William Price Fox, Jr. collection

William Price Fox, Jr. (1926-2015) was an author and educator from Columbia, South Carolina. He dropped out of high school to join the Air Force while the United States was involved in World War II. Fox lied about his age in order to enroll. After his military service ended, Fox finished his high school degree and graduated from the University of South Carolina.

Following his graduation, Fox worked at a series of different jobs before starting to write professionally. He sold short stories to magazines and wrote non-fiction pieces. He moved to Hollywood for a time, working on scripts for The Beverly Hillbillies and various movies without receiving screen credit for his work.

Disillusioned with the Hollywood life, Fox started looking for other options. He was friends with several high-profile writers such as Kurt Vonnegut, Nora Ephron, and Joan Didion. Kurt Vonnegut suggested Fox join Vonnegut at the University of Iowa and teach creative writing, using his publishing success as credentials. Fox worked at the University of Iowa for several years, helping to create its successful Writers’ Workshop series.

After the death of his four-year-old son, Wyatt, Fox moved his family back to Columbia, SC. He found employment in the Creative Writing Department of the University of South Carolina. He instituted a Writers’ Workshop at USC and taught at the institution until he retired.

Fox continued to publish both fiction and non-fiction works, including novels, magazine articles and essays. Fox was adept at selling his stories and many stories often appeared in various print formats. For this reason, some stories appear in several different sections of the collection.

This collection contains material spanning the length of William Price Fox, Jr.’s life. Some of the highlights of the collection are the manuscript drafts of his work, the correspondence (including letters from Kurt Vonnegut, Joan Didion, and Shel Silverstein, among others), and photographs.