H. E. Francis

Herbert Edward Francis Jr. (January 11, 1924 – February 2, 2024) was an American scholar, academic and writer.

Life and career

Herbert Edward Francis was born in Bristol, Rhode Island, on January 11, 1924. He studied at the University of Wisconsin and earned a master's degree from Brown University.

Francis was a professor of English at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He travelled three times as a Fulbright professor to Argentina. An author in his own right, he published five collections of stories, some of which have been anthologized in the O. Henry, Best American, and Pushcart Prize volumes.

Francis turned 100 on January 11, 2024, and died weeks later, on February 2. At the time of his death he had been residing at a retirement home in Huntsville, Alabama.

The University of Alabama in Huntsville has named its national short fiction prize in his honor.

Bibliography

Books

• The Itinerary of Beggars. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 1973.
• Naming Things: Stories. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1980.
• A Disturbance of Gulls and Other Stories. New York: G. Braziller, 1983.
• The Sudden Trees and Other Stories. Savannah, GA: Frederic C. Beil, 1999.
• Goya, Are You With Me Now?. Savannah, GA: Frederic C. Beil, 1999.
• The Invisible Country. Savannah, GA: Frederic C. Beil, 2003.
• I'll Never Leave You: Stories. Kansas City, MO: BkMk Press, 2004.

Short non-fiction

• Animal World, by Antonio di Benedetto. Translated from Spanish by H. E. Francis, with an Afterword by Jorge García-Gómez. Grand Terrace, CA: Xenos Books. (Cover art by Peter Zokosky.)
• The Arrival of the Autumn in Constantinople, by es:Norberto Luis Romero. Translated from Spanish by H. E. Francis. Green Integer, CA: Book 176, 2010.
• Last Night of Carnival and Other Stories, by es:Norberto Luis Romero. Translated from Spanish by H. E. Francis. Leaping Dog Press, 2004. (Cover photograph by Philip Coblentz.)