Elizabeth Spencer 1921–

American novelist and short story writer.

Born and educated in Mississippi, Spencer is admittedly influenced by Faulkner and what she calls the "mystic community" of the South. However, extended visits to Italy, the setting of her best known novella, The Light in the Piazza, and her residence in Canada have broadened the scope of her fiction.

(See also Contemporary Author, Vols. 13-16, rev. ed., Something about the Author, Vol. 14, and Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 6: American Novelists since World War II.)