James Hurst was born on a farm near the sea of North Carolina. He wanted to be a singer at Juilliard School of Music
in New York and went to Italy for more studying, but gave it up. He used to be in the Army in WWII after college. He worked
at a large bank when he was 29 years old.
He wrote
short stories and a play in magazines when he was still at the bank working. The Scarlet Ibis won an Atlantic First Award in July 1960 and was in a magazine called The Atlantic Monthly.
He said that the meaning of the story was... he was hesitant to answer, and it comments on courage and the beauty of human
spirit.
Hurst does not live near his birthplace in
North Carolina anymore. There was a reference of a garden growing flowers in The Scarlet Ibis to the flowers he grew.
