Evelyn Scott
Evelyn Scott (born Elsie Dunn, January 17, 1893 – August 3, 1963) was an American novelist, playwright and poet. A modernist and experimental writer, she "was a significant literary figure in the 1920s and 1930s, but she eventually sank into critical oblivion".
Also recorded as Elsie Dunn
Evelyn Scott
- Name
- Evelyn Scott
- Birth Name
- Elise Dunn
- Born
- 17 January 1893
- Birthplace
- Clarksville, Tennessee
- Died
- 3 August 1963
- Spouse
- Frederick Creighton Wellman (1913–1928) John Metcalfe (1930-1963)
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- novelist · poet · writer · playwright
- Education
- H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- Languages
- English
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Evelyn Scott (born Elsie Dunn, January 17, 1893 – August 3, 1963) was an American novelist, playwright and poet. A modernist and experimental writer, she "was a significant literary figure in the 1920s and 1930s, but she eventually sank into critical oblivion".
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Note VALÉORINE
Evelyn Scott (1893–1963) was an American novelist, playwright and poet, among other activities. Born in Clarksville, the novelist died in New York City.
Languages used include English. Evelyn Scott received Guggenheim Fellowship.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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wikidata · Q4977786
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Evelyn Scott • Birth Name — Elise Dunn • Born — 17 January 1893 • Birthplace — Clarksville, Tennessee • Died — 3 August 1963 • Spouse — Frederick Creighton Wellman (1913–1928) John Metcalfe (1930-1963)
Personal life
Personal life
Dunn was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, and spent her younger years in New Orleans, Louisiana. She wrote about her childhood in her autobiographical Background in Tennessee. Dunn's first husband was Frederick Creighton Wellman. He was a married man when they met and dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at Tulane. Both took on pseudonyms when they ran away to Brazil together in 1913. He became Cyril Kay-Scott and she took Scott as her surname. The two had a son, Creighton, before divorcing in 1928. She also had an affair with Owen Merton, father of Thomas Merton. Scott married the English writer John Metcalfe, with whom she led a life of financial want and psychological instability, in 1930.
Literary career
Literary career
Scott sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Ernest Souza or under her birth name, Elsie Dunn.
Fiction
Fiction
• The Narrow House. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1921 • Narcissus. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1922 (U.K. edition: Bewilderment. London: Duckworth, 1922) • The Golden Door. New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1925 • Ideals: a Book of Farce and Comedy. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1927 • Migrations: an Arabesque in Histories. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1927 • The Wave. New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1929 • Blue Rum (written under the pseudonym "Ernest Souza"). New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1930 • A Calendar of Sin: American Melodramas. New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1931 • Eva Gay. New York: Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, 1933 • Breathe Upon These Slain. New York: Scribners, 1934 • Bread and a Sword. New York: Scribners, 1937 • The Shadow of the Hawk. New York: Scribners, 1941
Poetry
Poetry
• Precipitations. New York: Nicholas L. Brown, 1920 • The Winter Alone. New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1930 • The Collected Poems of Evelyn Scott (ed. Caroline C. Maun). Orono: National Poetry Foundation, University of Maine, 2005
Autobiography
Autobiography
• Escapade. New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1923 • Background in Tennessee. New York: R. M. McBride, 1937
Children's
Children's
• In the Endless Sands: a Christmas Book for Boys and Girls (with C. Kay-Scott). New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1925 • Witch Perkins: a Story of the Kentucky Hills. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1929 • Billy the Maverick. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1934
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1893
Evelyn Scott was born on 17 January 1893.
1963
Evelyn Scott died at New York City.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Clarksville.
Birth place
New York City.
Death place
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Scura. Evelyn Scott: Recovering a Lost Modernist. Univ. of Tennessee Press. xiii. 2001. 9781572331167.
- 2.Petersen, Robert C. Evelyn Scott. Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.
- 3.Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. Evelyn Scott. Texas Archival Resources Online.
- 4.Finding Aid for the Evelyn Scott Letters (MS-2300). Special Collections Online at the University of Tennessee.
- 5."Metcalfe, John" by Brian Stableford in David Pringle, St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers. London : St. James Press, 1998, (pp. 405-6).
Bibliography printed in the source article · 4
- Callard, D. A. Pretty Good for a Woman: The Enigmas of Evelyn Scott. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1985
- White, Mary Wheeling. Fighting the Current: The Life and Work of Evelyn Scott. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998
- Scura, Dorothy McInnis and Jones, Paul C., eds. Evelyn Scott: Recovering a Lost Modernist. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2001
- Tyrer, Pat. Evelyn Scott's Contribution to American Literary Modernism, 1920-1940: A Study of Her Trilogy: The New Woman in the Narrow House, Narcissus, and The Golden Door. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2013
References
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authority record
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People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
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Studied at
1- H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial CollegeOrganisation
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Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Evelyn Scott is recorded with the occupation playwright. Recorded as novelist, poet, writer and playwright.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 19 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
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