out poetry, cookbooks, and works on regional history, and kept her too busy to write. During this time she continued with her tradition of visiting family in Nevada every summer. The press folded in 1991, two years before Lyon died. Carleton began work on another novel, The Back Alleys of Spring, based on her experiences teaching in Joplin. She had nearly finished it in 1997, and was preparing to shop it around for publication when she suffered a stroke and hit her head on a stone floor at her house; she was not found for some hours, and ultimately was robbed of her ability to speak. At her death in 1999 her papers went to a nephew in Missouri; the novel was thought lost in a May 2003 tornado, but it had instead been preserved by her literary executor, Larry Calloway, in Santa Fe. The Moonflower Vine fell into obscurity after its initial bout of success. Eventually it was featured on The Neglected Books Page, which provided it with renewed attention. As a result, the novel was republished by Harper Perennial in April 2009, with an introduction by Missouri writer Jane Smiley, an avowed fan of the work. The Back Alleys of Spring was eventually published by the same publisher in 2012, under the title Clair de Lune. References 1913 births 1999 deaths American women novelists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers Novelists from Missouri People from Nevada, Missouri Cottey College alumni University of Missouri alumni Missouri Southern State University people