- Has a daughter with British actress Rosemary Harris, Jennifer Ehle
- Author of 17 books, both fiction and non-fiction.
- Graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- His paternal grandfather was German and his paternal grandmother was English. His mother also had English ancestry.
- His last name is pronounced "EE-lee".
- Involved in the formation of the North Carolina Film Commission, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Institute for Outdoor Drama.
- In WWII, he served as an Army rifleman in Europe and Asia with the 97th Infantry Division. After the war, he received a bachelor's degree in radio, television and motion pictures, and a master's in dramatic arts at the University of North Carolina.
- He is best known for his seven Appalachian novels, which were inspired in part by stories he heard from his mother's family. He also wrote radio dramas, biographies, a nonfiction account of student civil-rights protests at Chapel Hill, a history of the Cherokee Nation, and a guide to French and British wines and cheeses.
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