SOURCE: Pagan, Nicholas O. “Ellen Gilchrist's and Clifton Taulbert's Portrayals of Glen Allan.” Notes on Mississippi Writers 24, no. 2 (July 1992): 59-65.

In the following essay, Pagan contrasts Gilchrist's portrayal of Glen Allan, Mississippi, with that of Clifton Taulbert, contending that “Gilchrist's Glen Allan differs so greatly from Taulbert's that one barely recognizes them as the same town.”

Ellen Gilchrist and Clifton Taulbert both grew up on the Mississippi Delta, a little more than a decade apart. The town of Glen Allan figures significantly in many of Gilchrist's stories and, as Taulbert's hometown, it is the setting for his book, Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored. Glen Allan is located near the Issaquena-Washington County border on the Delta. The majority of the residents are black (over 80٪ in 1930 to about 60٪ in 1960). The Mississippi Blue Book reports that in the 40's and 50's, the period during which Gilchrist and Taulbert...