Robert Edward Bell
Suite101 Member
Ian Phelps is the pen name for Robert Bell, a writer who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Growing up in a small town in North Carolina, Ian Phelps started writing when he was ten years old. His first stories were fantasy tales of the knights and princesses of old. As he became older, he wrote poetry, and essays and short fiction. An avid reader, he devoured books with a passion that would have rivaled the rigourous reading schedule of Jack London. Some early influences were authors of the past American Romantic movement: Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Emily Dickenson, as well as the writings of James Fenimoore Cooper. He later would read the writings of Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, and F.Scott Fitzgerald. These would make an impact on the young writer, and lay the foundations of his early writing experiments. Later, he would discover the beauty of the beat movement, leave his study at the University of North Carolina, and begin the serious reading and writing of poetry in cafe’s through-out the country. He has also branched out into poetry, the art of the short story, and the composition of the novel.
When Phelps is not writing, he spends his time listening to Mozart and Bach, shooting pool at a local tavern in Chapel Hill called the Cave, and frequenting the numerous pubs that thrive in the town. He enjoys beautiful women, fine wine, and soft candlelight mixed with the haunting rhyme of a Byronic or Shellian stanza.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner remains one of his favorite poems, and he has been known to read the poem to friends and lovers. He also enjoys the beauty of nature, and enjoys traveling to the far and exotic, such as San Francisco and Boston. He currently resides in the town of Chapel Hill, NC., but is considering visiting Europe at a future date.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/beat_boulevard/108318
