Nebraska Authors

Faulkner was an editor at the University of Nebraska Press from 1956 until her death in 1980. For most of that time she was Editor-in-Chief. She was also a fiction editor for Prairie Schooner for many years. It is difficult to convey the depth of respect with which Faulkner has been regarded in the Nebraska literary community and nationally, among publishers. According to Robert Knoll, she returned to Nebraska to work as an editor after a very successful career as a writer, including work for Hollywood, for Broadway productions, and for popular magazines. Knoll quotes Mari Sandoz as saying that Faulkner was "the best editor in the business, and I know for I have fought with them all."

Faulkner was a behind-the-scenes advisor for NETV's Ron Hull. She was the sister of Nebraska author Edwin J. Faulkner, Jr., well-known insurance executive.

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Elinor Brown was a teacher and an enthusiastic local historian who wrote on local buildings, the State Capitol Building, historical preservation and related topics. She founded her own press, Midwest Publishing, in order to publish teaching aids, and published over 50 books. Many of her historical efforts were compilations.

The Heritage Room holds manuscripts, an autobiographical essay (typescript photocopy dated 1976) and a spiral bound copy of her History and Preservation of a National Classic, 1988, her compilation on the preservation of Lincoln, Nebraska's Old City Hall (originally the U.S. Courthouse and Post Office) designed by Alfred B. Mullett and completed by William Appleton Potter. Brown is credited with organizing the successful campaign to preserve the building.

Brown's work has been recognized by the American Association for State and Local History, the Nebraskaland Foundation, and the Nebraska State Historical Society.

Heritage Room Archive has two large brown boxes of Elinor Brown manuscripts and research.

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Nicoll was an obscure University of Nebraska administrator with no experience in publishing when Chancellor Clifford Hardin appointed him to a long vacant position as the (second) director of the University of Nebraska Press in 1958. He served brilliantly from 1958-1973. He improved the Press' financial condition, and appointed the remarkable Virginia Faulkner as Editor-in-Chief. Observing the growing popularity of paperback books he conceived the idea of republishing great out-of-print and public domain books as quality paperbacks and so created the Bison Books imprint, widely admired as one of American university press publishing's great success stories. Under Nicoll's leadership the Press began to expand its sales and revenue, while Faulkner helped it improve its reputation and maintain the diversity of its offerings. Nicoll put the Press on the path to becoming one of best and most successful of American university presses.

Nicoll had a personal interest in history and archaeology and was a founding member of the Western History Association. He co-authored a biography of former Nebraska governor Sam McKelvie and wrote Nebraska: A Pictorial History (1967) which won an award of merit from the American Association for State and Local History in 1968.

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