FRANCES GRAY PATTOX
By Ricliaril Walser
she hit the i
During these winter months, one of
the most popular motion pictures show¬
ing in theatres throughout North Caro¬
lina is Good Morning. Miss Dove,
starring Jennifer Jones and produced
in Cinemascope and Technicolor. To
this picture, Hollywood has given all
it had to give.
Even so. it is not a super colossal
extravaganza, but instead, the simple
story of a geography teacher who, in
her happy combination of strictness
and humanity, makes better people
and citizens of her students. It is an
humble portrait, this warming nar¬
rative of an old-fashioned school marm.
On its release, it won friends among
the critics, but more important, its
heroine touched the hearts of all who
saw her on the screen.
Good Morning. Miss Dove is based
on the successful novel of the same
name by Frances Gray Patton of Dur¬
ham. When the volume was published,
it was a selection of the Book-of-thc-
Month Club and immediately appeared
on the best-seller lists. Primarily a
short-story writer. Mrs, Patton hit all
the jackpots in the business with her
first novel.
It all started with a short story
called "The Terrible Miss Dove" pub¬
lished in 1947 in the Ladies' Home
Journal. Later Mrs. Patton extended
the episode into a novel. As soon as
the galley-proof sheets were ready, her
publisher distributed them among pros¬
pective customers. In addition to the
Book-of-the-Month Club action, Dar¬
ryl Zanuck, production chief of Twen¬
tieth Century-Fox. read the proofs in
Paris and speedily cabled to purchase
the screen rights. The anticipated
movie audience was estimated by
Hollywood at 62,000.000, and the
price agreed on was $50,000. The
Reader’s Digest Book Club liked the
Story, and further signed for a conden¬
sation; and the Family Bookshelf Club,
operated by the Christian Herald,
listed it. At the time of publication
the Ladies' Home Journal issued more
selections from the novel. Pocket
Books plans a reprint for 1956.
Mrs. Patton's novel was honored
with the Christopher Literary Award
Fronces Groy Potton, oulhor of the engoging "Good Morning, Miss Dove."
for its high Christian values, and with
the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for ex¬
cellence in fiction by a North Carolina
writer. At one point the book was
selling 5.000 copies a week; it was
quickly published in England and
shortly came out in Toyko in Japanese
translation.
This is the sort of success that
doesn't come once in a hundred
writers’ lifetimes. What does Mrs. Pat¬
ton think about the clamor? We must
remember that Mrs. Patton is just a
North Carolina woman, albeit a very
smart one. She is the wife of a pro¬
fessor of English at Duke University,
the mother of twin daughters and a
son. and (one must tell the truth, even
when her photographs make it unbe¬
lievable) a grandmother!
About her success? "Well." she to!d
a Chapel Hill audience, “financial
success is not one of the rewards or
pleasures derived from writing — in
fact, it seems quite divorced from the
process of writing. Writing is its own
reward and pleasure. I actually feel
a little guilty about receiving money
for my writing and often say to my-
15
THE STATE. February ll. 1956
