Robert Ruark Revisited

Robert Ruark Bookplate

North Carolina novelist Robert Ruark, who died in 1965, continues to have a small but devoted following. The Wilmington native and UNC alumnus is perhaps best known for his novel The Old Man and the Boy (1957). He was an active sportsman and traveller, and his devotion to these themes in his work meant that he was often eclipsed by the figure of Ernest Hemingway. Nonetheless there appears to be something of a Ruark renaissance these days. There is an active Robert Ruark Society, a Robert Ruark Foundation in Southport, an exhibit on Ruark is being planned for the Chapel Hill Museum, and yesterday’s Wilmington Star-News ran a nice profile of the author.

The image shown here is of a bookplate from Robert Ruark’s personal library, some volumes of which are now housed at UNC-Chapel Hill.