Summary
"A gift" for those who loved the heartwarming million-copy bestseller Cold Sassy Tree ( The New York Times ).
Anyone who came under the spell of Olive Ann Burns's classic novel Cold Sassy Tree will delight in Leaving Cold Sassy , which returns to the story of the unforgettable Will Tweedy. In 1917, twenty-five-year-old Will now faces the complexities of adult life. He grapples with the influences of the modern world on his cherished Georgia hometown, which has recently been renamed Progressive City, and he finds his wife-to-be in a feisty young schoolteacher named Sanna Klein.
Burns had completed fifteen chapters of this novel by the time of her death in 1990, and she expressed her wish for them to be published, as they are here, with her notes for future scenes. In addition, Burns's longtime editor and friend, Katrina Kenison, leaves us with an appreciative reminiscence of the beloved author and the legacy she left behind.
"This is all the news from Cold Sassy we will ever have and its scarcity makes it more precious." -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Olive Ann Burns was born July 17, 1924, on a farm in Banks County, Georgia, and attended school in Commerce, Georgia. She received a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1946.
Between 1947 and 1957, Burns wrote for the Sunday magazine of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. In 1956 she married the magazine's editor, Andrew H. Sparks. From 1960 to 1967 Burns wrote under the pseudonym Amy Larkin for the advice column "Ask Amy."
In 1975, after being diagnosed with cancer, Burns began her best-known work, Cold Sassy Tree (1984). An entertaining story about a family living in rural Georgia around the turn of the century, it is loosely based on stories told to Burns by her own family members. Burns explained that her previous experience as a journalist was helpful to her in writing the novel, but that she never intended for it to be published. Three years into her writing Burns had recovered from the cancer but was determined to finish the novel. It would take several more years to complete.
Cold Sassy Tree was so successful that Burns began a sequel when her cancer returned. In the final days of her life, she left instructions for the completion of the book. Leaving Cold Sassy was published according to her wishes.
Burns died in July 1990.
(Bowker Author Biography)
