“I think her importance as an American writer is just being recognized, even though she’s been called a master since the 1940s,” Gurganus said in a phone interview.Īdmired by Eudora Welty and Alice Munro among others, Spencer wrote the novels “The Snare” and “The Salt Line” and dozens of short stories, most recently for the 2014 collection “Starting Over.” She also completed a play, “For Lease or Sale,” and the memoir “Landscapes of the Heart.” Her many honors included the Rea Award and PEN/Malamud prize for lifetime achievement in short fiction, five O’Henry prizes for short stories and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He noted that some of her work was recently chosen to become part of the nonprofit Library of America collection, which has published editions by authors including William Faulkner and Mark Twain. He described her as someone who believed in younger writers and encouraged them to achieve their promise. “She’s not only an inspiring person on the page, but an amazing friend,” said North Carolina-based novelist Allan Gurganus, whose friendship with Spencer began in 1972 when she wrote to congratulate him on a short story he published early in his career.
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