Olive Ann Burns Sparks postcard to Emily B. Calhoun, 1985 August 30

Summary

Creator:
Burns, Olive Ann
Date:
1985 August 30
Extent:
1 folder(s)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Olive Ann Burns Sparks postcard to Emily B. Calhoun, ms2867, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

A postcard from Olive Ann Burn Sparks to Emily Calhoun in Atlanta thanking Ms. Calhoun for writing her about Cold Sassy Tree and mentions the art of journal writing.

Biographical / historical:

Olive Ann Burns Sparks (1924-1990) was a journalist and author of Atlanta, Georgia. She was the wife of Andrew Horace Sparks. Her only published novel, Cold Sassy Tree, centers on Cold Sassy, a town loosely-based on Commerce, Ga. where Burns grew up.

Burns was born in Banks County and later moved to Macon where she attended Mercer University. She transferred to the University of North Carolina where she graduated with a journalism degree in 1946. She wrote as a free-lancer and columnist for the Atlanta Constitution and then for the paper's Sunday magazine, Atlanta Weekly. Burns met her husband, Andrew Sparks, while working at the magazine he edited. The Sparks had one son, John A. Sparks, and one daughter, Becky Sparks.

In 1975, Burns was diagnosed with lymphoma, which resulted in her death in 1990. Cold Sassy Tree was written as part of Burns' therapy dealing with cancer, she said, as well as the height of her career as a writer.

For more information, see the article Olive Ann Burns (1924-1990) in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Access and use restrictions

Preferred citation:

Olive Ann Burns Sparks postcard to Emily B. Calhoun, ms2867, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries.