Paul Green was raised on a farm near Lillington, North Carolina. Born 17 March 1894, Paul Eliot Green was the third child by the second marriage of his father, William Archibald Green, a landowner who employed both white and black tenant farmers on his land. Green respected his father's hard work and tolerance; however, he felt far closer to his mother, Betty Lorine Byrd Green, who played the organ at the local Methodist church, wrote poetry, and encouraged him to read. Her death in 1908 left him emotionally devastated for some time afterward. After finishing at the local school, he attended Buies Creek Academy and Business College (now Campbell University), a conservative Baptist institution. There he fell under the influence of Herbert F. Page, who taught English at the academy and had a local reputation as a poet. Page encouraged young Green's literary bent and stimulated his interest in local folklore...