By Brian Conlin

chh@heraldsun.com; 918-1035

CHAPEL HILL — From books to plays to columns, writing is Perry Deane Young’s life. His two-room apartment reflects that.

Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves line the hallway and half the perimeter of his bedroom-living area. A bookcase is crammed into the back left corner of his kitchen-office-piano room. Young’s spectacled blue eyes dart to books as he references them and then pulls them from the shelves.

With the exception of books written by his friends, his first-edition Thomas Wolfe collection and other sentimental favorites, every book in the UNC Chapel Hill alumnus’ collection is for sale on Amazon.com Inc.

Although Young has had a book on The New York Times best-seller list and successful plays produced in Asheville, money is tight. He supplements his income by selling books and performing the occasional administrative task. One-time writer Bill Wright, Young’s friend since they met when Wright was the editor of the City Magazine in Chicago nearly 40 years ago, paid Young to type the script of a play he had written.

Young, 68, lives at 210 Henderson St. below the Women’s Center, a nonprofit group dedicated to offering counseling and providing support groups. In exchange for living rent-free, he does maintenance and landscaping work. Young’s life has few frills, but it allows the pursuit of a passion for writing that spans six decades.

“I grew up on a farm,” Young said in his typical slow cadence, explaining how he learned maintenance skills. “I didn’t think I was learning anything at the time. Turns out I did.”

His time on the farm led to a love of fresh produce, he said, adding that he is already going through withdrawal because summer is over. His favorite summer produce, especially German Johnson tomatoes, are out of season.

To make the tastes of summer last, Young preserved peaches by pickling them. He coated the peaches in vinegar, sugar and spices just as Thomas Jefferson did, according to “Thomas Jefferson’s Cookbook,” which occupies a space on one of several shelves dedicated to the former president. Young said Jefferson fascinates him.

“I’m a southerner,” Young jokes about why he likes Jefferson. “What can I tell you?”

Unlike Jefferson, Young said he doesn’t have a scientific mind. Young likes Jefferson because he was a man of refinement who liked to live well despite his debts. Monticello, Jefferson’s mansion that has a 219-square-foot office on the first floor, is evidence of this desire. But Jefferson got so deep in debt that he sold his personal library to Congress.

Young’s only luxury is grabbing a few drinks with friends. His first drink is always a shot of peppermint schnapps called Rumple Minze. He raises the drink in tribute to a friend, the part-owner of Henderson Street Bar who committed suicide in the bar when it was closed, he said.

Young entered UNC-CH in 1959 as a shy student. He needed two articles published to pass one of his classes. He walked into the office of The Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper, and turned around when he saw the self-confident frat boys there, he said.

“I could be very bold at the typewriter,” Young said. “And I wrote a very bold letter to The New York Times travel editor, and some of my articles came out in The New York Times.”

Young wrote more than 20 articles for the Times travel section while he was at UNC-CH and earned $75 for each, good money for a college kid who entered on a scholarship, he said. He continued writing in the 1960s as a journalist for United Press International in Saigon. He barely had time to unpack when he got his first assignment, covering the Tet Offensive.

The war may not have shaped him as much as the people he met while he was there. He lived with three other journalists. He left after seeing a roommate injured for the third time. Later he learned that two others went missing. He wrote “Two of the Missing,” a book based on these experiences.

“Young is a fine young writer, a most welcome newcomer, and his documentary-narrative ‘Two of the Missing’ is a moving and engrossing chronicle of several fascinating young men drifting toward mysterious and desperate destinations,” Truman Capote wrote in a review of the book’s first publication.

Young continues writing. He wrote “Home Again,” a play about Thomas Wolfe, for the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre. The play ran from July 29 to Aug. 9, and Young considers it a success. But being involved in the writing, casting and costume design was exhausting, Young said.

After the busy summer, Young took a break. Now he’s looking for his next project, and it won’t take long to find one. It never does.

Next could be a nonfiction play based on his life growing up on a farm near Asheville or a movie based on his book “Two of the Missing.” Previous plans to produce the movie stalled after Heath Ledger, the actor who played the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” died after being contacted to play a part in the movie.

As Young awaits his next project, he will walk to his favorite Chapel Hill bars, Pantana Bob’s and Dead Mule Club, to see friends and remember those who have passed away. Never will he miss money.

“Like a lot of journalists, he wants to get the story out there in as correct a form as possible,” Wright said. “That’s not always so common these days. That motivates him more than anything.”