummer Children focused on interracial friendships. In addition to publishing in her own name, Govan used the pen names Mary Allerton and J. N. Darby[12] and co-authored 25 books with her daughter, Emmy Hill (later West).[8][13][14] Several of her books became best sellers. Among the most known were Judy and Chris, The Pink Maple House, Those Plummer Children, and String and the No-Tail Cat,[15] and editions were published in Denmark, England, Germany, Japan and Sweden.[16] In addition to writing literature, she was a popular lecturer and wrote book reviews for The Chattanooga Times.[13][15]

Death and legacy

Govan died on February 28, 1985, at her home in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.[8][16] Posthumously, in 1998, Govan was inducted into the Williamson County Authors' Hall of Fame in Franklin, Tennessee.[12] Some of her writing papers are housed at the McCain Library and Archives in the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.[16] Both of her daughters, Emily and Mary, became noted writers and her son, James became a librarian, at one time serving as the head of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries. The papers of the Govan family are located at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.[8]

Partial bibliography

Novels

  • The Plummer Children:
    • Those Plummer Children (1934)
    • Judy and Chris (1936)
    • Narcissus An' De Chillun (1938)
  • Five at Ashefield (1935)[17]
  • Murder on the Mountain (1937)[18]
  • Sweet 'Possum Valley (1940)[19]
  • Jennifer's House (1944)[20]
  • The Pink Maple House (1950)[21]
  • The Delectable Mountain (1962)
  • Danger Downriver (1973)[14]

Short stories

References

  1. ↑ "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909: female". FamilySearch. Manhattan, New York: New York Municipal Archives. 12 December 1897. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  2. ↑ "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909: Samuel Edward Noble". FamilySearch. Manhattan, New York: New York Municipal Archives. 13 June 1894. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  3. ↑ "1900 U. S. Census: Borough of the Bronx, New York". FamilySearch. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. June 1900. p. 17A. NARA microfilm series T623, roll 1126, lines 38-41. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Commire 1976, p. 81.
  5. ↑ "Marriage records, Franklin County, Tennessee, 1870-1939: C. W. Elmore/Mary H. Noble". FamilySearch. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives. 6 July 1904. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  6. ↑ "1910 U. S. Census: Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee". FamilySearch. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. 21 April 1910. pp. 9B–10A. NARA microfilm series T624, roll 1496, lines 98-100 on 9B and 1-2 on 10A. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  7. ↑ "Marriage records, Hamilton County, Tennessee, 1917-1919: Govan/Noble". FamilySearch. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives. 10 June 1918. p. 421. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Gaston, Kay Baker (August 4, 2019). "Those literary Govans". Chattanooga Times Free Press. Chattanooga, Tennessee. Archived from the original on 19 September 2019. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  9. ↑ "1930 U. S. Census: Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee". FamilySearch. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. 9 April 1930. p. 6A. NARA microfilm series T626 roll 2252, lines 9-13. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  10. ↑ "Christine Govan, Author, Due Here". The Huntsville Times. Huntsville, Alabama. 2 November 1951. p. 2. Retrieved 19 September 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Commire 1976, p. 82.
  12. 1 2 "Bell, Govan join author's hall of fame". The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. 24 August 1998. p. 9W. Retrieved 19 September 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. 1 2 "Ossoli Circle to Hear Chattanoogans". The Knoxville Journal. Knoxville, Tennessee. 27 March 1949. p. 10C. Retrieved 19 September 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. 1 2 Waddell, Genevieve J. (25 February 1973). "Juvenile Hero Real as Life". The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. p. 8F. Retrieved 19 September 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. 1 2 Tyson, Gertrude (May 17, 1951). "Writer Christine Govan Visits City, Finds It Different Place". The Anniston Star. Anniston, Alabama. p. 10. Retrieved 19 September 2019 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  16. 1 2 3 "Christine Noble Govan Papers". De Grummond Collection, University of Southern Mississippi. Hattiesburg, Mississippi. June 2001. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  17. ↑ Review of Five at Ashefield: Kirkus Review
  18. ↑ "Two Chattanooga Writers, Esther Haven Fonesca and Christine Noble Govan, Review Each Other's Murder Mystery Book". The Chattanooga Times. Chattanooga, Tennessee. 28 March 1937. p. 4. Retrieved 19 September 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ Reviews of Sweet 'Possum Valley: Kirkus Review; Certain, J. L. (October 1941), "With the New Books for Children", The Elementary English Review, 18 (6): 233–238, JSTOR 41383335
  20. ↑ Reviews of Jennifer's House: Kirkus Review; Colquhoun, Claire (February 22, 1943), "Books: Mostly Murder", The Bostonian, pp. 24–25
  21. ↑ Review of The Pink Maple House: Kirkus Review

Sources

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