Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the James Sexton Layton Papers #3648, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from James Sexton Layton in 1975 and from the estate of James Sexton Layton in 2002 (Acc. 99261) and 2004 (Acc. 99715).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Authors, American--Diaries.
• Authors, American--North Carolina--20th century.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century.
• Diaries.
• Europe--Description and travel.
• Horoscopes.
• Latvia--History--1940-1991.
• Layton, James Sexton.
• North Carolina--Intellectual life--20th century.
• Palmistry.
• United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
• World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American.

James Sexton Layton, a writer, was born in Smithfield, N.C., about 1910. He received an A.B. degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1938 and an M.A. in 1941.

From his journals, it appears that Layton served in the 17th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, U.S. Army, during World War II. From September 1945 until January 1948, he worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in the British Zone of occupied Germany. He then visited Brussels, Paris, and London and spent March-November in Liverpool, before returning to North Carolina. Layton lived in Hillsboro and Chapel Hill from 1949 until his death in 2001.

In 1961, Layton published The Enchanted Garden: A Poet's Quest (New York: Vantage Press).

The collection includes a draft of a novel titled "Love and War," journals, diaries, notebooks, and letters of writer James Sexton Layton. The journals and diaries document Layton's social and intellectual life, including visiting, reading, writing, and similar activities, in Chapel Hill, N.C., and during his military service in World War II and when he lived in Europe following the war. Journals, 1947-1967, were dictated and then typed. Diaries, 1930-1990, are handwritten, except for the war diaries, which are typed. The folders titled "Letters" contain volumes in which Layton transcribed letters sent and received by him.

The addition of 2004 includes journals, diaries, and letters that fill chronological gaps in the original deposit. Also included are college essays, poetry, some fiction and non-fiction writings that reflect on wartime service, autobiographical fiction, and a few miscellaneous items documenting Layton's work for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Latvia. Also included are hundreds of horoscopes and palmistry studies, a few unidentified photographs, and a Purple Heart for Military Merit medal.

Oversize papers (OPF-3648/1)

Photographs (PF-3648)

Museum item (MU-3648/1).