Borden Deal ( – ) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Biography Born Loysé Youth Deal in Pontotoc, Mississippi, Deal attended Macedonia Consolidated High School, after which he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and fought forest fires in the Pacific Northwest. Before he began writing, he worked on a showboat, hauled sawdust for a lumber mill, harvested wheat, was an auditor for the United States Department of Labor, a telephone solicitor, copywriter, and an anti-aircraft fire control instructor in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In 1946, Deal enrolled in the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. While there he published his first short story, "Exodus". His creative writing professor was Hudson Strode. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree within three years, then enrolled in Mexico City College for graduate study.
It was not until 1956 that Deal decided to become a full-time writer. Among the pseudonyms he used were Loyse Deal, Lee Borden, Leigh Borden, and Michael Sunga.
Disney turned his story "For the Love of Willadean" into an episode of The Wonderful World of Color in 1964.
A prolific writer, Deal penned twenty-one novels and more than one hundred short stories, many of which appeared in McCall's, Collier's, Saturday Review, and Good Housekeeping. His work has been translated into twenty different languages. A major theme in his canon is man's mystical attachment to the earth and his quest for land, inspired by his family's loss of their property during the Great Depression. The majority of his work is set in the small hamlets of the Deep South. His novel The Insolent Breed served as the basis for the Broadway musical A Joyful Noise. His novel Dunbar's Cove was the basis for the plot of the film Wild River, starring Lee Remick and Montgomery Clift. From 1970 Deal also published, under the name "Anonymous", a series of erotic novels with pronoun titles such as Her and Him. However, after death, he is mostly remembered for his short story "Antaeus".
Personal life Deal was married three times. He married his first wife, Lilian Slobotsky (variously Slobotzky), while studying in Mexico in 1949. According to one source, the couple had one daughter before the marriage ended in divorce. In 1952 he married his second wife, Babs Hodges (1929–2004), who was also a published author. They had one son and two daughters before divorcing in 1975. He was survived by his third wife, Patricia, whom he married in 1984.
Death Deal died of a heart attack in Sarasota, Florida on January 22, 1985, aged 62.
Legacy The papers of Borden and Babs Hodges Deal are held at Boston University.
Bibliography
Walk Through the Valley, 1956 Dunbar's Cove, 1957 Search for Surrender, 1957 Killer in the Mansion, 1957 Secret of Sylvia, 1958 (as Lee Borden) The Insolent Breed, 1959 Dragon's Wine, 1960 The Devil's Whisper, 1961 (as Lee Borden) The Spangled Road, 1962 Antaeus, 1962 The Loser (New South Saga #1), 1964 The Tobacco Men, 1965 A Long Way to Go, 1965 The Advocate (New South Saga #2), 1968 Interstate, 1970 A Neo-Socratic Dialogue on the Reluctant Empire, 1971 The Winner (New South Saga #3), 1973 The Other Room, 1974 Bluegrass, 1976 Legend of the Bluegrass, 1977 (as Leigh Borden) Adventure, 1978 The Taste of Watermelon, 1979 There Were Also Strangers, 1985 The Platinum Man, 1986
References
External links The Mississippi Writers Page Biographical Note (Department of English, University of Mississippi) The Mississippi Writers and Musicians Project Article, including photo and portrait of the author, as well as extensive bibliographic details (Starkville High School, Starkville, Mississippi) The FictionMags Index; Stories, Listed by Author Bibliographical listings; Periodicals The Big Bajor Official Website Official website for a short film based on Borden Deal's short story, The Big Baoor, about a young gypsy woman trying to swindle a fortune from a country spinster.